Feb 28th EVENT: Now You See Me

WHO & WHAT: Join us for an IRL EVENT with author and founder of A Vibe Called Tech, Charlene Prempeh, as we celebrate her debut design book Now You See Me: An Introduction to 100 Years of Black Design. Charlene will be joined in conversation Silas Munro (Polymode), Jason E.C. Wright (Burntsienna Research Society), and Schessa Garbutt (Firebrand Creative House).

**Ruinart champagne served courtesy of Frieze 91. Frieze 91 is a membership program that provides access to the communities and art shaping contemporary culture, connecting people and ideas through a year-round global calendar of curated experiences alongside premier VIP access to Frieze fairs and bespoke members-only content and benefit.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 28, 2023 @ 7pm PST (doors @ 6:30pm)

WHERE: In-Person at Rep Club in Los Angeles (3054 S. Victoria Ave LA, CA 90016)

HEALTH & SAFETY: For your safety, we ask that you please wear a face covering while indoors for our events.

HOW: Reserve an IRL ticket from the drop down below:

• IRL TICKET W/ SIGNED BOOK: This ticket guarantees a seat including a SIGNED book copy available for pick up at the event. Select 'Local Pickup' at checkout to waive shipping.

• FREE *STANDBY*: IRL Event entry based on capacity. Limited Signed copies will be available for purchase during the event. Due to our limited capacity, please only RSVP if you plan to attend.

• SIGNED BOOK ONLY: Please order any of these author's books via our website with a note at checkout to be shipped after the event.

Please email us if you have any additional needs, questions, or accessibility concerns.

Charlene Prempeh is the founder of A Vibe Called Tech, a Black-owned creative agency that is dedicated to approaching creativity through an intersectional lens. Charlene is also an Financial Times HTSI columnist and contributing editor who writes about design, travel, and culture. 

After studying PPE at Oxford University, she began a career in marketing and worked at some of the UK’s most prominent media platforms and art institutions including the BBC, The Guardian, and Frieze. More recently, she launched A Vibe Called Tech to encourage a culturally diverse lens in design, technology, arts, and culture by spearheading partnerships, events, research, and workshops across London and through her journalism and consultancy work. 

Since its establishment in 2018, A Vibe Called Tech has worked with brands including Gucci, Stine Goya, Faber, Frieze and institutions like Whitechapel Gallery, White Cube, RA and V&A East to deliver ambitious creative output that nourishes communities. In 2022, the agency launched Turned A, a cultural merchandising project which seeks to amplify key messages of the creative agency’s projects and its Art Consultancy arm, established to help clients connect seamlessly with artists. 

Charlene currently consults for the Royal Academy of Arts on partnerships and development, is on the editorial board of the Tate Magazine, a Dezeen Awards 2022 judge and is Chair of the Frieze 91 committee. 

Charlene’s debut book, Now You See Me: 100 Years of Black Design, will be published by Prestel in in late 2023. 

Silas Munro is a designer, artist, writer, and curator. He is the founder of the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC-owned graphic design studio Polymode based in Los Angeles and Raleigh that works with clients across cultural spheres. Commissions and collaborations include: The New York Times Magazine, MIT Press, Nike, Airbnb, the Brooklyn Museum, Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Art Institute of Chicago, Dia Art Foundation, and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Munro is the curator and author of Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest which opened at Letterform Archive in 2022–2023. He was a contributor to W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America and co-authored the first BIPOC-centered design history course, Black Design in America: African Americans and the African Diaspora in GraphicDesign 19–21st Century. Munro is faculty co-chair for the MFA Program in graphic design at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Jason E.C. Wright is an educator, photographer, design researcher and Director at Burntsienna Research Society - a Private Artbook Library & Institute for Slow Design Research. A twenty year veteran of the fashion industry, Wright has instructed at FIDM, lectured and moderated for AIGA, LA Design Festival, MOCA & more, and consults on design research projects in the fashion, retail, design and artbook industries. Founded in 2018, Burntsienna provides programming around artbook access and curriculum around slow research practices in spaces like The Huntington, Berluti, Los Angeles Atheltic Club and more. Burntsienna Research Society is based in Los Angeles, on the unceded and occupied lands of Tovaangar and the Tongva people. We pay respects to ancestors past, present and emerging.  

Schessa Garbutt (they/them) is a Belizean-American creative polymath and founder of Firebrand Creative House based in Inglewood, CA. Their practice focuses on brand identity and UI/UX for social impact initiatives and mission-driven organizations, including Art + Practice, The Nap Ministry, Black Wealth Data Center, and GirlTREK. Garbutt is also an essayist (recently in The Black Experience in Design anthology) and lecturer, speaking on diversifying design history and co-design practices at orgs such as IDEO, Where are the Black Designers, and Adobe’s Wireframe podcast. Their upcoming class, Provoking Type, focuses on decolonizing our typography canon and shaping the future of design. Garbutt holds a B.A. in Design from the University of Southern California, and a certificate in Type Design from Type West.