Black Designers in Chicago: Culture and Community in the Twentieth Century by Dingwall, Chris

Black Designers in Chicago: Culture and Community in the Twentieth Century (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780226830551)

Vendor: Chris Dingwall
Product type: Books
Format: Hardcover
$37.50
$37.50
$37.50
Subtotal: $37.50
Black Designers in Chicago: Culture and Community in the Twentieth Century by Dingwall, Chris

Black Designers in Chicago: Culture and Community in the Twentieth Century

$37.50
Black Designers in Chicago: Culture and Community in the Twentieth Century by Dingwall, Chris

Black Designers in Chicago: Culture and Community in the Twentieth Century

$37.50
Format: Hardcover
Description
Description
x
A richly illustrated book focused on Black designers, how they shaped the history of modern design, and how their designs in turn influenced modern Black life.

In twentieth-century Chicago, generations of Black artisans, craftspeople, art educators, clothing makers, commercial illustrators, sign painters, furniture makers, beauticians, graphic designers, art directors, and screen printers made and remade the city into an energetic center for modern design. Ambitious, enterprising, and resolutely modern, these Black designers were workers and intellectuals, activists and entrepreneurs. They created works for commercial and everyday use and helped to build community institutions such as the South Side Community Art Center and businesses like the Johnson Publishing Company. Their works ranged from branding and housewares for major corporations to pamphlets and posters made in the name of civil rights and Black Power. Together, they made Black Chicago into a dynamic design scene, working against racism in their professions while embracing the possibilities of design as a medium of social change.

This book is the first to chronicle their collective history while also celebrating their influence on design as well as African American culture more broadly. Based on extensive archival research and building on a major 2018 exhibition, Black Designers in Chicago presents essays by experts in African American history and design. The book features illustrations of a stunning variety of works--from graphic design to screenprints to textiles and household wares--placing African Americans at the center of modern design history, while highlighting the role of design in the cultural history of Black Chicago.


Author: Chris Dingwall
ISBN-10: 0226830551
ISBN-13: 9780226830551
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 07/06/2026
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 02/20/2026 pg. 1
By Chris Dingwall
By Chris Dingwall
x
Chris Dingwall is an assistant professor of design history in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and was co-curator of African American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce, and the Politics of Race at the Chicago Cultural Center. David Hartt lives and works in Philadelphia, where he is an artist and associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania and was the exhibition designer of African American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce, and the Politics of Race at the Chicago Cultural Center. Daniel Schulman is executive director and curator of the Statsinger Cohen Foundation in Chicago. He was co-curator of African American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce, and the Politics of Race at the Chicago Cultural Center and director of visual art for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

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