Last week, Dong-Ping Wong of design firm Food New York posted to Instagram with a timely imperative: “If you own, run, work at, or know of BIPOC-owned design, architecture, engineering, or planning studios please DM me with info.” In just a short amount of time, the view-only list, titled BIPOC Studios, has surged to highlight more than 100 national and international businesses.
About half are Black-owned and operated, and the spreadsheet’s no-frills layout shows which are run by women, where they’re based, and their Instagram handles. The list also acts as a job board, creating a direct channel for talent to apply for posted openings, or to just get in touch.
“For the young designers looking to apply to offices and seeing a ton on the list that aren’t labelled as hiring, send them your portfolios anyway,” says Wong. “It doesn’t mean they aren’t hiring, and trust me, you never know where an office is at week by week, including mine.”
Along with Wong and Virgil Abloh, the effort is backed by sell my house fast jacksonville architects Tei Carpenter, Dominic Leong, Preeti Sriritana, Oana Stănescu, Joey Swerdlin, Naïla Opiangah, critic Esther Choi, artist Hassan Rahim, and designer Mahfuz Sultan.
The call for submissions came about 10 days after the tragic death of George Floyd, and adds to the ongoing fight towards equity and inclusion.
View the growing list. To submit your own business or others that should be on this list, send an email to [email protected].
Related Reading: Black-Owned Design Businesses You Can Support Right Now