COLIN IN BLACK AND WHITE | NETFLIX
HISTORICAL GRAPHICS & REAL-WORLD ENVIRONMENTS

COLIN IN BLACK AND WHITE spans multiple eras, locations, and cultural contexts, requiring graphic systems that felt historically accurate while remaining flexible enough to support story, performance, and camera.
My role focused on leading the design and execution of environment-driven graphic systems across schools, athletic environments, retail, and public spaces, coordinating closely with production design, set decoration, props, wardrobe, construction, and my team to maintain visual continuity and narrative coherence.

COLLABORATION & WORLD-BUILDING: The work on this project was highly collaborative. Graphic systems were developed in parallel with set builds, prop fabrication, and costume design, requiring constant alignment across departments.
I led a small graphics team while working directly with the production designer, art directors, and assistant art directors to define visual rules that could scale across locations and episodes. This included early concept development, iterative reviews, and on-set adjustments to account for blocking, camera coverage, and evolving story needs.

URBAN EXCHANGE: A fictional retail environment created for the show and built around a store identity developed specifically for the project. The store logo was custom designed, while period accurate brand logos were recreated to ground the space in its time and place. Interior posters and graphics were newly designed using historical reference and stock imagery, rather than direct reproductions of existing materials.

SCHOOL & ATHLETIC ENVIRONMENTS: School and athletic environments required consistent branding across uniforms, signage, banners, and scoreboards, often appearing across multiple episodes and locations.
I coordinated with costume, props, fabrication vendors, and construction to ensure these elements functioned as part of a unified system rather than isolated graphics. Designs were developed with fabrication constraints and installation timelines in mind, allowing assets to move cleanly from concept to on-camera reality.

CURATED NARRATIVE SPACE — WHITE ROOM: The vintage bus appears within the White Room as a curated, museum-like object rather than an active piece of infrastructure. It functions as a narrative artifact, anchoring a flashback sequence centered on Romare Bearden, a Negro League baseball player who became one of the most important American artists of the 20th century.
Graphics and markings were treated as historically specific and intentionally restrained, designed to read as preserved objects rather than contemporary set dressing. The work required close coordination with production design, props, and set construction to ensure the bus felt authentic, reverent, and fully integrated into the broader visual language of the White Room. I was also responsible for the accurate reproduction of many of the real art pieces on display in this scene.

ART REPRODUCTION — WHITE ROOM: In this same scene within the White Room, I used reference images to enhance and recreate artwork by renowned African American artists. The work required close attention to original materials, scale, color, and surface quality, along with coordination across production design, set decoration, and output vendors.
The goal was not approximation but fidelity, ensuring the artwork read as authentic on camera while integrating seamlessly into the broader visual language of the space. These reproductions were treated with restraint and respect, functioning as cultural and historical anchors within the scene rather than background decoration.

TURLOCK JOURNAL: The Turlock Journal is a real regional newspaper that was recreated for the series to reflect a specific historical moment within the story. The layout, typography, and editorial structure were rebuilt using period reference to ensure the paper felt authentic to its time and place.
Because the series moves across different eras, print media required careful attention to temporal accuracy. This work involved translating real-world source material into a screen-ready artifact that could function believably on camera while remaining consistent with the broader visual language of the show.

TACO BELL — COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENT: The Taco Bell environment required recreating a recognizable commercial space within the visual and legal constraints of the series’ time period. Graphics were developed to reflect the brand language of the era while integrating seamlessly with set construction, props, and dressing.
The focus was on establishing commercial authenticity rather than brand emphasis. Signage, menus, and in-store graphics were designed to support the scene without drawing attention, ensuring the environment read as truthful and lived-in while serving the needs of story and camera.