Hello there! I’m Maurice Cherry, the creator of RECOGNIZE, as well as the founder and host of the award-winning design podcast Revision Path.
When I started RECOGNIZE in 2019, my goal was to showcase the next generation of design writers — indigenous people and people of color. With financial and editorial support from InVision, we were able to publish our first volume, Space, and help six designers get their work out in the world to a larger platform.
The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent restrictions on nearly every facet of life affected the second volume of RECOGNIZE, Fresh. We lost funding and volunteer support, and then I lost my job, but even with these setbacks we released a smaller volume later in the year, which also got some additional syndication through A List Apart.
2021 was going to be a year of starting over for many people, and I thought this year’s theme, Reboot, would be fitting. We had the longest submission period for essays to date (three months), and received a lot of early support and encouragement from educators and companies alike. However, this did not translate into submissions for this year’s volume in terms of quantity and quality, and a big potential title funder for this year backed out, so I’m making the very difficult decision to close the book on RECOGNIZE for this year.
Thanks to everyone who has submitted for this year’s volume. While your essay may not have a home in this year’s volume, I highly encourage you to publish your work anyway! Whatever spark compelled you to write and submit for RECOGNIZE is not a spark that should die down because of this news. Continue to fan that flame and let your writing be an extension of your design talent.
RECOGNIZE may come back in the future, but for 2021, we’re shutting it down. Once again, thanks to everyone for your support of the design anthology.