How These Black Designers Celebrate Their Culture Through Design

As February is Black History Month, it's an excellent time to celebrate the incredible Black designers who contribute to the design world all year long.

We are lucky to regularly connect with a wide array of amazing Black designers for in-depth interviews about their work and their stories in our Black Designers series. For Black History Month, we turned a few of our faves and chatted about how their culture not only influences their work, but enhances it.

Here’s what each designer had to say, in their own words.

DuVäl Reynolds (DR): My design sensibilities are shaped by my culture as it relates to function and purpose. Growing up in a home of mixed cultures—African American and Korean—there was such a focus on gatherings, entertaining family, and traditions.

The beauty of home was the warmth it created, the fostered feeling of connectivity and shared experiences.  

Ashley Ross (AR): How someone feels in a space is always going to be more important to me as a designer because of my culture. We live in a society that does not always see us, and one that often diminishes our contributions. So, we make it a point to journey our clients to the intersection of culture and interior wellness.

Our design sensibilities make space for us to stand in the gap when clients arrive home, to rebuild all ideas of self-worth, and connectedness. Something as simple as being seen is paramount to the sheer existence of humanity. Most, if not all, of our clients are going out into the world as less than their whole selves out of necessity, as a survival tactic. 

My culture pushes me to focus on safe, seen, and secure interiors before all else.  

Photo: Laura Sumrak / Artwork: 'Me Against the World' by Gee Horton / Design: Muse Noire