For the second year in a row, UX designer Tim Hykes aims to profile 28 black designers in celebration of Black History Month and to show those in the design industry that black designers are not just out there, they’re also talented.
Timothy Hykes talks about why it’s so important he continue his work on the 28 Days of Black Designers project
The second annual 28 Days of Black Designers almost didn’t happen. The campaign started as a passion project from Timothy Hykes, a young, black designer based out of St. Louis, and quickly took off on social media. The premise was simple: profile one black designer each day of Black History Month.
The project had a powerful impact on his life and led to numerous speaking engagements and professional opportunities over the past year, including being featured in a keynote at Adobe MAX. By the time February rolled around again, he was so busy he hadn’t thought much about the project.
His friends, however, weren’t going to let him forget how important it is.
“They said, ‘Tim, this has touched a lot of people and there’s not a lot of people out there doing something similar, and there are a lot of people who now have the chance to see that there are black designers in large spaces, you know, at large organizations, and to actually see the work — to see good work — and actually use that as a tool to motivate them to to push themselves to that next level.’ I was just like, yeah that is a good thing,” Hykes said.
He got straight to work. On February 1st, he built a brand new website, a stylish update from the website last year. He started reaching out to fellow black designers and was able to pull things together quickly. So far, he’s profiled designers such as motion graphics artist Marco Cheatham, UX designer Walia Skinner and entrepreneur and keynote speaker De Nichols, who he also produces YouTube videos with. He is still looking for some more designers to profile, so get in touch with him if you know (or are) a great black designer.
Representing Black Designers of All Genders and Experience Levels
This year’s 28 Days of Black Designers has had a pretty even gender split as Hykes tries to level the playing field.
“I’m always conscious of it, but it’s also been working out so far that way,” he said. “I’m definitely trying to stay very conscious of how many women are represented and making sure that it kind of matches up.”
He’s also reaching out to designers of various backgrounds and also hopes to create videos profiling a few designers, something new for this year. His goal is to represent black designers at all stages in their careers — not just ones who have found success at a senior level. Hykes wants people to know that black designers aren’t just everywhere, they’re good at what they do.
“We’re in every aspect of design. We’re in large companies, we’re in small companies, we’re in non-profits. From fashion to architecture, we’re there, somewhere we are there,” he said.
“Also, I want to get some more of the newbies within the project to try to show that, you know, don’t shy away from new talent. The experience might not be there, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not good, because what I don’t have experience with I would definitely like to pick up, and a lot of people pick it up fast.”
