Ariel of Newwark, NJ BLM mural featuring VTC Martin. Ariel photograph by Isaac Jiménez.
Nearly 84% of all designers in America are white. Until recently, the majority of all designers in America were Men. So if you’re a woman or if you’re of African, Asian, or Latin dissent, and you see an advertisement that you feel does not accurately represent your race, ethnicity, and/or gender, this is why.
Diversity has always been a neglected issue in the design industry until (in many cases) profits and optics become of concern. However, diversity in design has been looked at as an employment problem, and not a design problem.
Vocal is changing that everything.
When an industry is dominated by a single race and gender, this not only creates a lack of diversity in peoples and experiences but ideas and creations as well. That’s why Vocal Type is working to diversify design through the root of all (good) works of graphic design—typography.
Each typeface highlights a piece of history from a specific underrepresented race, ethnicity, or gender—from the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Argentina to the Civil Rights Movement in America.
Vocal launched in 2016 with growing support from people who feel the same way as I we do. Now I've
we’ve created a type foundry that introduces a diverse perspective from design communities that had a still small voice in the design industry.
This isn’t your hundred-year-old type foundry.
It isn’t your temporarily trendy resource.
And I am we are not telling you how to fix an issue.
I am We are being Vocal.
This is a type foundry for creatives of color who feel that they don’t have a say in their industry. This is for creative women who feel that they don’t have a say in their industry. This is for the creative that is tired of being “inspired” by the same designs over and over again.
Vocal is for the creative that cares about telling the stories of the people we serve and not the false history of the industry we work in. Vocal is for the creative that wants to build a community—not a following.