Black Futures Month by the Movement For Black Lives
Digital Designer, 2021-2025
The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) began rolling out some of their messaging for what a Free Black future would look like during their multi-year Black History Month campaigns, called Black Futures Month.
I was in charge of the visual communications strategy for Black Futures Month, and its initial reception was the first piece that would set in motion the brand refresh of the entire organization.
Adding more color
I saw this as another opportunity to step outside of the “greyscale and grey” M4BL was using for a lot of its content at the time. I used the red, black, and green of the Pan-African flag and tweaked the aesthetic, turning the red and green into electric neon colors while making the black a deep plum.
We also added geometric patterns inspired by kente cloth that would float above and around the key elements in the graphics, adding depth.
…and even more color
One of my favorite design choices was deciding to recolor the photos of the Black people we used in these graphics. Backed against the heaviness of the police shootings and the protests that followed, it felt important for these graphics to give an ethereal and hopeful feel. M4BL wasn’t just telling people to go out in the streets, but was trying to push people to think about a vision of what they’d be organizing toward.
Speaking of which, you can see three videos of organizers talking about what their vision for Black people in the future.
