Design Spotlight
In Conversation with Dr. Cheryl D. Miller & Forest Young

Dr. Cheryl D. Miller is recognized for her outsized influence within the graphic design profession to end the marginalization of BIPOC designers through her civil rights activism, industry exposé trade writing, research rigor, and archival vision. Miller is a national leader of minority rights, gender, race diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion advocacy in graphic design.

She is founder of the former Cheryl D. Miller Design, Inc., NYC, a social impact design firm; she is a designer, author, trade writer for PRINT Magazine and Communication Arts Magazine, and theologian.

Dr. Miller has an MS in Communications Design from Pratt Institute and a BFA in Graphic Design from Maryland Institute College of Art, completed Foundation Studies at Rhode Island School of Design, and has a Doctor of Humane Letters from: Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2020 and a Doctor of Fine Arts from MICA-The Maryland Institute College of Art 2022, The RISD-Rhode Island School of Design 2022 and a MDiv from Union Theological Seminary. In 2021 she was an AIGA Medalist “Expanding Access,” a Cooper Hewitt “Design Visionary” awardee and an Honorary IBM Design Scholar, “Eminent Luminary.”

A recipient of countless awards, she is dedicated to visual arts advancement. The Cheryl D. Miller Collection at Stanford University is her legacy professional firm’s archive, including her memoir research and manuscripts. The collection features D&I initiatives, corporate communications developed for Fortune 500 corporations, and corporate communications for national African American organizations, developed post Civil Rights Era, 1974–1994. She is further archiving, The History of Black Graphic Design In North America, collected at both Stanford University and The Herb Lubalin Center, Cooper Union.

She is an activist, decolonizing graphic design professor, lecturer, and revisionist historian. Dr. Miller is Professor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Communication Design, ArtCenter College of Design; has been Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Design at the University of Texas at Austin School of Design and Creative Technologies, E.W. Doty Professorship Fellow 2021 and Lecturer at Howard University, She is a former member of both the Board of Trustees of Vermont College of Fine Arts and the President’s Global Advisory Board of Maryland Institute College of Art.

At FUNDAMENTALco, Forest leads the design discipline for new economy clients as part of a senior business acceleration team, with singular focus on value creation. Most recently, he held the title of Global Head of Brand at Rivian, a role that dictated the evolution and expression of the Rivian brand across its people, products and services. As a design-led sustainable mobility company, Rivian registered the 6th largest IPO in American stock market history.

Prior to Rivian, Forest was the first Chief Creative Officer at Wolff Olins — which was named Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company for Design during his tenure. There, he led design forward initiatives for the world’s most influential companies and cultural institutions, based in New York City. Before joining Wolff Olins, Forest was the Executive Creative Director at West, leading design across a portfolio of early stage companies alongside Allison Johnson. Forest is a Senior Critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art, where he is also a distinguished MFA alumnus, and recipient of the Mark Whistler Prize; he previously served as a MFA Thesis Critic at RISD.

Forest has maintained a private design atelier – Young Studio for two decades to take on multi-dimensional projects — printed catalogs, bespoke typefaces, exhibition design and websites for the world’s preeminent artists — such as painter Titus Kaphar and poet Reginald Dwayne Betts for the ongoing Redaction exhibition, Tavares Strachan’s Arctic Ice Project, and McSweeney’s The Future Dictionary of America.

He is a founding advisor for MillerKnoll’s Diversity in Design collaborative, and recently served on the Board of Directors for the AIGA’s New York chapter. Forest was invited to join Fast Company’s inaugural Impact Council and his work has been exhibited at MoMA, the ROM, the Royal College of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and at numerous international biennials.He has received the industry’s highest design accolades including the Gold Design Lion at Cannes and the Art Directors Club Black Cube. His passion lies at the intersection of storytelling, universal design and futurism. He was invited by the California College of the Arts to teach the first MFA course in Future Design. Forest has delivered keynote lectures on behalf of 99U, SXSW, Adobe MAX, Ico-D, Typographics, SF Design Week and DesignThinkers. Forest holds a BS in Human Development from Cornell University.