By Jon Key,

Growing up in Seale, Alabama as a Black Queer kid, then attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) as an undergraduate, Jon Key hungered to see himself in the fields of Art and Design. But in lectures, critiques, and in the books he read, he struggled to see and learn about people who intersected with his identity or who got him. So he started asking himself questions:

What did it mean to be a graphic designer with his point of view? What did it mean to be a Black graphic designer? A Queer graphic designer? Someone from the South? Could his identity be communicated through a poster or a book? How could identity be archived in a design canon that has consistently erased contributions by designers who were not white, straight, and male?

In Black, Queer, & Untold, acclaimed designer and artist Jon Key of design studio Morcos Key answers these questions and manifests the book he and so many others wish they had when they were coming up. He pays tribute to the incredible designers, artists, and people who came before and provides them an enduring, reverential stage—and in so doing, gifts us a book that takes its place among the creative arts canon. 

Edited by Nick Thomas

Designed by Jon Key

Published by Levine Querido

Hardcover, 448 pages, over 350 color and b&w images, 7.25 × 9.75 inches

ISBN: 978-1-64-614376-4