Sylvia Harris facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sylvia Harris
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Illustration of Sylvia Harric
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| Born | 1953 Richmond, Virginia
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| Died | July 24, 2011 (aged 57–58) Washington, D.C.
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| Occupation | Graphic designer, design strategist |
Sylvia Harris (born in 1953 in Richmond, Virginia, died July 24, 2011) was a talented African-American graphic designer. She was also a "design strategist," which means she used design to solve big problems. Many people see her as a leader in "social impact design." This is about using design to make life better for everyone.
To honor her, the American Institute of Graphic Arts created the Sylvia Harris Citizen Design Award. This award celebrates designers who create projects that improve public life.
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Sylvia's Early Life and School
Sylvia Harris was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1953. As she grew up, she experienced racism. She attended a high school that had recently started allowing students of all races. Sylvia remembered her mother speaking out against the Ku Klux Klan when they were in the street.
Her father coached sports for women. Her mother was an art teacher and an artist. After high school, Sylvia went to Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned a degree in communication art and design in 1975.
Sylvia then went to graduate school at the Yale School of Art. She earned her master's degree in 1980. Later, she married Gary Singer, and they had a daughter named Thai.
Sylvia Harris passed away on July 24, 2011. She had collapsed a few days earlier during a meeting in Washington, D.C.. She was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where she died due to heart problems.
Starting Her Design Career
After college, Sylvia moved to Boston. There, she discovered that graphic design could be a career. She started working at the Washington Business Group on Health. A mentor named Chris Pullman helped guide her.
Her next job was at Architects Collaborative. She worked on "environmental graphics," which means designing signs and visuals for buildings. Following Chris Pullman's advice, she left this job to get her master's degree in graphic design from Yale.
After graduating, Sylvia helped start a company called Two Twelve Associates, Inc. She co-founded it with David Gibson and Juanita Dugdale in 1980. During this time, she did design work for big companies like Citibank.
In 1994, Sylvia left Two Twelve to start her own company, Sylvia Harris LLC. She focused on using design to solve problems for public groups, universities, and hospitals.
Later, she changed her company's name to Citizen Research and Design. This showed her new focus on using public research to guide her design process. In 2011, she also helped create a non-profit group called the Public Policy Lab. This group works to make public services better for people in America. In 2014, she received a special award, the American Institute of Graphic Arts medal.
Important Design Projects
Redesigning the 2000 United States Census
Sylvia Harris was the creative director for the design of the 2000 Census form. The Census is a survey that counts everyone living in the United States. The goal of her redesign in 1998 was to make the form easier to understand. This encouraged more Americans to fill it out, especially those who had been missed before.
Improving Communication at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center
Sylvia Harris was hired to help New York-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center. Her job was to create a design that would help them talk to patients more clearly. This project started because a 2001 survey showed that many new patients got lost trying to find their appointments.
Patients often got lost because of unclear signs or not enough money for building features. To fix this, Sylvia followed five steps. First, she assessed the problem to find out why patients were getting lost. Second, she managed the project to keep things organized.
Third, she created a strategy to fix the problems. Fourth, she developed the actual designs. Finally, she worked on the implementation step, which meant getting the designs approved and put into place.
