2021 AIGA Medalist: Archie Boston, Jr.

Boston’s long tenure as a professor and eventual chair of California State, Long Beach’s Visual Communications program began in the late 1970s after he received his Masters at the University of Southern California. During his time in academia, Boston became a leading and award-winning design educator. He mentored generations of designers and design educators and was an early proponent of ensuring that BIPOC designers are recognized, hired, and promoted in academia and professional spaces.

Boston’s efforts in academia went beyond making sure diverse talent was recognized—he worked to ensure young Black designers were hired, promoted, and given space in the industry. In doing so, Boston created a home and community that inspired, welcomed, catalyzed, and challenged the next generation of designers (and the people who hired them) to embody a bold vision for a faculty that reflected the makeup of the student body. “When I had students work for me or anyone else, I made sure they were paid,” says Boston. “I’d say, ‘If you’re unemployed and can’t buy books, come work for me, and then when you find another job, you’ll move on because there’s somebody else who is unemployed who can take your place.’” 

During his first sabbatical, Boston interviewed and filmed leading Los Angeles designers including Saul Bass, Marian Sampler, and Robert Miles Runyan. Every one of those designers should have a Lifetime Achievement Award, according to him. The proceeds from the resulting documentary, 20 Outstanding Los Angeles Designers, funded a scholarship for design students in need. 

In 2001, Boston self-published his memoir with seed funding from his white mentor and friend, the advertising copywriter Dale Zaret. Fly in the Buttermilk, a celebration and exploration of Boston’s life and career, has become a touchstone for subsequent generations of BIPOC graphic designers, many of whom view Boston as an inspiring example of how to succeed in an industry that has historically marginalized BIPOC designers. “As a 66-year-young African American male, I have three design fathers: Saul Bass, Paul Rand, and Lou Danziger, whom I hold to the highest esteem,” says Frank Briggs, Boston’s friend, and colleague.  “I can emphatically state [that] Archie Boston, as a designer, is more original than any of them.”