Criteria

The platform is designed to showcase work from creators who are:

Black Art Forms aims to tackle the lack of representation in contemporary art and commercial creative industries of people of colour.

If this sounds like you, it’s easy to apply. Just fill out the form with links to your work and supply a few details. We will review all submissions.

Good luck!

Jonathan Akwue

Founder of Black Art Forms

judges

Ciara Phelan

Co-founder and Creative Director of illustration agency Grand Matter, a founding member of diversity platform Agents for Change and has recently been appointed Board Director of the Association of Illustrators.

Joanne Hippolyte

Associate Creative Director, Publicis Sapient, EMBRACE ERG Co lead for PS & Groupe UK. A specialist in visual connective strategy and commercial innovation craft delivery across a range of disciplines, covering brand, service, experience, interaction, industrial, and digital product design.

Jonathan Akwue

Originally born in Brixton and raised in South London, Jonathan trained in illustration and design. He launched an independent graphic design studio and social marketing agency before entering the world of advertising in the early 2000’s. He went on to work with some of the world’s best known brands including Samsung, Microsoft & Sky, winning several awards along the way.

Jonathan joined Publicis Groupe in 2016, becoming President & Global Media Lead in 2021. A passionate advocate for diversity, he co-created DECODED & BLACK ARTFORMS to showcase the best emerging Black creative talent.

Having spent several years based in Singapore, he currently lives in New York with his family.

Michelle Matherson

Creative Diversity Partner, Commissioning at BBC. A Talent Executive, Television & Radio Drama Producer and Development Executive with over twenty years’ industry experience.

Nene Parsotam

Nene is an Executive Creative/Art Director currently at Amazon Prime Video, with a career in Advertising which spans almost 2 decades. Her leadership experience crosses agency and client side, SME, startups, and individual entrepreneurs. This includes leading 360° campaigns covering the global positioning of brands, art direction and concept creation, photography direction, visual storytelling and building business and creative talent partnerships.

Paul Reid

Head of the International Slavery Museum, Founder of Disrupt Space. His 30 year career spans the areas of community and youth work, local democracy, community-led regeneration, equality, justice, heritage and the arts.

Samuel Mensah

London-based Creative, whose experience spans various creative disciplines and industries, from Typeface design to Branding, Art Direction, Digital product design, and Industrial design. He has created and been credited with crafting Award-Winning Campaigns and products globally for clients such as Nike, Google & Virgin.

He is also a D&AD, DesignWeek, Design Museum, Cannes Lions & UAL Ambassador working closely with the institutions to mentor the next generation of creatives into finding their path and hone their creative skills.