The long and beautiful story of Native American graphic design

Brian Johnson, a member of the Monacan Indian Nation, is painting the field of graphic design red, with his new book, Designed to Be Red: Native & Indigenous Graphic Works, published on September 15 by DelMonico Books. The book contributes to the larger project of decolonizing design. Showing more than 200 years of Native American graphic works from makers across 144 distinct nations, tribes, bands, and Indigenous cultural and language groups, the book dismantles the myth of design as something that happened in Europe in the 1800s. Sparked by a request to give a lecture on Native American posters by the New York City gallery Poster House, Johnson carried out his project of “cultural sovereignty” for three years. His Native American heritage and career as a designer, curator, and partner at the design studio Polymode earned the trust from the Native and Indigenous makers and guiding Aunties who contributed to the book. Designed to be Red: Native American and Indigenous Graphic Work [Cover Image: DelMonico Books] In a two-hour Zoom interview, which has been edited for brevity and clarity, I sat down with Johnson to discuss the significance of this project for Native American and Ind…