The Design Museum to celebrate contemporary Black design this autumn

The Design Museum in London has announced it will open an exhibition exploring “some of the most innovative contemporary Black designers working right now,” including fashion designers Bianca Saunders, Saul Nash, and Samuel Ross.

‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’ will run from November 5 to August 2027 and will feature 16 designers, which the museum states “are reshaping the design industry,” to mark one of the most extensive exhibitions on contemporary Black design ever held in the UK.

The exhibit is guest curated by author and journalist Charlene Prempeh, founder of creative studio and art consultancy A Vibe Called Tech and author of Now You See Me: An Introduction to 100 Years of Black Design, and will ask the question: “What does it mean to be a Black designer working today?”

This will be answered across six sections, including identity as inspiration and embracing community building, to demonstrate that Black design is not a monolith, and that there is no single way to be a Black designer by highlighting diverse practices and voices, to invite visitors “to rethink assumptions about what Black design looks like and who gets to shape design culture”.

The exhibition will feature more than 100 objects spanning from fashion and furniture to architecture, product design and sculpture, from designers, including Tejumola Adenuga, Taiba Akhuetie, Ini Archibong, Simone Brewster, Mac Collins, Phoebe Collings-James, Foday Dumbuya, Feben, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Andu Masebo, Saul Nash, Tosin Oshinowo, Bianca Saunders, Rachel Scott, Samuel Ross and Giles Tettey Nartey.

Additional works and graphics will be showcased from over 20 designers, from Althea McNish to Yinka Ilori, to contextualise Black design from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Commenting on the exhibit, Prempeh, guest-curator of ‘The Nue Black Aesthetic,’ said in a statement: “The idea that Black design is not monolithic should not be surprising or controversial, and yet there has historically been very little interrogation about the complexities and inspiration of contemporary Black designers or about how the specific experience of creating in a predominantly white space influences their practice.

“This exhibition focuses a spotlight on the design work of the diasporic community while provoking a reassessment of what Black design is today.”

Fashion highlights will include Labrum reimagining the Arsenal 2024/25 away kit in collaboration with Adidas, drawing on the colours of Pan Africanism to bring together Arsenal supporters across the African diaspora, and a Bianca Saunders-designed suit worn by Usher at New York’s Met Gala in 2023 to showcase how the British designer is redefining menswear through challenging hypermasculine stereotypes.

Tim Marlow, director and chief executive of the Design Museum, added: “Exploring new perspectives on contemporary design is at the heart of our exhibition programme at the Design Museum and ‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’ will enrich our understanding of what is happening in design today.

“It’s a thought-provoking and nuanced show that will invite visitors to consider how the Black experience is central to a designer’s practice and how design in the 21st century is shaped. We look forward to opening up important conversations with this landmark exhibition.”