'100 Years of Black Design' Through Charlene Prempeh's Intersectional Lens
You've seen their work, but have you seen them? Journalist and A Vibe Called Tech founder Charlene Prempeh's new book unearths a century of ground-breaking work by Black graphic artists, architects and fashion designers.
You've seen their work, but have you seen them? Journalist and A Vibe Called Tech founder Charlene Prempeh's new book unearths a century of ground-breaking work by Black graphic artists, architects and fashion designers.
Black designers and creatives alike are finally awarded their due in Charlene Prempeh's latest book 100 Years of Black Design; a publication that celebrates the lauded and forgotten black creatives in architecture, graphic design and fashion.
Debuting on 6 October, Prempeh's publication looks at key black creatives whose work has helped define key cultural moments and movements despite being previously marginalised, overlooked, or ripped out of the history books altogether. ‘I’ve always thought that the lack of record on black lives was strange,’ Prempeh told SHOWstudio. ‘Walking through a bookshop, it would be perfectly normal to see twelve books on David Bowie and exactly zero books on RZA, the leader of Wu-Tang, who many regard as an absolute genius. I wanted to add to the growing body of work that corrects that imbalance, and I wanted to do that in a way that was broad enough for people to see that the problem wasn’t related to one discipline or one creative but was systemic. Design as a practice felt like the natural space to start that conversation, but it’s just as relevant to music, science, art and a range of other subjects.’
Wondering how to further your research away from the media's overpoweringly Western lens? Prempeh's book is as good a place to start as any. As you explore the narratives of creatives like Ann Lowe, Dapper Don, Norma Sklarek, and other influential figures over the last century, you will discover the significant role of black design in shaping culture and serving as a form of protest in society.
For these individuals, creative force served as the catalyst for conversations, extending beyond design into music, science, art, and more. Within these realms, we need to ask ourselves, 'Whom have we overlooked?' and, perhaps even more importantly, 'What has our culture missed out on as a result?' As posed by Prempeh, these questions encourage us to explore the territories of creativity, identity, and the impact of the unseen in our world.
It may be black history month, but as long as we continue to marginalise creative voices for no other reason than the colour of their skin,100 Years of Black Design by Prempeh will always be a relevant, even necessary read.
