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2 – Strategy

The Racial Politics of Graphic Design

Neela Imani

NOV 03 | 1:45 - 2:30 PM

St. Lawrence Centre — Bluma Appel Theatre

Info

Conventional understandings of racism are rooted in overt, violent manifestations, only recently extending to more implicit varieties (e.g., unconscious bias, microaggressions).

However, present within the social fabric is an inconspicuous, almost invisible subgenre. A banal form marked by gross abundance, occupying both commercial and public spaces, subsequently finding its way into our homes, stocking our refrigerators, lining our shelves — watching us, consuming them. A ubiquitous kind that has desensitized us to racism. Taking a cue from Ruben Pater’s The Politics of Design, this presentation unwraps the generation and reproduction of racism in packaging and label design. Drawing on key marketing concepts, namely (unethical) market segmentation, autoethnography is coupled with purposive sampling to arrive at a select series of graphic designed-consumer packaged goods. Samples are then subjected to a comprehensive visual analysis, informed by ethnic and racial studies. Developing an analytical and theoretical approach that can support the identification of racialization, racist typologies are situated in graphic design. Themes derived from the analysis include scientific and cultural racism, (self) orientalism and cultural appropriation, among others. Adopting an anti-racist framework, this presentation offers transversal cosmopolitanism (transversalism) as a modality for decolonial praxis within graphic design.

Speaker

  • Photo of Neela Imani

    Neela Imani

    Creative, MA Student & Researcher

    • Nov 03 | The Racial Politics of Graphic Design
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Education

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