Designing While Black In The Elite Creative Industry
As a Black woman in a creative industry, my path to success has been circuitous. It began in art school, as it does for many young professionally-trained creatives. I could have felt lost, but a woman teacher recognized my talent, was unafraid of my own femaleness, didn’t fear my blackness, and she spurred on my creative development. Back then, it said a lot about a design student if they could hold a steady hand to create designs with an X-acto knife, and still love the entire process. It showed an attention to detail to my teacher, a requirement she knew was needed for a successful career in branding and design. I also started winning student design awards, and recognition in national publications like HOW Magazine, which gave me visibility within the art school, and with my peers and later, for my job prospects.
However, there are many factors that play into success, and talent and hard work are only two of them. Design culture, around the globe, is overseen by the cultural elite: white curators, funders, and others who have resources for insider access. Rarely will you see Black people in prominent roles at the world’s greatest boutique, branding and design agencies. The same can not be said for internal creative roles at global brands like McDonald’s, Twitter or Coca-Cola, which rely on Black talent in many areas, but this is because they have Black audiences that consume their products, and recognize the need to adapt their messaging as such.
Consider prestigious assignments like annual report design, brand strategy or product packaging design, which involves development processes and buy-in from majority white leadership, shareholders, investors and the like. These are the kind of projects that you will rarely find spearheaded by Black people. Lack of representation then creates a continuous loop environment where Black people are often excluded from and not recruited for coveted creative jobs at close knit branding agencies and white people (at any level) are not held accountable to bring Blacks to the table, in any capacity (outside of mailroom jobs, project managers or front desk receptionists).
JinJa Birkenbeuel as represented by artist Fernando Axelrud @drawingzila
While you will notice many white-dominated agencies voicing their support for Black Lives, it’s often truly performative. Yes, they may cover up by creating design and branding work for nonprofits that have Black audiences and customers from within the Black community. The actual agency however, doesn’t employ full-time, permanent Black designers or Black thought leaders. They may offer pro bono to Black Lives, but don’t have Black people serving on their board of directors. There are obviously exceptions to this, but from an industry-wide view, Black designers and leaders are absent at these preeminent agencies, nationally and globally.
In the 2021 Graphic Design USA, not only do I appear on the cover, but I was selected as a “People to watch in 2021” as part of the annual celebration in the elite graphic design industry. It is not only a major accomplishment for myself, but it also perhaps signals the slow breakthrough of other talented, hard working, overlooked Black people in other creative professions. Recognition from a top tier publication like GD USA shows that the tide in these creative industries may be turning, pushing beyond performative gestures, towards a true meritocracy. A non celebrity non entertainer-type of Black face on the cover of any magazine is highly unusual and worth recognizing.
The feeling of finally being both seen and celebrated by an industry that has historically ignored the significant contributions of women designers, and excluded Black designers and Black culture that inspires all levels of global art and creativity, is a relief. I am so proud to have built a steady career as a woman in the creative industry, and have intentionally used my success to bring others together at the intersection of branding, technology, and design. It is a full circle moment for me, as a creative technology leader also recently recognized as an independent, non celebrity leader in the annual Female Frontier Honoree for Transforming Technology 2021 award.
Above all, recognition like this from GD USA publicly validates what my clients have been telling me for years: that my work is beautiful and effective! I love seeing my clients succeed, being in the vicinity of their success, celebrating with them, and knowing that I made a contribution to their growth. By building diverse networks and ecosystems, where all perspectives are not only tolerated but well-funded and championed, the path for future generations of women, and Black people, in creative industries, becomes that much smoother.