AIGA, the professional association for design, recognizes Allison Arieff and Maurice Cherry with the 2018 Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary. They will be honored at the AIGA Awards Gala on April 20 in New York City, alongside recipients of the 2018 AIGA Medal and the AIGA Corporate Leadership Award.

This annual prize recognizes writers who best exemplify the tradition of prolific writing and boundless curiosity established by Steven Heller, who has contributed and inspired engaging commentary about design and culture for the past three decades.

Maurice is the pioneering digital creator behind The Year of Tea, The Black Weblog Awards, 28 Days of the Web and Revision Path Podcast.

He’s a true creator. An advocate for the black community. And a hair guy. Listen to your boys talking long hair with Maurice Cherry on The Longhairs podcast.

What you'll hear about:

• Recognizing black designers and content creators

• 5 years of consistent content and staying in your lane

• Learning what to do with your hair

• Checklist for a good hair day

• Tips for super curly hair

Maurice Cherry is a content marketer at Fog Creek Software, a company dedicated to creating products that enable every person and every team to make thoughtful, useful software. Maurice was formerly the principal and creative director at Lunch, a multidisciplinary studio in Atlanta, GA that helped creative brands craft messages and tell stories for their targeted audiences, including fostering relationships with underrepresented communities. Maurice is a pioneering digital creator who is most well-known for the Black Weblog Awards and Revision Path Podcast.

At the beginning of his SXSW presentation, “Where Are The Black Designers”, Maurice Cherry, digital creator and podcaster, poignantly asks, “How many black designers do you know?”

Cherry highlights the disparity of black designers’ representation in design culture and community, including how black designers are generally not seen or heard in podcasts, speaker panels, or blogs.

Given this disparity in (and beyond) the design industry, this Black History Month, we wanted to give a shoutout (in alphabetical order) to 10 awesome designers whose work we love. We hope you’ll feel as inspired as we do by their stories—not only this month, but for the rest of the year, too!

Maurice has recently joined Fog Creek Software in content marketing after several years as principal and creative director at Lunch, a multidisciplinary studio in Atlanta where he developed a reputation for building strong creative brands and for fostering relationships with underrepresented communities. Maurice is also a pioneering digital creator, well-known for the Black Weblog Awards, the Web’s longest running event celebrating Black bloggers, video bloggers, and podcasters. Other projects include his award winning design podcast Revision Path, 28 Days of the Web, and The Year of Tea.