“Mia McKenzie, creator of the enormously popular website Black Girl Dangerous, writes about race, queerness, class and gender’ in her newly published anthology.

McKenzie wanted to work within her already branded colors of  black and red and requested the design to be simple and clean. I provided several design concepts for her to select from which all emphasized the theme of being intellectually dangerous…to be a black woman with a voice. The chosen piece takes the universal symbol for an idea, the lightbulb, and explodes it into a dangerous flame to signify the intensity, courage, and fierceness of her profundity.

Chosen full cover design for the anthology of Black Girl Dangerous by Mia McKenzie.

 Un- Chosen Concept

 Un- Chosen Concept

I found a pile of glasses just lying around in West Oakland as I began this project. By this point I already knew I
would incorporate glasses as Mia’s thick framed specs are such a strong feature of her character…like Steve Jobs
and his black turtle neck 😉 I grabbed a few and had help from a lovely assistant breaking them up with a hammer.