Reverberations: Lineages in Design History March 4 – May 3, 2025

 

 

 

Men of Color

Vega Studios (b. 1955, New York, NY. Lives, and works in Sicklerville, NJ)

1989

Book

 

Reverberations: Lineages in Design History

March 4 – May 3, 2025

Ford Foundation

320 E 43rd St

New York, NY 10017

USA

By DARYL RASHAAN KING May 6, 2025

Reverberations: Lineages in Design History, held at the Ford Foundation from March 4 to May 3, 2025, was a forward-thinking exhibition that transformed the traditional gallery into an educational, participatory space. Curated by Brian Johnson and Silas Munro, with advisory input from Randa Hadi, Lisa Maione, and Ramon Tejada, the show fundamentally questioned design history’s Eurocentric lineage, while elevating the contributions of Indigenous, Black, and other People of Color (POC) designers and cultural producers. At its core, it sought to destabilize inherited narratives and recognize the layers of meaning embedded in objects and visual strategies across time and geography.

Rather than arranging static displays for passive viewing, the exhibition centered an interactive table stocked with books and Chromebooks, giving visitors direct access to materials for research and creative inspiration. This reformatting positioned the gallery as a living archive, aligning with the curators' Derridean approach—deconstructing established design narratives while exploring the gaps and silences within them.

 

 

Installation Photo

Exhibition: Reverberations: Lineages in Design History, 2025
Photo: Sebastian Bach

 

 

 

Tales of the Iroquois

Tehanetorens (1910-2008, Onchiota, NY. Lived and worked in the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne)

1976

Book

 

 

Textiles Pavilion Expo 70, Kara Juro's John Silver, Chisetsu Yumiharizuki (Strange Tales of the Crescent Moon)

Tadanori Yokoo (b. 1936, Nishiwaki, Japan. Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan)

1970, 1968, 1971

Color offset lithograph

A significant focus was placed on the advocacy for preserving, studying, and eventually translating marginalized cultures’ alphabets and graphic languages. The curators argued that these understudied systems hold the potential to spark new, transformative knowledge exchanges in contemporary design practice. The exhibition presented historical and contemporary works by over 50 artists and designers, demonstrating how visual strategies developed by Black designers, for example, reverberate today in avant-garde data visualizations and contemporary digital interfaces.

The project took particular inspiration from BIPOC Design History, a series of courses launched in 2021 by the bi-coastal, queer, minority-owned design studio Polymode. Dedicated to social justice, Polymode’s work spans publishing, branding, exhibitions, websites, motion graphics, and education. The studio advocates for transparent communication, fair compensation, and ecologically responsible practices within the design industry, setting a blueprint for socially conscious creative practice.

 

 

 

Raven Mask

Nathan P. Jackson (b. 1938, Tenakee Springs, AK. Lives and works in Ketchikan, AK.)

1971

Birch, alder, deer hide, calf's tail, abalone, latex paint

 

 

 

 

The Queer Arab Glossary

Marwan Kaabour (editor); Rabih Alameddine (foreword); Haitham Haddad (illustrator); Suneela Mubayi (glossary editor)

2024

Book

 

 

GAYS, QUEERS, FAGS, DYKES, SISSIES, AND ABSTRACT ART

Ben Warner (b. 1996, Barberton, OH. Lives and works in Cincinnati, OH); Brian Johnson; Silas Munro

2020

Poster

 

The show did not shy away from addressing the deep inequities embedded within American architecture and design history. For over a century, Black Americans and other communities of color faced systemic exclusion from art, luxury, design, and real estate. Even when access was achieved, participation was often policed and pathologized —aesthetics from these communities were deemed as conspicuous.

The curators tied these aesthetic tensions to historical structural inequities such as redlining, where banks systematically denied loans, insurance, and other financial services to neighborhoods deemed “high risk” — overwhelmingly communities of color. The resulting generational stagnation prevented communities from accumulating wealth, acquiring property, or influencing the design of their own environments. The show also examined the consequences of “reverse redlining,” where predatory lenders targeted these same communities with high-interest loans and exploitative insurance rates.

 

 

Dual Citizenship: US and Caricom Passports

Pilar Castillo (b. 1976, Belize City, Belize. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA)

2019-2025

Handmade counterfeit booklets

 

 

 

BLK, Volume 1, No. 9

Alan Bell (b. 1945, Los Angeles, CA. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA)

1989

Offset printing on newsprint, two color (red and black)

 

 

 

With a Cast of Colored Stars No. 1 and No. 3

Kelly Walters (b. 1987, Norwalk, CT. Lives in Stamford, CT and works in New York, NY)

2018

Archival inkjet prints

 

Acknowledging the legacy of exclusionary housing practices like racially restrictive covenants embedded in property deeds and leases, Reverberations underscored the lasting visual and material consequences of these policies. In this environment, Black designers account for less than a third of 1% of leadership roles at major firms, a statistic highlighted by Ethiopian-American industrial designer Jomo Tariku in his research on Black design representation across 150 of the world’s leading brands.

Tariku, who transitioned from data science at the World Bank to industrial design, illustrated how data visualization itself carries embedded biases shaped by its designers. His presentation, Black Design: History, Theory & Practice, argued for a radically expanded design vocabulary that includes marginalized histories and practices. In the wake of COVID-19 and the resulting cultural reckoning, Tariku’s call for reinterpreting data and design narratives through diverse perspectives became more urgent.

 

 

 

Arte y Diseño LATINX: Comunicación Cotidiana (LATINX Art and Design: Everyday Communication)

Ramon Tejada (b. 1975, Santiago, Dominican Republic. Lives and works in Providence, RI); Carlos Avila (b. 1986, Tala, Mexico. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA)

2021

Miro board

 

 

The Decorative Arts of Africa

Louise E. Jefferson (1908-2002, Washington, DC Lived and worked in New York, NY and Litchfield, CT.)

1973

Book

 

 

 

Querer Es Poder Soccer Ball (Where There's A Will, There's A Way Soccer Ball)

Schessa Garbutt (b. 1994, Inglewood, CA. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA)

2023

32 panel soccer ball

 

The exhibition emphasized that real equity requires more than hiring quotas or departments tasked with diversity. It demands a total reassessment of institutional missions and philosophies. For many creatives of color, traditional career paths like law, medicine, or business are encouraged for their perceived security, while careers in the arts are fraught with barriers and cultural isolation. Artists of color are often the first or only representatives of their communities in predominantly white institutions, forced to navigate both overt and subtle racial biases in their education and careers.

The exhibition also explored how heritage, while a celebrated marker of status among elite families and cultural institutions, often holds little value in technology and media industries that continue to privilege Eurocentric narratives. Despite the growing acknowledgment of global design traditions, the media remains tethered to the commodification of racial and ethnic identities through stereotypes and tokenistic representation. Minorities are often defined not by talent but by marketable personal narratives and assumptions about culture. This demand for a “performance of ethnicity” narrows the creative possibilities for BIPOC designers and artists.

Architect Sylvia Aehle was cited for her critique of labels like “tribal,” “boho,” and “ethnic,” which flatten the rich diversity of African and diasporic cultures under simplistic descriptors. The exhibition highlighted the regional cultural differences within the Black diaspora itself — between Southern, West Coast, and Northeastern communities, for instance — arguing that understanding these distinctions is vital for dismantling reductive design histories.

 

 

 

Black Migration ½,

Shraddha Ramani (b. 1985, Bangalore, India. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY); William Villalongo (b. 1975, Hollywood, FL. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY)

2025

Lithography and silkscreen on paper

 

 

 

Two Row wampum belt (replica)

Tony Gonyea (b. 1961, Onondaga Nation. Lives and works in Onondaga Nation)

2024-2025

Ceramic beads, leather, sinew

 

 

 

 

Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House

Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972, Colorado Springs, CO. Lives and works in the Hudson Valley)

2020

Foam board, glue, inkjet prints

 

Ultimately, Reverberations advocated for reclaiming leisure and self-directed creative practice as a means of empowerment for designers of color. It called attention to how often BIPOC creators are associated with labor, productivity, and service, while their capacity for repose, contemplation, and autonomous creativity goes unacknowledged. By framing education as both a shield against erasure and a tool for innovation, the exhibition proposed new ways to frame, endorse, and value creative work beyond established stereotypes.

Through its multidimensional mapping of design histories and futures, Reverberations invited audiences to reimagine design as a field capable of fostering pluralistic narratives and new social imaginaries. By embedding overlooked visual languages, aesthetic traditions, and creative philosophies into the broader design conversation, the exhibition suggested a blueprint for a more inclusive and equitable future for design history.

 

 

BLACK, QUEER, & UNTOLD: A New Archive of Designers

Jon Key (b. 1990, Seale, AL. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY)

2024

Book

 

 

 

Installation Photo

 

Exhibition: Reverberations: Lineages in Design History, 2025
Photo: Sebastian Bach

 

 

Untitled

Melissa Cody (b. 1983, No Water Mesa, Navajo Nation, AZ. Lives and works in Long Beach, CA)

2022

Wool warp, weft, selvedge cords, and aniline dyes

 

 

Olympische Spiele München 1972 (Olympic Games Munich 1972)

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000, Atlantic City, NJ. Lived and worked in New York, NY and Seattle, WA)

1971-1972

Color screenprint

 

 

Wake Work*, fragile extrusions

Lauren Williams (b. 1988, Clinton, MD. Lives and works in Detroit, MI)

2022

3D printed glazed porcelain