Bio

Olivia House is a graphic designer born and raised in the Twin Cities. She has worked across multiple industries and produced work from publication design to political campaigns. House focuses primarily on print, research-based design, and designing for social change. Her on-going project entitled, “Where Are All the Black Designers”, has been featured in AdWeek and shown across the Twin Cities, in places like Minneapolis College of Art and Design and First Avenue. Olivia hopes to continue to combine research, history, and graphic design to continue creating large-scale exhibitions, like her most recent project, “Piece By Piece”.

Artist Statement

Research is the center of my practice. Whether it’s a logo project or an installation, I want to get to know every aspect of the history, the stories, and the motivation behind the work I create. This is inclusive the work I do for myself. Research was done on both black women’s relationship with hair, as well as myself, and the latter was one of the most difficult subjects I’ve researched to date. Through deep self-exploration done by means of writing, photography, and reflection, I was able to create a visual vocabulary to describe the evolution of identity.

This large-scale installation visually explores the influence hair has had on my constant evolution of identity as a black woman. Through original patterns, typography, and imagery, this design-based environment is intended to depict the push and pull and struggle my self-identity has faced because of my relationship with hair. The combination of gathered stories with found imagery and portraiture, creates a layered and complex story in “Piece by Piece”. This work is made to be insightful for all, but uplifting and resonating for black women.