BIPOC Design History Black Design in America

Black Design in America is the first in a series of BIPOC Centered design history courses facilitated by Polymode. Launched in January of 2021 as live and pre-recorded lectures, readings, and discussions, this synchronous and asynchronous series of classes sheds light on moments of oppression and visibility. The series revisits and rewrites the course of design history in a way that centers previously marginalized designers, cultural figures—and particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and Queer, Trans, People of Color (QTPOC).

Co-author and Facilitator – Silas Munro
Designer – Tanvi Sharma

Poetic Research

Decolonizing Curriculum

Black Design in America class topics include the ancient origins of African alphabets, innovative mathematics in African architecture, systemic racism of the transatlantic slave trade, W.E.B. Du Bois’s innovative information diagrams in 1900, the aesthetics of Eugenics and its science of racial profiling, the Harlem Renaissance and other queer Blackness, the grassroots network of Victor Hugo Green’s Motorists books, urgent Civil Rights protest movements, the rise of hip hop’s graphic language, histories of Black liberation from Afrofuturism to the Black Lives Matter movement, and methodologies of Black design education. BIPOC Design History creates a learning environment that flattens the existing American economic hierarchy of higher education by offering sliding scale tuition, scholarships, and free lectures. This economic model created a diverse and accessible community of over 2000 students with access to previously unexplored knowledge in the existing graphic design system. Our participants ranged from design students in their 20s to educators and professional designers, and industry leaders in their 60s. The students attended from all around the globe, representing a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, races, and gender identities.

    BIPOC Design History Black Design in America Homepage
    Tasheka Arceneaux-Sutton CalArts Design 2006–2007 Genealogy Project was an inspiration for the course content and structure.
    Silas Munro’s Major/Minor Graphic Design History 2015 was an inspiration for the course content and structure.
    BIPOC Design History Black Design in America Kelly Walters Blackface and Minstrelsy Tradition Lecture
    BIPOC Design History Black Design in America Silas Munro and Jason Forrest Black Data Lecture. Guest speakers are leaders in design history, and most also bring lived experiences as BIPOC designers and scholars. The classes’ range of educational experience recreated a 21st-century “one-room schoolhouse” where lecturers, students, and professionals shared collective resources. These resources are organized, compiled, shared on the website, discord discussion forums, and students outside the classroom.
    BIPOC Design History Black Design in America Collaborative google doc in fall 2020
    BIPOC Design History Black Design in America Class Discussion in Ziddi Msangi and Silas Munro Slavery and White Supremacy Lecture