Lessons Learned from Netflix Series “Abstract: The Art of Design”
If you haven’t already, we highly recommend checking out the Netflix series, Abstract: The Art of Design Season 1 and 2. While all episodes are phenomenal and offer their own pieces of inspiration, we are focusing on 3 episodes featuring Black designers. Although the show didn’t dive into their experiences of being Black in very white-male dominated industries, we were still able to find connections and similarities.
We put together our takeaways from automotive designer Ralph Gilles, costume designer Ruth Carter, and product designer Ian Spalter. We encourage you to watch and comment on your own takeaways.
Ralph Gilles
Ralph Gilles, Haitian-Canadian-American automobile designer is the Head of Design at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). Originally from Canada, Ralph joined Chrysler in 1992 and was the lead designer behind the iconic Chrysler 300. From sketching car designs as a teenager to surviving the 2009 bailout of Chrysler, Gilles exudes passion, determination, and a mind for innovation. Here are 5 design lessons we learned from his episode:
Create something that tells the world where you want to be going.
Design can create community.
Effective designs are emotional.
Cultivate the artistic side of design.
Create products (designs) that solve multiple problems.
Ruth Carter
Ruth Carter is an incomparable Academy Award-winning film and television costume designer. Carter’s unparalleled work develops an authentic character story through their clothing. She has worked on films such as Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing, Selma, and most notably Black Panther. In 2019, she was the first Black woman to win for Best Costume Design for Black Panther. (It’s about DAMN time!) Here are our 5 takeaways from Carter’s episode:
Design to tell a visual story.
Incorporate humanity into your design work.
Use design to re-write the way culture is represented.
Observe to gain inspiration and ideas.
Research, research, research and let that research impact your design.
Ian Spalter
Ian Spalter is the Head of Instagram Japan. In his former position as Instagram’s Head of Design Spalter is credited with shaping the look and feel of the world’s most popular social media platform. He is one of a few Black tech executives and uses his position to speak out about the importance of diversity and inclusion - beyond planting Black, Indigenous, people of color into white spaces, but rather changing the culture and structure of the industry. If you’ve ever used blackplanet.com - Spalter created it. Here are 5 things that stood out to us in his episode:
Design is everywhere.
Incorporate the human factor in design.
Define the problem, understand the why.
Push the edges with design.
Design is never done it will continue to evolve.
