Amplifying Melanated Voices

Jun 11, 2020

Over the last week, we've been sharing the work of some of our favourite Black and Indigenous lettering artists to help amplify the voices of artists of colour.

This challenge was set to us by our Typism Community member Kevin Adams.

Over the week we've had the chance to stop and reflect on this issue. We took the time to look at ourselves and figure out what we can do better within our daily lives. Our team here at Typism is committed to doing the work and continuing to learn and show support for people of colour as we fight for a fair world.

In this post, we wanted to share with you more amazing artists of colour you should check out. If you also have someone you think we should share please message or tag us so we can continue to amplify melanated voices together.

Kevin Adams

First up is Kevin Adams, a fellow type lover and a regular contributor to our Typism Books. Kevin creates some amazing lyric pieces in his unique lettering style. We want to thank Kevin for giving us this challenge and continuing to stand up and demand we amplify melanated voices.

Follow Kevin at @kevinadamsdesigns .

Ade Hogue

Ade Hogue is an amazing lettering artist who creates a lot of expressive tactile pieces. His work is powerful and so well crafted.

Ade has also kindly made a digital download of his powerful Ignorance Protest Poster available for free. The quote is by James Baldwin (No Name in the Street, 1972). You can download it here.

Follow Ade at @adehogue.

Kristle Marshall

Kristle describes herself as a multidisciplinary artist which is right as she is an incredible lettering artist, illustrator and designer. Kristle works as an in-house designer for Hom Sweet Hom, and is currently working on a super cool passion project called This is Not a Bill, check it out here.

Follow Kristle at @kristhecreative.

Priska

Priska is an extremely talented photographer, videographer and hand-lettering artist. Combining all his skills he creates some amazing engaging pieces.

Follow Priska at @priska42.

Cymone Wilder

Cymone's lettering style is energetic and creates a great sense of texture and interest. She runs her own studio, Simon and Moose, with the help of her partner. Definitely check out her work.

Follow Cymone at @simonandmoose.

Candace Carson

Candace is a lettering artist & calligraphy instructor. On her feed, Candace shared a very open and honest post about herself. She highlighted that while she loves what she does, that our industry lacks diversity, and it's important we start having more equal opportunities for people of colour in the design community, Candace we can't agree more!

Follow Candace at @candace_carson.

Ciara LeRoy

Ciara is a multi-disciplinary handicraft artist & designer. We love the cool and quirky work she creates with embroidery. Her work is expressive and inspires self-reflection and positive vibes.

Follow Ciara at @prettystrangedesign.

Jamar Cave

Jamar is a lettering designer who loves type and fun. His recent work includes a lot of script style pieces with beautiful flourishes.

Follow Jamar at @theboredkids.

There are also some incredible platforms helping support and amplify the voices of people of colour, like People of Craft. We highly recommend checking them out too.

Remember during this time as we continue to have these important conversations and navigate our way through the issue of systemic racism, that you don't need all the answers. You will be wrong, you will not always know the right thing to do or say, but committing to doing the work is the only way we can progress and pave the way to change.