SCAD SERVE x Juneteenth Atlanta
For this project, SCAD SERVE, a community service design studio, asked students to create a series of three posters. The posters needed to celebrate a different person that has played an important role in supporting equal rights for African Americans in the United States of America. These posters were given to Juneteenth Atlanta for the 2022 Juneteenth Atlanta Parade and Music Festival. I chose to create posters for Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Katherine Johnson, and Shirley Chisholm.
2022
• Poster Design
Tools
• Illustrator
• Photoshop
Research
Juneteenth is a holiday celebrated on June 19 that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the US. It was first celebrated in Texas on June 19, 1865 when slaves were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.
Juneteenth has an official flag that was designed in 1997 and revised in 2000. It has many symbols with meanings. The curve on the flag represents a new horizon. The burst and the star represents new freedom, new people, and a new star. The red, white and blue colors remind us that slaves and their descendants were and are American. These elements were used for the patterns on the posters. The illustrations of the figures are in black and white to represent that they are historical.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Ida B Wells was a journalist, activist, and researcher in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was also an early leader in the civil rights movement and was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She risked her life holding anti-lynching campaigns and also traveled internationally to spread awareness.
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson was a mathematician whose work was instrumental to the first crewed spaceflights in the United States. She worked for NASA for more than 30 years, contributing to many space exploration projects and research reports. She overcame racial and gender barriers, and helped make giant leaps for humankind.
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman in Congress and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the U.S from one of the two major political parties. Her motto and title of her autobiography is Unsought and Unbossed, which illustrates her outspoken advocacy for women and minorities during her seven terms in the U.S House of Representatives.