The project “Dark Matter” is my exploration of the positive connotations of the color Black. The goal of this project is to make people question how the color black has been historically associated with negativity, and how this has often crossed over into people’s feelings about race.
As an artist and designer, I love the usage of typography in my work and this project will implement phrases that I have written as layered with abstract patterns of pigment shades exploring Blackness as a rich, chromatic color, not just the absence of light. I’m interested in the different ways color can add to black to make it warm, cool, or rich, and give volume and dimension, and viewers can also see how different tones look different depending on the printing methods and mediums used.
First, I decided to play with different shades of Black in the digital space by using a special watercolor brushes in Photoshop as well as texture for the backgrounds for these works. The initial text distortions of my poetry that appears is inspired in part by the Afri-Cobra collective practice of playing with text and using it as texture in their paintings and prints.
My initial design was more quiet, with more white space. However, I wanted to play with the distorted text in my revisions and have it play more of a part in the look of the overall design. It weaves in and out, and plays nicely with the different shades of black I created previously as a background base. To me, the color Black is both mysterious and bold, and I wanted to portray that. I also wanted my poetry to be bolder as well.
