BIPOC Design History is proud to announce a new course that revisits and rewrites a story of design history that centers previously marginalized voices of Native American designers and creators.
ВІРОС (Black Indigenous People of Color) Design History’s fourth course:
(re)Creating Turtle Island: Native American Design Through Remembered History, facilitated by Brian Johnson with Emma Waggoner and Polymode. The course begins Sunday, July 13, 2025, and runs through Thursday, August 14, 2025. If you can’t attend in real time, don’t worry—you can still sign up and receive the full recording and materials to engage with asynchronously.
(re)Creating Turtle Island: Native American Design Through Remembered History celebrates the stories, culture, faith, heritage, and creative sovereignty of Indigenous people by reexamining, updating, and decolonizing existing design collections and scholarship. As Indigeneity is not a monolith, the ten (10) classes in this course will encompass Indigenous ingenuity with broad strokes, allowing for a multiplicity of voices. Participants will engage in a powerful journey that centers Indigenous cultural sovereignty and creative traditions—challenging colonial frameworks that have historically defined the field of design.
Through live and asynchronous lectures, readings, and discussions, the class sheds light on moments of oppression and visibility. The series reshapes the narrative of design history by centering designers and cultural figures who have been historically excluded—particularly BIPOC and QTPOC communities. With an accessible payment structure in mind, free classes and resources, and anti-capitalist compensation for our collective of educators, we are deeply invested in engaging with and creating a new design history.
Themes woven throughout the course include: the history of Native American poster design, the enduring legacies of past and present Indigenous artists, printmaking as a method of storytelling, design in moments of protest and resistance, Indigenous approaches to typography, and weaving as both material practice and connection across generations.
(re)Creating Turtle Island is not about inserting Indigenous design into existing narratives—it’s about returning to our own narratives and making space for them to lead. Join us for a bold reimagining of design history—one rooted in remembrance, liberation, and Indigenous knowledge.
Our contributing speakers: Yvonne Tiger, Philip Deloria, Sadie Red Wing, the New Red Order with Jackson Polys, Adam Khalil, and Zack Khalil, Jimmy Dean Horn, Dr. Gloria Jane Bell, Chris Skillern, Leo Vicenti, Kevin King, Sarah Sockbeson, Anna Tsouhlarakis, and Brian Johnson.
ABOUT BIPOC DESIGN HISTORY
BIPOC Design History was created due to the frustrations and glaring gaps in design education for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. In collaboration with a world-renowned group of co-authors and educators, Polymode Studio created and produced Black Design in America: African Americans and the African Diaspora in Graphic Design, 19th-21st Century which launched in January of 2021. In September of the same year, it was followed by our second course, Incomplete Latinx Stories of Diseño Grafico centering the work and histories of art and design in Latin America facilitated by Ramon Tejada. Then, in 2023, we released Design Histories in Southwest Asia & North Africa: Voices from the SWANA Diaspora, facilitated by Randa Hadi.
Since then, over 6,500 students, ranging from 18 to 80 years of age, have enrolled in our courses. Our classes have been rewatched over 14,000 times, and over 40 institutions of higher learning have partnered with us for licenses. Participants tune in across continents and time zones in over 40 countries, from New Zealand to Brazil, Zimbabwe to Lebanon, South Korea to Switzerland.
ABOUT POLYMODE STUDIO
Polymode is a bi-coastal, queer, and minority-owned graphic design studio leading the edge of design with thought-provoking work for clients across the cultural sphere. We collaborate with innovative businesses, community-based organizations, and those shifting the world through social justice. By advocating for clear and transparent structures of communication, compensation, and relationships, Polymode creates a radical approach to design where the product emerges from a process of mutual respect and enjoyment. Our team promotes ecological and social sustainability in and out of the studio. Polymode’s core principles are to ignite minds, impact hearts, and uplift marginalized voices, through poetic research, design, and educational initiatives.
To enroll or for more information.
Instagram: @bipocdesignhistory
If you require assistance, please email [email protected]
“Design history has long been shaped by colonial structures that erase Native presence and participation. This course invites us to reimagine design history as a space for Indigenous sovereignty and resurgence.”
— Brian Johnson