In 2008, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education ranked America’s leading universities according to their relative success in attracting, enrolling, and graduating African-American students, as well as their progress in bringing black professors to their campuses…“Notre Dame ranks near the bottom in almost all categories bearing on black student enrollment. Only 3.2% of its total enrollment and 3% of its latest freshman class have been black…Notre Dame does have a high black student yield of 52 percent, but this figure is not as commanding as it would be at a university without football scholarships...” Source: The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
In the Spring of 2009 – my sophomore year at Notre Dame – I gathered a list of all of the black students enrolled at the University, alphabetized it by first name, chose one student per letter, took their photograph (along with a self-written statement), and made an alphabet book – turning an open-ended GDII assignment into a social commentary piece about my alma mater and its relationship with its black student population. As a young black student at Notre Dame who constantly blended both my Design and Sociology majors, this book was a subtle yet powerful way to criticize the lack of diversity on the Notre Dame campus (illustrated by the total numbers per letter) and suppress the myth of a “collective black experience” (through personal statements).
This Spring marks the 10th anniversary of An Alphabet Book (see original here). If selected for this creative residency, I would spend the coming year recreating it - using the campus' current black student body to examine how far the University has (or has not) come in its commitment to diversity and inclusion. With all of the heightened racial tension in this country over the last couple years, we have also seen a reemergence of black nationalism, especially with black millennials. I will explore whether this reemergence has evolved the conversation of race on this predominantly, white campus. Using Notre Dame as a microcosm of America, this book will also spark a larger conversation on how we as society continue to navigate race relations and whether or not any gaps have actually been narrowed.
This project will also be the official start of my dream career – launching a boutique creative agency, where I will serve as Creative Director and lead designer (while collaborating with other creatives) on socially-conscious themed projects. Follow-up projects to include an interactive art exhibit, a digital catalogue, etc.
The most intriguing thing about this project is that I have done it before – and I am choosing to redo it in the very same medium, unearthing a time capsule of some sort. An Alphabet Book: Revisited will follow a similar template as the original, identifying the number of students in each letter followed by an image and personal statement from one of those students. Once selected, I would meet with University administrators and the black student groups on campus to personally explain the project, outline the process, gain their support, and acquire a list of students. Unlike the first book, I will not know any of these students and all participants would mostly be chosen at random – being sure there is at least one student-athlete. To really amplify the “revisited” aspect, I would add two new elements: (1) including a couple of personal statements from the original book when they closely resemble or directly contrast with the new statements and (2) a statement from one white student about (a) their general college experience and (b) their college experience in the context of race – assuming that I would get two different answers.
While I will serve as Creative Director and lead designer of An Alphabet Book: Revisited, I will also source and hire a freelance photographer and freelance illustrator. The photographer will take the headshots of each of the participating students (to accompany the statements) and a few lifestyle images around campus. The illustrations will depict recent incidents of racial discord on predominantly white college campuses over the last couple years (i.e. Missouri student protest/boycott in 2015, racist fraternity chant at OU in 2015, nooses hanging from a tree at the University of South Alabama in 2018, etc). These illustrations will be spread throughout the book, interjecting the personal statements for pace and tone – as well as underscoring the purpose of the book.
This project is also a celebration of print. In this digital age, can we as creatives tell visually compelling stories on paper? Absolutely.
TIMELINE CHART
The timeline for “An Alphabet Book: Revisited” can be divided into six phases: (1) introduction, (2) collection, (3) design, (4) review, (5) production, and (6) realization.
CREATIVE TOOLS: CREATIVE CLOUD & MIXED MEDIA/TECHNIQUES
To create An Alphabet Book: Revisited I will use my years of experience working with Adobe Creative Cloud – specifically InDesign and Illustrator to design the book and Photoshop for editing the photos and illustrations. In addition to the Adobe software, the successful completion of this book will also rely on my relationships with the other creatives I select to bring into the project – (1) the illustrator, (2) the photographer, (3) and the printer. I will work very closely with both the illustrator and photographer throughout the first six months and would plan to have 1 or 2 strategic meetings with the printer during that time as well to plan out the effects I am looking to create.
I also want to develop a new printmaking skill, specifically silkscreen, to compliment the work I will be doing with Adobe Creative Cloud. I will spend the first couple months of the residency learning to silkscreen and perfecting it by creating and sharing a smaller project-within-a-project – a print series about R&B (more on that below). This new skill will culminate in An Alphabet Book: Revisited by working silkscreen into the book, specifically the areas where I will be comparing and contrasting the new personal statements with those from the original book. Sitting next to the flat ink of the illustrations, images, and text, this application will also help create depth and more visual interest.
An Alphabet Book: Revisited is also a testament of my creative journey. I am both personally connected to the book and the story – and this is the perfect opportunity to show my growth as a designer and storyteller. The original (An Alphabet Book) was ahead of its time conceptually, but it is definitely second-year student work. This is my opportunity to visually update this story at the level it deserves. It is very important to me that this book be just as beautiful as it is impactful – and I have the professional experience to accomplish both.