Creative Black Space

I have been working in the design industry for 20 years and I can count on one hand the amount of black and minority designers I have come across, and being freelance you get to work with a lot of agencies. The majority of people are white males from middle class backgrounds, and the irony is that most of these guys I come across are very liberal and politically aware, yet the recruitment culture they control does not reflect this.

The fact that the industry does not reflect the population is a big problem on many counts. It means that minorities are not given the opportunity to flourish and contribute in what is an amazing industry, it further narrows the rungs on upward mobility for the working class of which many black and minority groups are, and it means that the images put out by these agencies are coming from one perspective and bias.

On the latter point I know from personal experience that diversity can change mindsets. I designed a press ad for a major record label for a new release and the copy supplied was in my eyes, as a person of colour, a negative stereotype. I was not happy so I picked up the phone and kicked off! I was able to have some influence and the copy was changed, it wasn’t perfect but it was something, and the same time I educated someone. I’ve been able to influence in less extreme ways countless times. I guess another extreme would be the image H&M used of a black boy wearing a hoodie saying 'Coolest monkey in the jungle'. In the eyes of many white people they could not see the problem, but as someone who as been at the receiving end of the word monkey, as a racial slur I think differently. If I was the designer of the hoodie, or at the photoshoot I would have flagged this up.

In Britain where the working class and black culture dominates trends, and have done for decades, why is that this raw creative energy from these communities are not breaking through?

The link below includes some answers to this question from people in the industry, written by Laura Snoad on Creative Bloq:

https://www.creativebloq.com/features/how-to-encourage-diversity-in-the-design-industry

The Family – Joseph Arthur

I was approached by Real World Records to design Joseph Arthur’s new album – The Family. This New York based artist is an experimental multi-instrumentalist singer songwriter, who has been part of the Real World family for this, his 5th album. Each track is based on the perspectives of a different fictional family member and from different points in history. It was written on a Steinway Vertegrande from 1912 – which was previously owned only by one family for 100 years.

Inspired by the theme of the album I created artwork that was part journal/part photo album. The design incorporates a family photo on the cover and pictures of the Steinway, as well as written notes and paintings relating to each track created by Joseph.

To find out more about The Family visit Real World Records

'This is a wonderfully eclectic album full of beautiful acoustic melodies dealing with some difficult issues that happen within the family structure such as war, murder, despair, love, loss and fate. An intensely thought provoking offering, from somebody who surely has to be one of the hardest working and multi talented artists around. If you purchase one album this year, make it this one it will not disappoint.' MaximumVolumeMusic.com

'This album began with two things; a 1912 Steinway piano that Arthur found at a bargain price, which led him to begin writing on piano, rather than guitar; and a song called You Wear Me Out, whose exhausted title typifies the complex family dynamics that became the theme of the entire record.... we come to him for a gorgeous stew of sound.' Sunday Times

Cinema Rediscovered

I was approached by Watershed to design the identity for their major international archive film event taking place in Bristol and the surrounding region (in association with Independent Cinema Office (ICO), South West Silents and 20th Century Flicks). Cinema Rediscovered celebrates cinema-going, and gives audiences the opportunity to discover - rediscover - new digital restorations, film print rarities of early cinema, and contemporary classics on the big screen.

The identity plays with themes of discovery, movement and diversity.

Thu 28th April – Sun 31st July.

Find out more

I Am A Man

In June 2015 I had the honour of writing the first ever guest blog for my client akg-images, a fine art and history image library with offices in London, Germany and Paris. I was asked to choose any image from their collection and write about it. I chose the image below which shows African American Workers on strike in Memphis in 1968, shortly before Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated there. My reaction was to write a poem that was inspired by the image, and it ended up being something quite personal to me.

I Am A Man

I am an underdog like those men in Memphis
But I am a man and nothing can prevent this
In these modern times we are still sentenced
They throw away the key and show no repentance
Both physically and metaphorically trapped
With my back to the wall on the wrong side of the tracks
It’s not 68 but there is still an ill mind state
Hence riot riot and the youth getting irate
No news is good news because all they talk about is high crime rate
News is bad news when the bigot starts to gyrate
They’re just here to violate – blame it all on immigration
Politician talking about the values of a nation
When the value of your purse came from us who laid your turf
Building you schools and churches and that’s all we deserve?
We put the cotton on your back and the sugar in your tea
For that truly British taste and all for no fee
I am a man no matter what you do to me
It’s been over four hundred years so this is not new to me
Like the Amistad mutiny, you’ll get no impunity
We’ll seek justice and free our community
Maroons in unity, send a message by courier
I am a woman the blue mountain warrior
Ashanti queen before Luther had a dream
My people call me Nanny but your people call me fiend
Because I revolt and raid plantations
And free the slaves to build a new nation
Emancipation, dignity, a future plan
Stand up and be counted because I am a man

Go to blog

www.akg-images.co.uk

Design Taste

After producing the branding and packaging for Coconut Chilli, producers of award wining Indian cuisine, Patwa was interviewed by foodie magazine Crumbs, to discuss all things design, food and Bristol. Read here

Afrofuturism

Patwa created the branding for Afrofuturism, a cinematic event at Bristol's Watershed. A place where space, pyramids, funk and politics collide. More