Did you miss our conversation with Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller? Register here to watch this episode of PRINT Book Club.
At the first of two special PRINT Book Clubs this October, Debbie Millman and Steven Heller welcomed Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller to the stage to discuss her new book, Here: Where The Black Designers Are.
So, where are the black designers? As Holmes-Miller contends, “We’ve always been here. As long as Black people have been in this country, there have been Black designers. We go back to the slave artisans.” Here recognizes and celebrates this long history.
Holmes-Miller’s Here is part memoir, starting with her familial connection to art and design through her Danish and West Indian heritage and then her recognition of those threads as she began her design studies and scholarship.
The book is also part investigation, part urgent call for justice and recognition for Black designers, and part passing of the baton.
When asked why this book and why now, Holmes-Miller said, “I felt a deep sense of responsibility to put things in order, to document everything about the advocacy.”
When the elders go, so goes the library.
Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller, adapted from an African proverb.
A big part of Holmes-Miller’s journey of uplifting designers of color is to save the artifacts and history of Black graphic designers for future generations. She talked at length about her archives at Stanford, working with families to preserve this essential history—people like Dorothy Hayes, the co-curator of a 1970 exhibition about the Black artist in visual communication, whom Holmes-Miller features prominently in Here.
How do you encapsulate a life of advocacy? We only scratched the surface. During our conversation with Holmes-Miller, the engaged audience asked so many questions that our event ran long. We hope you’ll register here to watch the recording and check out some of the links below.
Here is an invaluable resource for graphic design professionals, teachers, and students. If you haven’t purchased your copy of Here: Where The Black Designers Are, get your copy here.
Header image © Olivier O. Kpognon.
Further reading:
“Be Better than the History I’ve Traveled:” A Chat with Cheryl D. Miller
Five Essential Books to Decolonize Your Studio, Library, and Classroom
Living History: Connecting the Threads Between Juneteenth and the Story of Black Graphic Designers
Black and White: A Portfolio of 40 Statements (1969)
Miller-Holmes’ 1987 article, Black Designers: Missing in Action
For more PRINT Book Club this month, join us this Thursday, October 24 at 4 PM ET for Let The Sun In, a new monograph on the life and work of Alexander Girard by Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee. Register to attend here!