CB2 is Walking the Walk With a New Investment in Black Designers
Are you looking for a reason to redecorate your home? Well now you can justify spending those extra coins by supporting Black artists and designers.
Furniture and home decor shop CB2 is just one of nearly 30 retailers participating in the Fifteen Percent Pledge, a call to action to support a sustainable model for the success of Black-owned businesses. As part of their commitment to ensuring 15 percent of their products and collaborations represent Black businesses, artists, and designers by 2024, the company has just announced a beautiful new partnership.
The Black in Design Collective is a new collection of furniture and home accessories designed exclusively by Black artists and designers from around the world. Black London-based product designer Evan Jerry of Studio ANASI curated the collection and mentored the ten participating designers. He says the Collective has provided an extraordinary opportunity for designers to show up authentically and find creative ways to infuse culture into their work.
“The pieces throughout the Collective take an avant garde approach to the expected visual representations of Black interior aesthetics,” Jerry said in a statement shared with The Root. “This project was conceived to allow space for designers to explore and present some of the many perspectives in which people connect and identify as Black through objects, something many designers never had the opportunity to explore or express previously.”
From lamps, to window coverings and dinnerware, every piece in the collection represents the African Diaspora and is heavily influenced by Black culture.
The Barber Upholstered Dining Chair, designed by New York designer, Luam Melake, honors the ritual of haircare in the Black community by recalling Harlem barbershop and salon chars.
Miami-based designer Élan Byrd’s Luana Woven Vase Basket is a decorative hand-woven black vase inspired by the ancient craft of basketry and its connection between earth and hand.
“Our industry is evolving, and it’s important for us to be a part of that conversation and change. We feel the collective is not only a meaningful step for the brand but also retail at scale,” said CB2 President Ryan Turf in a statement. “CB2 is privileged to have the participation of several talented designers who are not only representative of accomplished Black figures in design but also of celebrated leaders within the industry as a whole.”
In addition to the Collective, CB2 also plans to honor the Fifteen Percent Pledge by increasing media investment in Black brands, designers and partners and adding to the representation of Black associates by at least 40 percent in their corporate office and stores and by 2024.