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Illustrating lived experiences in the campaign design for Black History Month 2022

Three posters displayed on a concrete wall promoting UAL Black History Month 2022. The posters highlight themes such as recognizing the contributions of the Black community, celebrating culture and achievements, and advocating for action over words. Large green leaves frame the scene in the foreground.
  • Written byBrand and Creative Services, UAL
  • Published date 01 January 2023
Three posters displayed on a concrete wall promoting UAL Black History Month 2022. The posters highlight themes such as recognizing the contributions of the Black community, celebrating culture and achievements, and advocating for action over words. Large green leaves frame the scene in the foreground.
Black History Month campaign 2022 posters | Design direction: Creative, UAL; Photograph: Rosie Stephenson

Marked every October, Black History Month is a celebration of Black history and culture in the United Kingdom. This year’s theme is ‘Time for Change: Action Not Words.’

The design process

This year was the first time University of the Arts London commissioned a full Black History Month Campaign. Bunmi Ekundayo, Communications Manager, led the project and briefed the work into our Brand and Creative Services team. The main objective was not only to highlight and celebrate our Black community for Black History Month, but to create a space to do so permanently.

This year’s theme of ‘Action not words’ is such a strong one and creating unique visuals specifically representing Black culture speaks volumes. Black History is something that should be acknowledged all year round, so I’m excited to see how we go forward in echoing this across UAL.

— Bunmi Ekundayo, Communications Manager, Communications and External Affairs, UAL

With this year’s theme of ‘Action not words’, collaboration, and knowing that we wanted to create visuals that could be used during October and beyond, the concept is inspired by everyday actions, and wider interactions of the Black experience. We also took inspiration from how often these actions are related to resistance movements and protest, as well as a rich history. We wanted to celebrate the magic in these interactions, big or small, the everyday to the less frequent.

Originally, the concept was focussed on black hair and the culture, care, resistance actions involved — past, present, future. After discussing the concept further with the campaign working group, the decision was made to broaden the visuals so they reflected more elements of Black culture and the Black experience, including but not limited to hair.

Sandy Christ, a 2022 graduate from MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL had found our advertisement for an illustrator via Arts Temps, and joined us soon after. Initially the idea of the illustrations subject matter was to show them in different perspectives and interesting abstracted ways. Hands in action and highlighting them was a great addition Sandy brought to the concept. This idea strengthened the ‘action’ message and brings a sense of community, and unity to the set of illustrations; they now show people’s hands in action — braiding hair, protesting and enjoying food.

This campaign required voices from the Black community and the expression of someone who has the lived experience of the subject matter. We hoped that this would enable the work to speak to and resonate with our audiences. From the start we also knew we wanted to work with an illustrator, to bring a flexible, abstract, graphic visual storytelling dimension to the campaign.

  • Illustration-01.png
    Black History Month 2022 Illustrations, Sandy Christ, 2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL
  • Illustration-02.png
    Black History Month 2022 Illustrations, Sandy Christ, 2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL
  • Illustration-03.png
    Black History Month 2022 Illustrations, Sandy Christ, 2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL
It’s important to celebrate Black culture and support BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) people. And for me as a Black creative – I feel like in the creative industry there’s not enough Black representation, so I feel especially for us here in UAL, it’s super important so I really wanted to make an impact with the work I’ve created.

— Sandy Christ, Campaign illustrator
A close-up of two posters from the Black History Month 2022 campaign with bespoke illustrations. The illustrations feature hands moulding and weaving and are kept in earthy, green and brown colours. The first poster reads
Black History Month 2022 posters | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative, UAL, Photograph: Rosie Stephenson

Working with Sandy was a real pleasure. From our first meeting and through to the final delivery, Sandy brought a great creative energy, a wonderful collaborative approach and a wealth of ideas. We highly recommend Sandy and welcome the opportunity to collaborate again in the future.

We hope we achieved what we set out to do with this campaign, and look forward to celebrating our Black community every October, and beyond.

  • Commissioned by: Communications team, Communication and External Affairs, UAL
  • Design Agency: Brand and Creative Services team, Communication and External Affairs, UAL
  • What we did: Creative direction, Animation, Marketing materials — posters, digital screens, internal and external website, social media
  • OCEAEC22234-Black-History-Month-A4-poster.jpg
    Poster, Black History Month 2022 Illustrations, Sandy Christ, 2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL
  • OCEAEC22234-Black-History-Month-A4-poster2.jpg
    Poster, Black History Month 2022 Illustrations, Sandy Christ, 2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL
  • OCEAEC22234-Black-History-Month-A4-poster3.jpg
    Poster, Black History Month 2022 Illustrations, Sandy Christ, 2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL
  • Screenshot-2022-10-23-at-16.19.23.png
    Instagram story feature – Sandy Christ, Black History Month 2022 Illustrations, Sandy Christ, 2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL
  • Screenshot-2022-10-23-at-16.23.11.png
    UAL homepage, Black History Month 2022 Illustrations, Sandy Christ, 2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL

Meet the design team

  • Illustration
    Sandy Christ, she/her/hers
    Freelance Illustrator
    2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL
  • Campaign Designer and Animation
    Lila Meyer, she/her/hers
    Graphic Designer (Arts Temps), Brand and Creative Services
    2022 MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL
  • Creative Direction and Concept Design
    Stephanie Feather, she/her/hers
    Design Lead, Brand and Creative Services
    2008 BA Graphic Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL

The Creative Services team is made up of UAL alumni, recent graduates and current students. We are one half of the Brand and Creative Services team and sit within the Communication and External Affairs department based at High Holborn. We also work with freelance designers through  Arts Temps, our university recruitment agency and jobs board, which gives UAL students and alumni opportunities to work with our team, around the university and many other agencies.

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