Now Introducing: Emory Douglas

Bobby Wickham - 3156147

One designer who year after year I am shocked to find once again missing from my design

textbooks is Emory Douglas. Douglas was the Minister of Communication and Revolutionary

Artist for the Black Panther Party. Having designed the Party’s newspaper for over 10 years as

well as releasing a slew of studio work both of his own accord as well as with contemporary

organizations such as black lives matter, Douglas’ influence on the history of graphic design is

undeniable. As well as his political and social influence through his design, Douglas is also

representative of a group whose influence has been mostly ignored throughout history. For

example, in Sylvia Harris’ “Searching for Black Aesthetic in American Graphic Design”, Harris

argues that the influence of African, or African American arts, such as the influence of jazz

music on painters like Jackson Pollock, has been widely understated, or even ignored.

Designers such as Douglas, being alive in the age of information, are influenced by a plethora of

designers, from the use of bold colour and photo collage found in Constructivist graphic design,

such as the work of Gustav Klutsis, to the large, strong shapes found in woodcut printing,

mirroring motifs which could be found in Japanese Ukiyo-e. Although these influences can be

found within Douglas’ work, African influence can also be seen throughout his collections.

Influenced similarly to the late Pablo Picasso, Douglas work has the telltale influence of

traditional African art forms, these influences can be seen in both Douglas’ and Picasso’s work

through their abstraction of form, bold, yet restrained use of colour, and flattening of space.

While Douglas is a great example of the suppression of African identity within our history

textbooks, he also holds his own as an incredibly influential and commercially successful

designer. The newspaper he designed for the black panthers at it peak was selling upwards of

200,000 copies a week. As well as his success with the party, Douglas’ work is still showing in

galleries and museums around the world.

I would also be remised if I didn’t mention the difficulty in sourcing this information. If you

really want to see an example of the lack of representation of African influence on contemporary

design, you would find it through the lack of scholarly information on African or African

American graphic designers as a whole. Even when looking through Meggs’ History of Graphic

design, I was shocked at the lack of mention of the influence of African art on contemporary

design. Not only was I unable to find any areas where the influence of these artists was clearly

stated, but in a larger respect, I had trouble finding almost any non-white designers who were

given anything more than a casual mention.

In summation, I think that by including Douglas’ work in this text, Meggs would not only be

giving a more diverse view of the history of graphic design, he would be creating a more

rounded, accurate, and educational view of history than ever before.

Sources:

Black, Harris. “Searching for a Black Aesthetic in American Graphic Design.” Searching for a Black Aesthetic in American Graphic Design, 10 Mar. 2019, readings.design/PDF/harris-blackaesthetic.pdf.

Meg Miller. “Designing The Black Panthers.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 4 August 2016, www.fastcompany.com/3062510/designing-the-black-panthers.

Reference Images:

Image: https://letterformarchive.org/news/emory-douglas-and-the-black-panther

Back Cover, The Black Panther, Decemeber 5th 1970

https://www.artforum.com/print/previews/200401/gustav-klutsis-and-valentina-kulagina-5955Gustav Klutsis

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enCA747CA747&biw=1440&bih=685&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=5RarXMj0HYGTjgSf9LqwDg&q=ukiyo-e+hokusai&oq=ukiyo-e+hok&gs_l=img.1.0.0j0i8i30l2.54134.55205..56204...0.0..0.89.311.4......1....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i67j0i30j0i24.9uOw1KTJJts#imgrc=LdK4mPNBg5vkkM:Ukiyo-e Katsushika Hokusai