Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Non-Binary Field Guide for Graphic Designers
Available Now! Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Non-Binary Field Guild for Graphic Designers by Ellen Lupton, Farah Kafei, Jennifer Tobias, Josh A. Halstead, Kaleena Sales, Leslie Xia, and Valentina Vargara
Published by Princeton Architectural Press, to be released in the Spring of 2021
The Black Experience in Design
The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Reflection & Expression presents writings by 70 designers, artists, curators, educators, students, and researchers who represent a cross-section of Black diasporic identities and multi-disciplinary practices. Forewords by Emory Douglas and Ruha Benjamin frame the book in an historical and socio-political context, and an Afterword by Eddie Opara offers an intimate, spiritual coda.
My essay is titled “Beyond the Universal: Positionality and Promise in an HBCU Classroom.” Support us in ensuring equitable compensation for all contributors, and to make sure this book gets to educators, designers, and students everywhere by supporting our Kickstarter Campaign!
Editorial team: Anne H. Berry (Managing Editor), Kelly Walters (Creative Director), Jennifer Rittner (Development Editor), Lesley-Ann Noel, Penina Laker, and Kareem Collie. With book design by Renald Louissaint and copyediting by Jamie McGhee.
Black, Brown + LatinX Design Educators
Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators
Conversations on Design and Race
By: Kelly Walters
(Design Observer) Teaching Black Designers
Excerpt from Extra Bold!
Perspectives and Reflections: Thoughts on Identity, Race, and Design Education
Co-Authored with Kelly Walters, we discuss the ways in which our Black identity intersect with design education:
https://educators.aiga.org/perspectives-reflections-thoughts-on-identity-race-and-design-education/
Principles of Design Visual Guide
While teaching, I've struggled to rationalize the role of personal aesthetics within design, especially when it doesn't conform to mainstream culture. Throughout my wavering understanding, I've relied on the basic principles of design time and again as a way of encouraging objective methodology and analysis of my students' design work. (I designed this piece as a visual guide for my students who might be struggling to incorporate those principles into their work.)
3D Visualization / Kinetic Learning
(Transforming "visual" weight into the "physical" helps some students see the impact of "heavier" images and colors within a composition.)
Students studying graphic design can benefit from 3-dimensional learning tools when learning to apply foundation design principles to their work, as physical tools may help in understanding spacial relationships between forms, encourage problem-solving skills, and more. Additionally, providing a sense of “play” that maintains attention reinforces foundation design principles like scale, hierarchical relationships, balance, and repetition; and becomes an effective and powerful resource for graphic design students who struggle with applying these principles to their design and typographic work.
AIGA Design Conference 2019 - Education Symposium
Culture & Aesthetics: How Growing Up in an Urban, Minority Environment Creates Challenges When Designing for a Mainstream Audience
Madison Community Center
As part of a community project led by artist, Brandon Donahue, and with funding from Metro Arts Nashville, I was asked to digitally interpret the artwork of 17 kids who filled their silhouettes with images and colors that represented who they were and what they wanted to become.
Part of my challenge was to remove all copyrighted images, and replace them with colors and patterns that still honored each kid's ideas and personality.
The final designs were printed on vinyl and installed on the 2nd floor glass of the newly built Madison Community Center.
The basketball court at Madison Community Center was given a facelift with new paint and graphics along the perimeter. I combined words and images with geometric shapes to create this fun design.
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(Print Magazine) The Black Experience in Graphic Design: 1968 and 2020
Honored to be included in this timely article:
https://www.printmag.com/post/the-black-experience-in-graphic-design-1968-and-2020
Revision Path Interview
Interview with Maurice Cherry of Revision Path:
"One of the things I love most about Revision Path is talking shop with design educators like Kaleena Sales. Kaleena is an illustrator, a design educator at Tennessee State University, and the author of Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Non-Binary Field Guild for Graphic Designers. Kaleena is one of many Black design educators that are helping make the design canon more elastic for students by allowing Black culture and aesthetics to be a part of the conversation.
We talked about teaching design virtually at an HBCU, and Kaleena talked about growing up in Nashville and how she thought about pursuing a career as a fine artist before putting in time working in the advertising industry. She also spoke about what drew her back to her alma mater, as well as the many ways that she has seen design education change since she started teaching. Kaleena is also active with AIGA Nashville, and even shared some info about her upcoming book! With educators like Kaleena, I think the future is in good hands."
Grassmere Zoo - Tennessee State University Graphic Design Collaborative Project
In partnership with the Grassmere Zoo in Nashville, I led a team of TSU graphic design students in the creation of over 40 signs for the historic home and farm located at the center of the zoo’s property. The project spanned 4 years, and resulted in student internships, and a lasting relationship with our community partner. (The project was partially funded by Lexus of Nashville.)
Type Study
Type Study: This ongoing series seeks to examine the lettering and type styles found in pre-gentrified, urban areas within Nashville's East and North side neighborhoods.
Information Graphics
Curriculum map of the Department of Art & Design, displayed as 8 colors representing the 8 semesters of a student's average tenure in our program. The placement of the concentric circles represented whether a class was a general education requirement, art foundation, concentration course, or elective.
Explorations
Inspired by the black aesthetic principles of AfriCOBRA, and my own personal influences from urban, black culture, these type explorations question the effects of painful experiences on our attitudes, behaviors, and general well-being.
Beyond the Bauhaus
Much of what has informed graphic design education comes from the Western world, with a heavy emphasis on principles and practices from movements like the Bauhaus, Constructivism, and the International Typographic Style. This narrowed lens ignores design contributions from many parts of the world and perpetuates a narrative that “good” design must be derived from these specific origins. At what point are we, as design educators, responsible for challenging this narrative? The content featured in Beyond the Bauhaus aims to highlight design contributions from underrepresented cultural and social groups that do not have roots in modernist or Bauhaus methods. The goal is not to deny the contributions of the Western world, but to broaden the scope of what we teach and discuss in the classroom, while providing ideas toward practical applications of the referenced work. Submissions from readers are encouraged. Contact me (ktucker2@tnstate.edu) to submit a feature.
These articles were written for AIGA's Design Educators Community, and available to read at: educators.aiga.org
Product Design & Branding
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Portrait Illustrations
Selected for inclusion in the 2021 Communication Arts Illustration Annual.
(Marker, 2020)
Marker and Colored Pencil, 2021
Marker drawing, 2020
Food Illustrations
Markers and Colored Pencils, 2021
Letter "A"
(Markers and Colored Pencils, Digitally-composed collage)
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