Centered: People and Ideas Diversifying Design

(Paperback)

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A collection of beautifully illustrated essays and interviews presenting a rich, inclusive, contemporary, and global vision of design diversity.

As the design industry re-examines its emphasis on Eurocentric ideologies and wrestles with its conventional practices, Centered advocates for highlighting and giving a voice to the people, places, methods, ideas, and beliefs that have been eclipsed or excluded by dominant design movements. Curated by Kaleena Sales, a powerful voice and noted advocate for diversity in the design community, the thirteen essays and interviews in this volume will feature important and underrepresented design work and projects like:

Gee's Bend Quilters, by Stephen Child and Isabella D'Agnenica

A Chinese Typographic Archive, by YuJune Park and Caspar Lam

Indigenous Sovereignty and Design: An Interview with Sadie Red Wing

(Her Shawl is Yellow) The Truck Art of India, by Shantanu Suman

New Lessons from the Bauhaus: An Interview with Ellen Lupton

Vocal Type: An Interview with Tre Seals

Decolonizing Graphic Design, A Must, by Cheryl D. Miller

And more

A must-read for design practitioners, educators, students, and anyone interested in expanding narratives and gaining a more inclusive understanding of design.

Reviews

"Centered pushes against the boundaries of the ways graphic design practice has been traditionally defined. The essays examine ongoing practices across the globe--some of which span hundreds of years, others starting only within the last few. Nearly everyone in this book eschews a modernist approach. Said another way: this is the plural design reference we deserve. As an educator, I'm so grateful for this book as a way to expand my own ways of thinking about and teaching design, but also to simply have this book to share with my students, who understandably crave and rightfully demand this pluralism as a matter of course."
--Briar Levit, Professor of Graphic Design, Portland State University
"In Centered, a delightful, compelling collection of stories, anecdotes, and interviews about design, Kaleena Sales takes the reader on a voyage to show many diverse design practices. From Alabaman quilts to Indian truck art to Kurdish rugs and patterns to African alphabets and the experience of the Ziwa school in Zimbabwe, this collection opens up the world of design and design history beyond Euro-American design. This is a much-needed text for anyone trying to broaden their understanding of design or for professors and students seeking diverse design practices."
--Lesley-Ann Noel, co-editor of The Black Experience in Design and author of Design Social Change
"This is one important collection of writing. I'm blown away by its range and scope and insight and grace and--as a whole--by the impeccable nuanced flow of it all."

--Jessica Helfand, Design Observer

Author Bio

Kaleena Sales is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Chair of the Department of Art & Design at Tennessee State University, an HBCU in Nashville, TN. She is a coauthor of Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Non-Binary Field Guild for Graphic Designers, and her work has been featured in Communication Arts, Printmag.com, and Design Observer. Sales regularly presents at national and international design conferences and as a guest lecturer at many prestigious art and design programs, including Otis College of Art & Design and Birmingham City University in Birmingham, England. During her service on AIGA's Design Educators Community Steering Committee, Sales has advocated for a more inclusive view of design history, through her Beyond the Bauhaus writing series, from which this book originated. Sales serves as Director of Diversity and Inclusion for AIGA Nashville.