Sylvia Harris – A Citizen Designer

Sylvia Harris was born in 1953 in Richmond, Virginia. She was part of the cohort of students who experienced desegregation, so she did have a particular perspective because she grew up as an African-American in a racist American. In 1975, she received a bachelor’s degree in communications art and design from the University of the Commonwealth of Virginia. There she met AIGA medalist Philip Megs, who gave her the first taste of Cool Aid, which we call design. After graduating from college, she moved to Boston, where she could find her passion for design. In Boston, Sylvia got a job at WGBH and worked directly with Chris Pullman. After graduating from college, she moved to Boston to work with architects and in broadcast media was formative of graphic design practice, and she studied graphic design at Yale. She started a business called 212 with her Yale classmates. They co-founded right after Yale and ran together for about fifteen years. Early on, Sylvia developed an interest in interactive media and the user-centered design process that came with exploration. Hence, she focused on developed term public information design that fueled the rest of Sylvia’s career beyond 212. Sylvia and the Citibank  ATM design team created a user interface for the bank’s cash machines that, for the first time, addressed customers with a personal human voice – “How may I help you?” she and her team created a new human-centric paradigm of interaction with a computer system. 

In the mid-1990s, Sylvia created her own consulting firm, Sylvia Harris, LLC. Based on it, she built a fantastic reputation as a substantial woman in the design world. At the same time, she taught at Yale, where she had previously studied, joined the board of AIGA, and sat on the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee. She was a frequent public speaker at design conferences and industry gatherings. She was part of a panel about the use of new media and technologies in wayfinding. Her main idea was that the citizen designer is engaged in the process, not just the outcome. She mainly focused on the public realm, and the research is underpinning a good design, empowering people to create a better public experience. 

Sylvia Harris’s design was not only design but also interaction with people. Her design was to demonstrate the power of design in society and make us realize how much it impacts our lives.

Reference

Biography by David Gibson  September 8. “Sylvia Harris.” AIGA, www.aiga.org/medalist-sylvia-harris.

Biography by Laura House  September 1, Laura House. “Sylvia Harris’s Design Journey.” AIGA, 1 Sept. 2008, www.aiga.org/design-journeys-sylvia-harris.

“Sylvia Harris, 1953-2011.” The Architect’s Newspaper, 1 Aug. 2011, www.archpaper.com/2011/08/sylvia-harris-1953-2011/.

Submitted by Nadia Adona on Tue, et al. “Sylvia Harris Award.” SEGD, segd.org/tags/sylvia-harris-award.

“Sylvia Harris 1953 – 2011.” 28 Days of Black Designers, www.28blacks.com/2017/sylvia-harris-1.html.

Photo Resource

Biography by David Gibson  September 8. “Sylvia Harris.” AIGA, www.aiga.org/medalist-sylvia-harris.