The Design of Race: How Visual Culture Shapes America

The Design of Race: How Visual Culture Shapes America by Peter Claver Fine is the first book to frame the history of graphic design through the lens of African American critical race studies. Its five chapters attempt to explain the discipline’s relationship to race and representation and, more specifically, its connection to race and racism in American visual culture. In the book, Fine, an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Wyoming, explains how his interest in race and representation began with the Andy Griffith television series, which aired during the 1960s. He states that he never understood how the show, set in the rural south, could exist without any Black people or any discussion about racism or race relations. The show’s omission of Black people inspired Fine’s exploration of race and whiteness through a series of ongoing creative and academic projects. In The Design of Race’s detailed introduction, Fine talks about how the graphic design profession has completely ignored race in its teaching of graphic design history. Fine also discusses how some basic design principles, like the one-point perspective, provide "an illusion of comprehensive sight" that denies the "viewer access to a Tasheka Arceneaux Sutton is Associate Professor of Graphic Design at North Carolina State University and Faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Program in Graphic Design. blacvoicedesign@ gmail.com © 2022 Tasheka Arceneaux Sutton DOI: 10.1080/ 17547075.2021.2016325