Perspection
Thesis Project
How can design bring us closer to understanding AAVE?
Language is one of the roots of cultural expression. That rings expecially true for AAVE or African American Vernacular English. I view AAVE as my inheritence, a constant growth of rich vocab and expression stored in my brain through each daily incounter from the day I was born. With this project I visualized the often stigmatized, commodified, popularized, and most importantly, loved language, by embodying the personality of words within type posters and buttons, while also educating people in an engaging way through a card game and video.
AAVE
BLACK ENGLISH
SLANG
EBONICS
The Posters
All posters are interactive through touch to better engage the viwer.
All Skinfolk Ain’t Kinfolk
18 by 22
Wood and leather
Definition: A quote by Zora Neal Hurston, claiming that not all people that are part of your ethnic group or community are for you.
I displayed the seriousness of the saying by using bold and centered type. The etched thumbprint represents our individuality while the leather represents skin or black folks and the wood represents lineage.
Trippy
18 by 24
Cardstock and translucent paper
Definition: Weird/crazy or having been on a psychedelic experience.
Through various explorations I landed on the idea of creating a scanomation to achieve a bizzare eyetrick and typographic movement.
Put My Foot In It
18 by 24
Stuffed cotton and fabric on canvas
Definition: Usually said when someone has done a great job at cooking or other accomplishments.
I related this saying to grandmas and thier delicious food/ work in the kitchen. Stuffed cotton is added for a puffed effect which gives a friendly feeling to the letters and interactivity. The fabric I chose would usually be found in grandmas house in some form.
Bougie
18 by 24
Velvet and wax on thick board
Definition: An uppity, classy or materialistic person. Mostly used in a joking way to describe someone. Can be used as an insult or compliment depending on the person.
Soft velvet, script type and wax seals were used to envoke the feeling of luxury and exuberance.
Woke
18 by 24
Newsprint and acrylic
Definition: Contrary to the way that right wing conservatives or misinformed people use the word, woke means to open your eyes to things pertaining to the betterment, hidden history, and general education of Black America.
Informational articles by Black Americans reflecting the persona of the woke person and what they would be reading. The eye in the middle of the word represents your third eye awakening and the duotone black and white hints at being from one state to the next.
The Buttons
Each poster is accompanied by a button. When pressed you could hear the definition of the the word/phrase of the poster. Every button has a different person voicing it and the definition is told through thier understanding.
The Final Poster
Our Place
The final poster, Our Place, is filled with the AAVE words and sayings that I collected from my interviews with people and research. This poster stands alone as an exclamation of pride and ownership in African American’s claim on the land and our language.
Moodboard
The Card Game
For the culture is an AAVE knowlege testing trivia game. It is a two player and over game. One person will read part of a well known black american phrase said on the card while the opposing person tries to guess the rest of it. The correct answer is bolded and the game is seperated into two difficulty levels, easy being green and hard being red. I created the game set to engage with language in a fun way.
The Video
The video is to further educate people about AAVE. I interviewed four people and asked them about thier thoughts and feelings on the language. This is a short intro of the video. The rest is in the link below.
https://vimeo.com/827782716?share=copy