Black Creatives Take ‘Supremacy’ Brand Campaign To The Streets, Deconstructing Racism Offline

As the nation faces the structural racism embedded in white supremacy the country was founded on, a close examination of broken systems, marginalized communities, and the reordering of shared values takes a front seat.

In the midst of a global pandemic with no end in sight, protesting as a form of resistance has created action – prompting a critical mass in favor of defunding police in order to fund community building initiatives instead. With New York at the center of life and death during COVID-19, the NYPD, which ranks in the top 36% of funded forces by defense spending internationally, has become a prominent group in the larger story of police reform. 

As social media operates as the primary space for organizing during a deadly pandemic, aligning with like-minded changemakers has never been easier. Black New York natives Julian Alexander and Steven Irby met on Instagram only a few months ago, and have already formed a creative partnership and community project – SUPREMACY: WHO PROTECTS ME FROM YOU? The two creatives came together to spark conversation around the concept of supremacy as it relates to each branch of government, starting with the judicial arm.

“Police have such an authority complex that seeps so far into the psychology of what we think cops are,” says Irby, an award-winning photographer and Co-Founder of Street Dreams Magazine whose image taken after hours at a protest in Manhattan is the backdrop of the first piece in the SUPREMACY series. 

The visual, a twenty one foot mural, is situated on a highly trafficked Brooklyn waterfront street that sees around 8,000 cars and 3,000 bicycles daily according to the property owner who has historically advocated for moving social conversations forward through art. “You have a blue sky and New York city horizon with the image of aggressive police in their militarized gear with absolutely no threat in front of them,” the owner thoughtfully explains in reference to Irby’s image.

With two decades in advertising and branding, creative director and graphic designer, Julian Alexander, added familiar street level visuals akin to culture brand Supreme, with the intention to provoke thought. “The connection I see with media is how this artwork is applied – it looks like a billboard, it has the same refinement you would see if someone were trying to sell a product,” says Alexander, “but instead of driving sales, we’re trying to use this tool to drive people to reflect on the moment that we’re in.” 

With an understanding of the power of visual messaging, Alexander saw the pandemic as a time to act, and within days of designing the first iteration of the digital campaign, connected with local curator and activist, Khajidat Oseni, a New York native who helped procure the physical mural space to bring the online vision into the physical world within a few days. The billboard-like mural is on a corrugated metal fence topped with barbed wire within a commercial subset of businesses, across the street from Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, which has gradually transitioned from a shipbuilding facility that launched warships in WW2 into a creative haven for innovative technology companies and local businesses.

“People can’t magnify their voices because only large corporations can afford to do that,” explains Alexander. Substantial costs are often associated with media campaigns – design, production, materials, installation, and location but with a pandemic looming in the background of political upheaval, the barriers to enter thought leadership seem to have diminished for those who can follow through with a strong message, visual brand, and the ability to garner support from cooperative components. Access to changemaking and influence is no longer relegated to a top percentile during COVID-19 – real influence in the form of transparency and authenticity are what American’s are craving – making it easy for every aspect of the SUPREMACY campaign to come in the form of donation including the printing, done by Flavor Paper – a company known for conversational digital wallpaper.

Clear messages from communities are surfacing all over the nation – some rally around street art, while others show up to collectively dismantle visual representations of white supremacy in the form of statues and monuments. “You’re seeing the power in people’s voices,” says Alexander.

During a span of socially-distanced everything, people are starved for art, making outdoor installations quite attractive, especially if they are familiar or served with somewhat of an ad. “When you see the [Supreme] logo you already have an idea of who wears the brand,” says Irby. “Supreme serves a full spectrum of emotions – some are wearing it for the art, some for the culture, and then there are other people who just want clout – clothing as an identifier – or a state of mind – the same could be said for an officer in uniform.”