addis barge
graphic design, curation, cultural storyteller

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Cornrow Cartography
Hood Century
CAAM
It Be Like Dat!
Sunday’s Best

Speculative Lab
(coming soon) (01)
(02)
(03)
(04)
(05)

Cornrow Cartography

Exhibition Design

Hood Century

Visual Identity

California African American Museum

Visual Identity System

It Be Like Dat! The Aesthetics and Commodification of Ebonics (AAVE)

Exhibition & Publication Design

Sunday’s Best

Exhibition & Publication Design

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Cornrow Cartography 

Exhibition Design, Generative Coding

Also see California African American MuseumCornrow Cartography, the featured exhibition for the Ancestral Tech Archive at the California African American Museum. This archive presents cornrows as navigation. This archive invites the audience to a familiar cultural tradition (braiding cornrows) and looks to the past to conceptualize the knowledge embedded into the cornrows themselves. 

Exhibition & Installation

Multi-media, Physical installation
The Cornrow Cartography exhibition presents cornrows as navigation. The installation begs the question: How can Cornrow Cartography be used to navigate the present and the future?

The Installation allows viewers to immerse themselves in the understanding of cornrow cartography and familiarize themselves with cornrows as art, as navigation, as technology. 

Archive Development

The ancestral tech archive and Cornrow Cartography exhibition I developed was key to the expansion of the brand's focus. This archive presents cornrows as navigation. Cornrows as navigation inspired a typographic experiment and structure where the text mimics the cornrows, but then expands beyond itself.

Generative Typography

Using p5.js CAAM invites users to delve into the intersection of history, culture, and technology through Cornrow Cartography, a form of ancestral technology. 

By interacting with the Cornrow Cartography Generator, viewers will gain insight into the historical significance of cornrow cartography and its profound connection to Black hair. Indeed, hair holds profound cultural significance beyond its physical form. The Cornrow Cartography Generator, part of CAAM’s Ancestral Tech Archive, provides a platform for users to generate intricate digital cornrow designs. These patterns are abstract navigation, offering a unique visual mapping of cornrows as technology

p5.js Process 

Working on this project taught me to expand 2D materials into broader spatial and innovative media contexts. I learned to conceptualize with new tools, like P5JS and Processing. I built out code that allowed users to create their own Conrow Cartography.


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Hood Century

Hood Century is a preservation movement built and created by the incredible Jerald Cooper. Hood Century is dedicated to bridging the gap between modern architecture in the lived environment of urban communities and Black culture. It's an exploration of what happens when modernism intersects with the Black perspective. This journey has led me to imagine a visual identity for the brand and to define a unique visual language for Hood Century, one that embodies "black modernism" as a distinct aesthetic. As Coop says, “Yes, it's true—there is modernism in the hood!”

Defining A System

This project comes to life by weaving together pop culture references, architectural elements, and historical insights. Typography and color became an exploration of form, shape, and attitude. Referencing modernism and black culture.

Visual Language Development

Hood Century engages with urban communities and their surrounding environments by connecting them with elements they're already familiar with. It was exciting to reference the blend of rap culture, architectural design, and the Black perspective to form the cornerstone of the visual language.

Exhibition & Spatial Design

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California African American Museum
Visual Identity The rebranding of CAAM focuses on the rich and diverse contributions of African Americans and the broader African diaspora. My design for the visual identity connects the past and present and highlights culture and research. It reinforces the museum's role in cultural storytelling and academic inquiry. 

This rebrand inspires audiences to engage deeply with the museum's exhibits, reflect on their identities, appreciate the ongoing influence of the Black community, and view culture as a form of technology.

Project Description

The challenge was to create a dynamic visual system, combining language and graphics across print, digital, and spatial media. The logo system utilized the brackets that nest the double “a” for “African American” to focus and emphasize the importance of black art.

Spatial Design

In a spatial context, the brackets also play a role in highlighting powerful imagery and figures, the system provides functions such as signage, advertising, and spatial environments. The brackets adjust and flex and are fixed according to their spatial context, and the environment they are in.
Print MaterialBeyond the logo, the brackets became a foundation in the typographic system as a messaging device. Within this system, the brackets flex their ability to contain messages, information, and technology within them, much like how culture functions. They adapt, stretch, and expand depending on the context and form. The brackets also play a role in highlighting powerful imagery and figures.
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It Be Like Dat! (The Aesthetics and Commodification of Ebonice (AAVE)
Exhibition, Publication Design, Generative Coding, Curation


Awards/Recognitions:
Core77 Design Awards 2024, Design for Social Impact Student Runner UpIt Be Like Dat! The Aesthetics and Commodification of Ebonics is my publication design that seeks to drive social discussion. Through meticulous research, I explore social, political, and cultural issues, and visually communicate the challenges encountered. This book acts as a narrative and a tribute to Ebonics, delving deep into its history, culture, and community artistry. By utilizing typography and archival imagery, I was passionate about honoring and preserving the essence of Ebonics.

Publication Design

I focused on crafting a visually rich publication & exhibition that serves as both a narrative and homage to the cultural and dialectical aspects of Ebonics. This wasn't just a study of linguistics; it was a holistic exploration of history, culture, and the dynamic artistry of a resilient community.

Publication Design

Typography illustrated the attitude, grammatical structures, and phonetics of Ebonics, while strategic archival imagery formed the pillars of my visual narrative. The objective was to honor and preserve the authenticity of Ebonics, firmly rejecting any notion of its illegitimacy or use for exploitation.

Exhibition Design & Generative Coding

I initiated a prototype envisioning user interaction with the publication, unfolding the story onto and around the book. I explored adding another layer to the physical book, enabling the viewer to engage with Ebonics through sound, touch, and sensation.

I familiarized myself with various technical tools, such as Processing and Arduino. Through experimentation, I found a solution in which technology receded into the background, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in the linguistic story of Ebonics.




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Sunday’s Best

Exhibition & Publication Design
Awards/Recognitions:
Graphis New Talent Awards 2024, Silver
This project delves into a comprehensive examination of the impact of the Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s) on fashion, culture, and the foundational elements of American pop culture. Motivated by a profound connection to the history of my community, I embarked on a journey to delve deeper into the intricacies of the movement.

Exhibition Design

Interactive Installation, multi-mediaNavigating the project posed a consistent challenge: mastering the art of asking pertinent questions and embracing unconventional thinking while placing it in new contexts, varying scales, and alternative design applications. I reinterpreted "Sunday’s Best," and activated it as an interactive installation incorporating video media and physical artifacts. 

The central dilemma revolved around effectively encapsulating the narrative of this historical era through the lens of fashion within a limited space. To overcome this challenge, I learned how to create meaningful viewer experiences that were specific.  I asked and considered, “How does a viewer participate in the experience? How does the story start and end? Does our experience provide a clear 'takeaway' for the audience? Who is the audience?”

Publication Design

To overcome these challenges, I cultivated a design language that not only resonated with the cultural essence but also encapsulated the historical context. This involved an intricate interplay of typography, colors drawn from the vibrant palette of African Kente cloth, and the thoughtful incorporation of archival imagery. The resulting design not only captured the essence of the topic but also presented potential extensions to various other initiatives.


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Speculative LabA space where I share process, current projects, and explorations.

addis barge
graphic designer










recognitions/awards







resumeAs a child, I loved elaborate and beautiful puzzles. Each piece was a riddle, and the completed picture revealed a perfect harmony. As a designer, breathing life into forgotten or misrepresented stories feels like assembling a complex yet gorgeous puzzle. Weaving narratives and exploring the relationships between people, communities, and cultures is a process that I find invigorating and rewarding.

I'm Addis, a graphic designer fascinated with research and curation. I'm passionate about expanding culturally significant dialogue through design - let's piece a story together!


Core77 Design Awards 2024
Design For Social Impact, Student Runner Up

Graphis 2024
New Talent Awards, Silver

GD USA 2024
Students to Watch