addis barge
graphic design, curation, cultural storyteller

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Hood Century

Hood Century is a preserrvation movement that 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 define a unique visual language, for Hood Century that defines "black modernism" as Hood Century. Yes, it's true—there is modernism in the hood!

Defining a system

This project comes to life by connecting pop culture references, architectural elements, and historical insights. Typography and color became a 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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It Be Like Dat! (The Aestethics and Commodification of Ebonice (AAVE)
Exhibition, Publication Design, Generative Coding, Curation, Mulit-media

Awards/Recognitions:
Core77 Design Awards 2024, Design for Social Impact
Student Runner Up

It 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.

Project description

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 like Processing and Arduino, experimenting to determine their suitability for the project mockup. I aimed for a seamless solution where technology would recede into the background, allowing the viewers to immerse themselves in the linguistic narrative of Ebonics.

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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 Material

Beyond 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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Cornrow Cartography

Exhibition Design, Generative Coding

Also see California African American Museum

Cornrow Cartography is 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.

Archive Development

The ancestral tech archive and Cornrow Cartography exhibition I developed was key to the expansion of the brands 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 engaging 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

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 Cartograpy

Exhibtion Design
Multi-media

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

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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-media

Navigating 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.

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?”