In the early 1990s, a number of Black design professionals came together to create the Organization of Black Designers (OBD). It was intended to be a counter to AIGA—to create a design community specifically for and by Black professionals in the fields of graphic design, interior design, architecture, urban planning, fashion design, advertising, transportation design, and product design.
At one point, OBD claimed to have membership in the thousands, but OBD today seems like a shell of its former self. According to it’s official Wikipedia page, OBD has 8,700 members; 3,500 hundred of those being professional designers. One tweet from their official Twitter account even claims it reaches 25,000 members. But even still there is little recent activity on their official site. Their most recent blog post is from 2016.
I first learned of the organization in 2004 as a college student when I attended my first and only portfolio review and networking event called DesigNation. I came away from the event with mixed feelings. On one hand, I met my longtime mentor Lorenzo Wilkins. But on the other hand, DesigNation provided the worst professional advice I had ever heard. During an opening panel discussion, a Black design professional told a room full of hopeful young talent that nothing is beneath them. I ignored that advice, and fourteen years later my career is better because of it. Despite all that, I still root for OBD.
Ever since then, I wanted to learn more about the organization. Who were its founders? How were events planned both then and now? Who did the branding? And unlike its contemporary peer AIGA, why does the Organization of Black Designers often seem lost to history?
In my research for this piece I quickly discovered that there would be no way of telling a singular definitive story of this mysteriously opaque organization. I talked to OBD staff and members past and present, and through multiple perspectives, I found out about OBD’s early days, memories about its influence and internal struggles, and tried to figure out where OBD can go from here.
[Disclosure: David Rice, the founder of OBD, was unavailable to interview at the time this was published.]
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