Polymode designed Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, an expansive look at more than a century of Pan-Africanist art and the ways it embodies the movement’s principles and global ambitions. The catalogue and exhibition were edited and curated by Antawan I. Byrd, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Adom Getachew, and Matthew S. Witkovsky and will travel from The Art Institute of Chicago to MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Barbican Centre, London, and KANAL–Centre Pompidou, Brussels.
The design of the book takes its cues from the diverse printed ephemera that make up the show. The typographic palette of Align by Greg Gazdowicz of Commercial Type and Travelogue by David Jon Walker shows the multiplicity of Pan African typographic aesthetics. Align, a variable serif typeface that loses its serif as it gets bolder, resembles the typography on an Algerian cinema poster for Egyptian Films, and its variable forms show that Pan Africanism is not a monolith. Travelogue letter forms are based on a hand-drawn masthead from the 1946-47 editions of Victor Hugo Green’s Green Book. The scale of the publication is based off the Nancy Canard, Negro Anthology from 1933 that brings a heft and weight to the publication, but bound in thin boards to signify the many periodicals in the exhibition. Lastly, the color palette of the publication uses custom spot colors in brown and a bright fluorescent green that are mixed with four-color process reds and other tones to create a unique take on the iconic Pan African Red, Green, and Black color story.
Focusing on its cultural expression, this book presents a rich selection of the visual, sonic, and other creative forms that have emerged throughout Pan-Africanism’s evolution. Among the nearly two hundred artists represented from across the continent and the African diaspora are Beauford Delaney, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Hoyt William Fuller, Wifredo Lam, Simone Leigh, Ernest Mancoba, Zanele Muholi, Kawira Mwirichia, Cauleen Smith, Alma Thomas, and George Albert Yon.
Reflecting Pan-Africanism’s ideals of diversity and dialogue as well as its aspirations to egalitarianism, essays from more than a dozen scholars, artists, and practitioners speak to a range of themes and places, while discussing works in all media made or circulated outside the infrastructure of fine art, including LP albums, illustrated magazines, and manifestos.
- Designer and Art Director
- Silas Munro
- Designer and Art Director
- Randa Hadi
- Designer and Art Director
- Brian Johnson
- Designer
- Sadeem Yacoub
- Designer
- Darrian Newman
- Photographer
- Charles White - JW Pictures
Project link