Celebrate Latinx Heritage Month and Baltimore’s Design Month with us on our next Latino Design Histories program!
Join the Society of Design Arts (SoDA) and AIGA Baltimore for online presentations by Dr. María de Mater O’Neill and Ramdwin González-Otero on untold design stories about the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
Dr. O’Neill will start the program by discussing the lack of documentation on design history from the colonized territory of Puerto Rico and will present a community-based design archive she is leading, Donde el Tiempo Entorcha [Where Time Bends].
As part of the efforts to document the history of Caribbean design, González-Otero will share his research on cultural identity and representation through historical posters from Puerto Rico and Cuba.
After O’Neill’s and González-Otero’s presentations, the Nuyorican Baltimore-based artist Christina Delgado and AIGA’s Design Educators Committee board member Alberto Rigau will join us for the Q&A session.
AIGA Baltimore and SoDA member Raquel Castedo will moderate this event, part of a virtual series created to promote the rich and plural histories of Latin American production in design.
Thank you to AIGA Unidos for partnering with us and to the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation and the Design History Society for funding the series.
👉 The program will be presented in Spanish. Interpretation in English and Portuguese will be available.
HOW TO ATTEND THE EVENT
1) The event will be online using Zoom. Click here to register for free.
2) Please ensure you download the app for your computer or mobile device prior to the event here on Zoom.
3) Registered attendees will receive a link and password when they complete their registration. The link and password will also be sent 24 hours and 1 hour before the event. Make sure to check your spam folder for the email.
ABOUT THE GUESTS AND MODERATOR
Dr. María de Mater O’Neill is a practitioner of social innovation design, an educator and artist. She is a full-time lecturer at the University of Puerto Rico. As an early internet adopter, she launched one of the first 100 blogs on the internet and one of the first 10 in Spanish, El cuarto del Quenepón. She received many recognitions, including the Presidential Federal Design Achievement Award (USA), and participated in the Iberoamerican Design Biennial (Spain).
Ramdwin González-Otero is a designer and educator from the Caguas Valley, Puerto Rico. He focuses on a reflective and multidisciplinary design practice, especially on strategy for development, management, and brand activation. He has collaborated with design studios, private companies, and non-profit organizations. He has been an instructor at the School of Design and Architecture of the Ana G Mendez University System. He is co-founder of 404 Coffee and Beers, a creative experiment/venture, an excuse to continue contributing to the community. He is a partner of the design studio Tembol. Ramdwin’s work has been recognized with various awards, including the Breakthrough of the year 2021 for the project Aquí Nos Cuidamos in the category Science Engagement of Falling Walls Science Summit (Germany), a silver medal of the Latin American Design Awards (Peru) and finalist of the Iberoamerican Design Biennial (Spain).
Alberto Rigau was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He is a freelance designer and Co-chair for AIGA’s Design Educators Community (DEC). Rigau currently engages in practice from his home studio in San Juan. He crafts and conceptualizes brands, exhibits, way-finding systems, publications, books, photographic projects, and architectural collaborations of an interpretative nature. Alberto carried out his graduate studies at NC State University’s College of Design and undergraduate experience at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He also teaches graphic design, most recently teaching for Virginia Tech and NC State University.
Christina Delgado became a photographer and an artist later in life. Her experience started as a hobby; then became a profession and her reason for wanting to become a teacher early in her career. She has been an educator, a photographer, community advocate, and culture worker for 17 years. She is the founder of Tola’s Room, an immersive home museum and culture space located in NE Baltimore. Tola’s Room educates and influences using art, culture, and community organizing, while also serving as the only Puerto Rican cultural hub in Baltimore City. She is currently on the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Resident Roster and works with Arts for Learning Maryland as an arts equity advisor, mentor, and teaching artist.
Dr. Raquel Castedo is a Brazilian graphic designer, educator, and researcher, based in Baltimore, MD. She received her Ph.D. in Communication and Information from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Since 2019, she has served as a board member in both the Society of Design Arts (SoDA) and AIGA Baltimore. Raquel created the Latino Design Histories speaker series in 2021, a collaboration between SoDA and AIGA Baltimore, supported by AIGA Unidos, the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, the Design History Society, Stevenson University and the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre. Her professional work encompasses brand identities, publications, environmental design, and exhibitions. Raquel recently joined BmoreArt team as Designer-in-Residence, with a focus on programmatic and graphic design.
