Let's talk social justice and graphic design.

Last year, I had the opportunity to design a visual brand for the brilliant @SonofBaldwin.

While we have discourse regarding organizing/activism, I want to provide some insight on how this can be done through graphic design.

. @SonofBaldwin's brand centralizes the voices, liberation and joy of Black/Queer ppl. This begs a couple questions:

How does one interpret the Black diaspora graphically, without being cliche?

How can one graphically interpret both Black joy and liberation?

Let's research.

After the briefing stage, I narrowed down the conversation to a few words. These words will serve as my key word references moving forward:

- Black
- Queer
- Joy
- Liberation
- Bold

Next, I begin by reading books about various African textiles and patterns, and their meanings. This could've easily been an overwhelming task, so I narrowed it down to a couple choices:

West African Bogolanfini (Mali mud clothes)
Central African Ngeende Raffia Cloths

I ultimately decided to focus more on the Bogolanfini textiles, as I thought they were more visually appealing and had interesting meanings.

(Ex: Mali mud clothes keep away evil spirits because the patterns confuse them.)

Next, I looked at the current landscape of social justice design and design that centralizes Black culture.

And as lovely as they are, kente clothe textiles were not an option. I wanted to explore other possibilities that weren't commonly used.

After weeks of research, I was finally ready to start drafting.

When approaching visual branding projects, I always begin with the most essential part: the logo.

Referencing the key words above and my research, I begin brainstorming ideas for the SoB wordmark.

If you look closely at some of these designs, you can see where I tried to implement a bit of the textiles and abstract shapes.

Some of these became t0o cliche for my taste, but it was still worth exploring.

Eventually we finally narrowed it down to this. Part of the inspiration behind this version was thinking of SoB as a writer. The boxed-in type (Alternate Gothic No3 D) represents highlighted text while the boldness of the black is unapologetic. I wanted this to speak loudly.

Phew, we finally got a logo. But we aren't done yet. Next: Colors and patterns.

The African diaspora is full of beautiful, vibrant palettes and I wanted utilize that.

Again, referencing the Bogolanfini textiles here's the result:

I LOVE color and the way it evokes certain emotions and feelings depending on the context. Let's take a few colors from the SoB palette above, for example:

Red: Love, anger, compassion, etc.
Yellow: Optimism, joy, light, noise
Black: Pride, power, strength

Regarding the patterns, I want to note a couple things:

- The circles, for ex, represent unity and individual ppl. So multiple circles represent community.

- The zigzag lines represent noise and outspokenness -- which are key factors to protests (i.e, #silenceisviolence)

When these concepts are coupled together, they create something really interesting. These explorations were a lot of fun to do.

Essentially, graphic design is about taking shapes and color at their rawest forms and transforming it into a meaningful message or story.

Up next: Icons

Notice:

- A feminine hand (as opposed to masculine) power fist.
- Two Black men kissing
- A left-facing Black woman gazing upward
- A Black hand holding a megaphone
-Two Black hands (from separate ppl) coming together to form a heart.

What happens when you pair the icons with the colors shapes and patterns from above?

This.

Each icon tells it's own story based on the meanings of the colors, shapes and patterns.

And finally, here's a mock of how these designs can be applied in various contexts including on business cards, envelops, book covers and posters.

To wrap it up, my point is this: When it comes to social justice graphic design, be abstract/weird, but also intentional. And most importantly RESEARCH. An essential component to social justice design is have a sense of socio-political awareness.

This project def helped me grow

I hope I was able to teach you something new (and exciting) today. Thank you for reading!