The One Show
The One Show is the world's most prestigious award show in advertising and design. For over 50 years, the Gold Pencil has been regarded as one of the top prizes in the creative industry. The One Show has a rich legacy of honoring some of the most groundbreaking ideas, created by some of the most remarkable minds in creativity.
Category
Creative Use of Data
Annual ID
OS23_IC001G
About the Work
WAYFINDING THROUGH BIAS
“Maps are not ideologically neutral location guides. Mapmakers choose what to include and exclude, and how to display information to users. These decisions can have far-reaching consequences.”* When marginalized communities navigate the world, they are asked to do so using tools that prioritize someone else’s worldview. With its new map, Black & Abroad has created a way to see and navigate the United States in a way that centers both Black users and the country’s Blackness. In this way, The Black Elevation Map is transparent and purposeful about its bias.
BLACK & ABROAD AT HOME
Black & Abroad is among the world’s most prominent niche-audience travel brands. Known for its international trips to Latin America, Europe and Africa – and its provocative “Go Back To Africa” campaign – global shifts in the travel industry created an opportunity to focus on domestic travel. With Black-owned businesses disproportionately affected by the pandemic (McKinsey), and the brand’s audience at the center of a retraumatizing conversation about systemic racism, we also saw an opportunity to provide uplifting ways for travellers to interact directly with America’s vast network of Black-owned businesses and cultural organizations.
INSIGHT
When marginalized communities navigate the world, they’re asked to do so using tools that prioritize someone else’s worldview. Change the tools, and you could change the experience.
THE BLACK ELEVATION MAP
An uplifting domestic travel utility for Black & Abroad that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation. The greater the density of data, the higher the elevation. See the heights of The Culture at BlackElevationMap.com
DATA VISUALIZATION
At the center, a visualization of +330,000,000 points of data, which through exploration reveals insights about population distribution, and where Black-owned businesses and cultural institutions are likely to be present, absent, and in what abundance.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
This project continues the brand’s leadership in connecting sophisticated cultural ideas with sophisticated technological execution. It raises questions about how data biases construct the world around us. How careful use of data can help, rather than harm the world. And it shows the value of placing a brand’s work within a historical continuum.
*“How Black cartographers put racism on the map of America” – Alderman & Inwood.
“Maps are not ideologically neutral location guides. Mapmakers choose what to include and exclude, and how to display information to users. These decisions can have far-reaching consequences.”* When marginalized communities navigate the world, they are asked to do so using tools that prioritize someone else’s worldview. With its new map, Black & Abroad has created a way to see and navigate the United States in a way that centers both Black users and the country’s Blackness. In this way, The Black Elevation Map is transparent and purposeful about its bias.
BLACK & ABROAD AT HOME
Black & Abroad is among the world’s most prominent niche-audience travel brands. Known for its international trips to Latin America, Europe and Africa – and its provocative “Go Back To Africa” campaign – global shifts in the travel industry created an opportunity to focus on domestic travel. With Black-owned businesses disproportionately affected by the pandemic (McKinsey), and the brand’s audience at the center of a retraumatizing conversation about systemic racism, we also saw an opportunity to provide uplifting ways for travellers to interact directly with America’s vast network of Black-owned businesses and cultural organizations.
INSIGHT
When marginalized communities navigate the world, they’re asked to do so using tools that prioritize someone else’s worldview. Change the tools, and you could change the experience.
THE BLACK ELEVATION MAP
An uplifting domestic travel utility for Black & Abroad that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation. The greater the density of data, the higher the elevation. See the heights of The Culture at BlackElevationMap.com
DATA VISUALIZATION
At the center, a visualization of +330,000,000 points of data, which through exploration reveals insights about population distribution, and where Black-owned businesses and cultural institutions are likely to be present, absent, and in what abundance.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
This project continues the brand’s leadership in connecting sophisticated cultural ideas with sophisticated technological execution. It raises questions about how data biases construct the world around us. How careful use of data can help, rather than harm the world. And it shows the value of placing a brand’s work within a historical continuum.
*“How Black cartographers put racism on the map of America” – Alderman & Inwood.
2023 Awards
Total Points: 45
Gold Pencil
Credits
Agency
Performance Art / Toronto
Initiative Media / Toronto
Design Firm
Vocal Type Co. / Washington D.C.
Digital Agency
Kinesso / New York
Reprise Canada / Toronto
Client
Eric Martin
Kent Johnson
Client / Brand
Black & Abroad / Atlanta
Production Company
Alfredo Films / Toronto
Music / Sound Production Company
TA2 Sound + Music / Toronto
Post Production Company
Alter Ego / Toronto
Chief Creative Officer
Ian Mackenzie
Designer
Emily Plewes
Director
Kelly Fyffe-Marshall
Director of Photography
Shivam Pandya
Editor
Michael Ofori-Attah
Executive Creative Director
Colin Craig
Account Director
Jon Rae
Account Supervisor
Ricky Gunawan
Associate Creative Director
Benson Ngo
Pedro Izzo
Chief Executive Officer
Andrea Cook
Program Manager
Kaylen Dillon
Agency Partner
Meta / New York
Analytics Analyst
Abdul Dau
Analytics Manager
Anil Iqbal
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Elizabeth Sellors
Consultant
Gigi Basanta
Digital Producer
Darwin Garcia
Experience Delivery Lead:
Nzegwhua Anderson
Experience Designer
Leon Mullings
Full Stack Developer
Cody Schreiber
Group Director, Product Developer
Arnaud Icard
Interface Developer
Heung Lee
Junior Analyst
Shaista Meghji
Lead Developer
John Iacoviello
PR
Glossy Inc. / Toronto
Quality Assurance Analyst
Nataliya Vislyanska
Quality Assurance Lead
Natalia Zadorozhna
Senior Experience Designer
Joe Szabo
Senior Technical Architect
Valerian Nasqidashvili
Solutions Consultant
Kaivalya Kashyap
SVP, Head of Strategy
Priyanka Goswami
SVP, Managing Director
Jordan Dinning
Technical Solutions Consultant
Suraj Patel
VP, Strategy
Kirk Linkletter
VP, Technology
Stuart Cheesmond
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