I am a Black graphic designer, educator, and publisher who was born but not raised in Khartoum, Sudan. My interests include language, form, and specificity. I am also interested in media, Black studies, and pop culture.
I studied at the University of Chicago, Maryland Institute College of Art, and Cranbrook Academy of Art, and I've taught at California College of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Purchase College, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
From 2018 to 2020, I was a book designer at the University of Chicago Press, where I designed the second edition of Crusade for Justice, by Ida B. Wells, Myself and My Aims, by Kurt Schwitters, Keats's Odes, by Anahid Nersessian, and several other books. In 2018, I published headgear.pw, which was designed and programmed by Becca Abbe. In 2017, I published Sapphire Tears with Publication Studio SF. In 2016, I began piecing together a project called Samples and Parallels, which I hope to reboot in 2021. Since 2016, I have also contributed to Women of Graphic Design, a project founded by Tori Hinn.
I will eventually turn this website into a blog with periodic updates, but until then, the following lines will highlight things that have either happened or are happening:
Early December: I contributed to the 2020 Are.na Annual publication alongside Omar Mohammad, Florence Fu, and Darin Buzon in a piece titled “Tools for Cultural Production.” We discussed our shared interest in archiving voice, culture, and community. Big thank you to Omar Mohammad for making this happen.
Mid-December: My students at SUNY Purchase designed a beautiful collection of cookbooks. Here's a sampling (with work by Owen Vera Lara, Nic Walcott, Michelle Proteasa, and Melanie Popescu).
January/February: My solo exhibition, Spotty Congregation, was up at Klemm Gallery. I've been sharing process work and afterthoughts here. Thank you, Trisha Holt, for inviting me to show my work!
March: I gave a talk and led a workshop titled “Text--Spot” in Marie Otsuka's Interactive 1 class at California College of the Arts. Huge thank you to Marie and chris hamamoto for having me!
April: The “Push Black” issue of 580 Split is up. Big thank you to Darius Simpson, Summer Young, Aamina Ahmad, and Livia Foldes for the opportunity to provide art direction. ☀ I've accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design and will begin teaching there in the fall.
Future: “Scraps: On process, proximity, and Black textual intervention,” After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet: A History of Graphic Design Pedagogy (ed. Geoff Kaplan); “Entry Point” (an essay for Amalgam); Samples and Parallels (a co-authoring project with Bryce Wilner); web-to-print Ramadan celebration with Omar Mohammad.