Anderson Afield

This year, for the first time, Design West’s programming extended beyond its headquarters at ATU with speaking events featuring Anderson in Dublin, to the east, and Galway, to the west.

In Dublin on June 22, Anderson joined Irish designer Grace Enemaku for a talk hosted by the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI) and Design West that focused on their experiences as designers of color. Enemaku, a Nigerian-Irish multidisciplinary designer and co-founder of IDI’s DesignOpp initiative supporting BIPOC designers, explained that “there’s more than one way to be a designer” as she showed her career trajectory with work ranging from projects for clients like Cadbury and Guinness, to her own streetwear line and children’s book illustrations. Anderson then recounted her formative years as a first-generation Jamaican American raised in a largely white neighborhood in the Bronx in the 1960s and ’70s, a time when representation of Black people was largely absent from pop culture and commerce, followed by a four-decade career covering stops at The Boston Globe and Rolling Stone, SpotCo, Anderson Newton Design and the U.S. Postal Service, as well as her co-authorship of numerous books. Anderson and Enemaku compared notes about often finding themselves as the only person of color in design meetings with clients. As such, “you become the spokesperson,” for your race, Anderson said. “It’s exhausting,” Enemaku added. When both were asked about the benefits of being a BIPOC designer, Enemaku responded, “They are internal. … I see the world in a different way. I do feel it’s a privilege to go through two visual languages. I can connect culture with my artwork.” Anderson said, “A benefit of being older is paying it forward—and being able to speak freely about my experience.”

In Galway the following Monday, Anderson gave a second talk, as part of a “Culture Meets Business” series hosted and sponsored by the Galway Culture Company and promoted by the IDI, that again covered her early influences, typographic innovations, creative collaborations and experiences at SVA as an educator and creative director. The event was held at the PorterShed, a coworking space, for a large crowd of local designers, creatives and the cohort of students from Design West.

Features

The summer program brought international creative leaders, students and the Irish design community together for making, learning and engaging with nature.