The Mius Thomas Historical Archive of Black Design (Archive, for short) is my vision for a central digital system that stores, maps, and organizes the earliest contributions of African American/Soulaani people to graphic arts and design, and ultimately serves as their source of truth.
Archive needs to exist because the accepted design canon, like those of many other arts and industries, rarely acknowledges the contributions of African American/Soulaani people, groups, and culture. Shaped by centuries of political, economic, and social forces, it is fundamentally incapable of doing so. Many excellent Black archives preserve artifacts and histories that their generalized peers neglect, but there is no dedicated source of truth for Black design. As a Black design scholar who struggled to find the work of my predecessors, I learned the hard way that we have always been, and will continue to be, overlooked by the mainstream canon. So I set out to make sure future Black designers never struggle to see themselves in the discipline they love.
It started with a question I asked in my Fall 2025 Typography course that I still can’t answer: “Who was the first Black (graphic) designer?” That personal research became an independent study under Dr. Adam Biggs in Spring 2026, culminating in a research paper and a UX prototype that brings my vision to life.
