{"id":369,"date":"2016-05-01T01:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T01:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/?p=369"},"modified":"2020-11-03T04:18:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T04:18:02","slug":"exploring-native-graphic-design-eunique-yazzie-design-in-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/?p=369","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Native Graphic Design: Eunique Yazzie: Design in the Community"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
8 Oz. for You, 8 Oz. for Me, an installation about the negative impact of Arizona’s mining on local water quality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"eunique_yazzie_design_in_the_community\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My article, Exploring Native Design: Eunique Yazzie: Design in the Community<\/em>, featuring Phoenix-based Navajo designer Eunique Yazzie in issue no. 11, Summer 2016, of First American Art Magazine.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Eunique Yazzie: Design in the Community<\/strong>
\nby Neebinnaukzhik Southall
\n As appears in First American Art Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n

EUNIQUE YAZZIE (NAVAJO) recently launched a creative service company called euniQue, LLC, in Phoenix, Arizona, where she lives with her son. She is Naaneesht\u2019ezhi tachii\u2019nii (Charcoal Streaked Division of the Red Running into Water Clan) born for Ma\u2019ii deesh- giizhinii (Coyote Pass Clan). She grew up on and off the Navajo reservation.<\/p>\n

When Yazzie was attending Chinle High School, her graphic design teacher, an older cousin, asked, \u201cHave you given any thought on what you\u2019re going to do for your profession or career?\u201d Her teacher\/cousin gave Eunique a pamphlet for a design school, which at the time was a dazzling example of fast-paced design work and cutting- edge technology. Her father, a talented sketch artist, commented that had such an option been available when he was younger, it would have been his path. Eunique enrolled in and graduated from Al Collins Graphic Design School.<\/p>\n

At her first job at Sodexo, a food services and facilities management company, she handled the design and brand management for 43 dining and market establishments for Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and other clients. Later, at The Arizona Republic, she designed ads and eventually moved on to the parent company Republic Direct, where she created designs for major clients and developed prepress concepts. She has also worked with Red Note, Inc., National Urban Indian Family Coalition, the Visionary Business Magazine, and American Indian organizations at Arizona State.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A major project for her was rebranding the Phoenix Indian Center. \u201cI love teaching people about the power of color, the power of design, especially when you are really trying to communicate to a certain population,\u201d says Yazzie. She standardized the center\u2019s typefaces; adjusted their logo; designed new business cards, letterhead, and envelopes; and most importantly, developed a new vibrant color palette to appeal to a broader audience, particularly youth. The colors correspond to particular departments and programs. \u201cPrickly Pear Red,\u201d an attractive hue, now represents the center.<\/p>\n

Eunique also serves as the director of marketing for Palabras Libreri\u0301a Bookstore, an intercultural, nonprofit library, bookstore, and community space serving English and Spanish speakers. In addition to their logo, she recently created a mural for the children\u2019s nook that incorporates a map of Phoenix and the Southwest, local flora, and interactive wooden pieces with numbers corresponding to 28 different Indigenous languages in the Southwest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI wanted everybody to see that we have this rich mix of culture in this area, and that English isn\u2019t the primary language in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and California,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In Phoenix, she appreciates the cross-pollination of ideas she experiences when mingling and working with diverse groups of people. She regularly attends and participates in local art
\nand design events such as the Phoenix chapter of CreativeMornings and the annual Phoenix Design Week. She savors the opportunity to learn and teach as well as advocate for others. Yazzie encourages Native designers to not isolate themselves but rather engage with the larger design community. She would like to see more Natives at local design events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be more present,\u201d Eunique says. \u201cWe need to be in those spaces where we are not represented. We need to show people that we are here, that we have ideas, we have voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having experienced the difficulties of alternating from insider to outsider in various situations, Eunique stresses that designers cannot let insecurities or other people\u2019s issues hold them back. \u201cI am here for a purpose, just as much as the next person has a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collaboration is important, too. \u201cWe\u2019re not all cut out to do it all,\u201d says Yazzie. \u201cIf we are growing as a collective community rather than individuals, we are going to grow faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having lived on and off the reservation, she sees the need for individuals to take what they learn back to their communities. \u201cThere needs to be a cycle,\u201d she says. Recently, her aforementioned cousin asked her to help judge a design competition at Chinle High School. \u201cI drove away almost in tears because it was such an emotional coming-back story\u2014reflecting on my whole path as a designer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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I asked her how young Native students can prepare for a career in design. \u201cRight now you should be teaching them the fundamentals of design,\u201d says Yazzie. While technical skills are important, a focus on production is not enough. Conceptual thinking is foundational to good design. \u201cIt\u2019s really the idea that makes you a standout designer,\u201d emphasizes the artist.<\/p>\n

Eunique would like to see young Native designers take pride in what they do because \u201cwe have lineages that are based in design. We as Native Americans understand art, not just on a personal level but a community level, because it\u2019s part of our community\u2014that\u2019s what holds us together.\u201d She credits the prevalence of Navajo graphic designers and her own successes in commercial art to Navajo art practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that rug weaving plays a big picture in design … Rug weaving is very technical. My grandmother was a famous rug weaver. I would watch her and I would see how methodical she was about it. And it wasn\u2019t that she was putting yarn together just to put yarn together. It had a purpose, and it was telling a story. Rugs are pretty much stories of locations. They\u2019re stories of people, they\u2019re stories of families, they\u2019re stories of a really rich, embedded culture. There are specific names for them, and there are specific names for designs in them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Eunique shared a moment where this cultural practice allowed for communication between her and her grandmother, who was going to create Eunique a biil<\/em>, or rug dress, for her high school graduation. \u201cI had drawn out this design that I wanted. And she just looked at me and she shook her head.\u201d Her grandmother spoke only Navajo, and Eunique could speak only English.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had my mom explain to her the design that I gave to her means something to me, and it means I want to be different. I don\u2019t want to be the same as everyone, but I still want to have my rug dress. I still want to have that cultural part of me, but I also want to make it my own. And then she kind of smiled, and so she did it.\u201d The rug dress was bright green, which Eunique wore with dyed green hair to match. \u201cIt was my expression of who I was, and I\u2019m glad that she understood that and she was happy with it. We had a moment where we had an understanding of each other in that rug.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf you have [weaving] in your family line, your grandmother was super smart, because there is a lot of math that goes into those rugs, there is a lot of counting, there are a lot of processes. Grandmothers, just knowing when to split a design so that it equally matches, not just in the number of lines that they\u2019re putting down but the space in between each of their designs\u2014just the technicality by memory is amazing. I am proud to come from that. It makes me really appreciate what I do.\u201d When people ask why she likes design and where it comes from, Eunique says, \u201cIt\u2019s in my blood. I know design because I saw it all around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

euniquecreative.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My article, Exploring Native Design: Eunique Yazzie: Design in the Community, featuring Phoenix-based Navajo designer Eunique Yazzie in issue no. 11, Summer 2016, of First American Art Magazine. Eunique Yazzie: Design in the Community by Neebinnaukzhik Southall As appears in First American Art Magazine EUNIQUE YAZZIE (NAVAJO) recently launched a creative service company called euniQue,… Continue reading Exploring Native Graphic Design: Eunique Yazzie: Design in the Community<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-american-art-magazine","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":791,"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neebin.com\/nativedesign\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}