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Sylvia Harris

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Sylvia Harris

LIFE

Sylvia Harris is known for being a pioneer in the field of social impact in design and an advocate for accessible and informative design for all. She worked as a graphic designer, teacher, and business owner. 

Harris was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1953. During the 1960s, she experienced firsthand desegregation, as a young Black woman, which allowed her to gain insight into how social systems affect people’s lives. She implemented her understanding into her work by focusing on people and process, instead of solely focusing on the outcome. Her interest in design began to grow while studying at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in communication art and design in 1975. Through mentorship under Philip B. Meggs, she was able to deepen her understanding of design. She later enrolled in the master’s program in graphic design at Yale University. 

After graduating from Yale University with a degree in Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design, Harris co-founded Two Twelve Associates, a design consulting firm in New York City, in 1980. She began to grow more as a designer and went on to establish her own firm called Sylvia Harris LLC in 1994, which is where she switched her direction to design planning and strategy. She took on many significant projects that centered around the nation's largest hospitals, universities, and civic agencies through systems planning, policy development, and innovation management
Later in 2014, at the AIGA Centennial Gala, Harris was awarded the AIGA Medal after her death. This medal is the organization’s most prestigious award, and is considered one of the highest honors a designer can receive from AIGA.

WORK AND INFLUENCE
She began to improve her skills and grow as a designer through various projects. One of her first big breakthrough projects was her work with Citibank to design the first ATM. Through this experience, she learned everything she knew about user testing, product design and strategic planning.

Citibank ATM interaction design, 1989 

She later became the creative director for the United States Census Bureau, Census 2000, where she was assigned to encourage more Americans, specifically those who are often underrepresented, to participate. 

U.S. 2000 Census, branding and user-centered form design, 1998

Her groundbreaking work in digital consumer banking systems for Citibank set an early standard for human-centered automated customer service. Harris’ work with the 2000 Census presented an opportunity to study how a redesigned form might encourage more participation as well as bring public awareness to the brand of the Census. Harris continuously gave back to her community and always valued the human-centered process.  She taught a new generation of designers to also be open-minded in embracing and accepting human-centered design, as it was an emerging field. She led the way for not only African American women, but also for women in general, in the field of user-centered design. 

REFERENCES
Gibson, D. (2014, September 8). Sylvia Harris. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from https://www.aiga.org/medalist-sylvia-harris
House, L. (2008, September 1). Sylvia Harris's Design Journey. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-sylvia-harris/
Hykes, T. (2017, February). Sylvia Harris. Retrieved June 10, 2020, from http://www.28blacks.com/2017/sylvia-harris-1.html



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