Greg Bunbury

0:00 [Applause]

0:05 Nic or Tuesdays how are we doing I said nicer Tuesdays how are we doing that's better bit of energy before we start talking about graphic design and racism all right my name is Greg Bunbury I'm a graphic designer a consultant a lecturer that means I talk a lot about design I think a lot about design but today I want to talk about words I want to talk about words that hurt words that divide words that connect and words that heal and I want to talk about what happens when we go beyond those words but before I do that we have to go back in time it's 2014 so there.

0:49 I am I'm in my flat in North London just two miles from here Saturday morning I'm sat in a front room my partner my daughter are in the Next Room I hear a commotion someone shouting there's yelling coming from the back of the flat so I go out onto my balcony and I see this gentleman you might not be able to tell but there's a guy who's still on a balcony looking directly at me as I turn and see this gentleman without a word of provocation he unleashes a 10minute torrent of racial abuse directed at me. And it's bad it's ugly and it's loud everybody comes out my partner comes out and she starts filming the tication we have videos of this I won't play it for you because it will 100% ruin your evening but here's a transcript of some of the words I heard that morning because of the threats that were made against me and my family we had to get the police involved the man was arrested prosecuted no longer lives there but still this was shocking in North London Cosmopolitan North London on a Saturday morning and it was a painful reminder that racism was still very much alive but in 2014 we didn't really need that much of a reminder because of course.

2:10 This is the year that Eric Garner was killed for those of you who don't remember Eric Garner was an unarmed man who was selling cigarettes outside of a store in New York City and he was detained by a police officer put in a fatal choke hold and said the words I can't breathe 11 times before he died needless to say these experiences really affected me in 2014 now I've experienced racism before I've experienced police harassment I've experienced racism in my career as a graphic designer even at University but now these experiences were right on my doorstep and across all news channels later that year a grand jury refused to indict the officer that killed Ghana and this led to a wave of protests across the US the evening the news broke here in the UK I decided I need to do something you see back then.

3:05 I was just a francearts graphic designer but it wasn't much of me in my work. And that's fine you might say it's appropriate for clients and employers it's about them it's not about me but when there's a disconnect between the work we do and the values that we extol it creates a sort of dissonance so I decided to create something to try and reconcile that dissonance I created this poster in tribute it features the words I can't breathe 11 times with the last line fading out I found typography to be the most appropriate direct and honest medium to express what I was feeling and I was inspired by the work of Barbara Krueger Jenny holer and viral ablo in this sense the medium was very much the message so I uploaded my poster to Tumblr and it got a whopping two likes absolutely no one paid any attention to this but some people did one of the people that did was actually somebody who was connected to the Ghana family in New York and he reached out to me with words of appreciation and acknowledgement and that was all I needed to know that perhaps there was a path with design that didn't involve just a commercial Focus someone else who saw the artwork was a good friend of mine who's here tonight I can't see him because the lights are on me me but Dominic I think you're over there somewhere he runs this handsome chat for those of you who can see him runs an outdoor ageny called Brotherhood media they have a network of billboards across the UK so Dom had seen my Eric Garner poster and from that we started discussing the idea of using Billboards to bring attention to social issues to platform socially focused design not for clients and not for an employer and certainly not for money but to create dialogue and Inspire action.

5:02 So we started working together. And I started producing designs like these Billboards we used to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the grenfell fire then fast forward to 2020 and George Floyd as such many Brands and organizations felt compelled to stand with the black community on this issue this was the rise of black lives matter after all of course this created an opportunity for dialogue and introspection to examine a cognitive B bias and structural racism that underpins many of our experiences here in the UK my friend reached out and he asked whether he could reprint this poster on one of his Billboards and initially I was reluctant wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea. And this led to more words a really Frank long and uh difficult discussion and though it was hard I felt like we got to a really positive place by the end of it.

6:05 So that night I went home. And I designed a new poster to connect both Eric Garner and George Floyd as reportedly I can't breathe were Floyd's last words my good friend put this artwork up across Billboards I think four or five across London. And it was seismic everything changed after that I woke up the next day to phone call and emails and interview requests it was huge but what really meant the world to me was that I felt different about my work suddenly there was me in my work the media agency invited me to do more Billboards along this theme.

6:46 But I felt like if it was only me then it would only be about my perspective and my words cannot speak for everyone Black Culture is not monolithic I also wanted this opportunity to focus on our lived experiences here in the UK so instead I invited other black and PC designers illustrators and artists to tell their story to use their words designers like johavi inis bani nadina Ali and hakan Ki to name a few over the next three years we put up dozens and dozens of billboard boards across London Leeds and Bristol and each billboard represents a different perspective a unique perspective some were hopeful some were optimistic some were scathing some were political some were angry some were joyful but they were all unique it's not to say that this was an easy project it's incredibly challenging at times but the thing that really made it wasn't the Billboards it wasn't the artwork it was the connections it was the conversations it was the dialogue it was the community so from here I began thinking what else can I do as a designer that not only celebrates diversity and marginalized communities but what can I do as a designer that helps others to express their words this is an image of the HMS wind Rush it docked in Tilbury in 1948 bringing Caribbean workers from Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago and other Islands to fill post-war UK labor shortages this image is synonymous with the Windrush generation and as a descendant of wind rush I took inspiration from the iconic lettering on the front of that ship and created a type face based on it Empire wind Rush was my intention for this tip face to become more than just a creative resource it's a tool that represents dialogue connection and celebration when I made the typ face publicly available I also got to see how other creatives used it to connect with community and express their own words amazing artists and designers and creatives like Caroline Hill and her amazing agency chill create Caroline is in the building I think she's somewhere up there again I can't see you because the lights on me but shout out she used Empire wind Rush as part of her work on unsung heroes an exhibition in North kington which celebrates the lives and experiences of the Windrush community in honor of their legacy in the summer of 2022 the national wind Rush Monument which is a permanent tribute to the wind Rush generation was unveiled in water station created by the Jamaican sculptor Basel Watson Abby Wright had been retained to work on the launch materials and a plaque that accompanies the statue and she selected my type face Empire wind rush to be part of this permanent Monument so if you're in watero please stop by it an incredible honor to see my work just play any part of this from there I created more typ faces like Bradford 81 which is an or caps display type face inspired by anti-racist Asian youth movements in Bradford England in the 1970s and 1980s today blackout art has been added to the young VNA in the designing for change section on the first floor if you're in a young VNA please go and check it out that original artwork has been retained by the main VNA and now been added to their permanent collection shout out to the VNA I don't think they're here but just in case and from there.

10:36 I was able to work with different organizations and companies and my work looks so different today because these are companies that are invested in marginalized communities or anti-racism or sustainability or real issues that affect us all most recently black outdoor art was part of a Hackney Arts activism Festival dedicated to the legacy of a community organization who fought for victims of police Injustice in the ' 80s and '90s right here right here in Hackney the Hackney Community defense Association stood right here in stok Newton I grew up like 5 minutes from here so being a part of this was incredibly meaningful as part of this Festival I contributed billboard art and also a digital display which addressed police brutality and Community solidarity this work has also given me the opportunity to lecture at universities across the country encouraging students and young designers to bring advocacy into their work to make work that matters work that impacts lives and all of this from a graphic I uploaded to Tumblr 10 years ago. Now.

11:44 This is not about being politically correct or virtually signaling it's not about being an activist or a political artist this is just about aligning our values with our work in the service of others this is is about doing our best work allowing others to be heard allowing their words to be voiced the words that hurt words that divide words that connect and words that heal and with that I say thank you [Applause]