Nathaniel David Lewis asks about Black representation in the cartoon industry. When I was in college I explored the same thing concerning Industrial Design, Interior Design and Architecture. Sure there are notables and maybe even a principle (owner of a firm). Even MIT university ask how many black architects can you name. Names escape me as I think of the brother who designed a spacey looking airport building around the 50's and the Madison brothers here in the Cleveland Ohio area. I have lost touch with the different fields and gone into art. But ask who are the black artist from whom I draw inspiration, I'm at a loss again.
If one of us (black persons) is trained in any of the design professions and have the good fortune of being known in the industry as a cultural innovator or a so called household name, that is a thing of wonder. To have a body of work that capsulizes the cultural flavor and fuels the market with products that black people could embrace as out from us, that is again a wonder. The problem seems to be coming up through the ranks of companies owned and directed by other cultural bents and not getting the opportunity or idea that a different expression will survive the market place.
When I was in high school, I did renderings of homes, mostly I copied, but some of my own design. I tried to imagine what it would be like to design silverware, quilts, t shirts, furniture and home interiors. Do you think there was any support to push in that direction? Not for me, I did assume others might have those aspirations and needed support. I look at the fields today, there are many black designers, none of note I can name. You see working in the field as a player doesn't mean you are managing the game, doesn't get your name associated with the product, the movement. What does it take, I don't know. Today I am more about the flavor. What is the Black Aesthetic, the Black Style, the Black Look. I do see it kind of in fashion, mainstream black art, but it hasn't reached Interior Design products on the store shelves or a Black owned and operated culturally bent towards us store. I think we are spread, dispersed too thinly across America to have impact on ourselves.
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