The One Show
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Category
Innovation & Transformation / Innovation in Interactive & Mobile Craft
Annual ID
OS23_IC041M
About the Work
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.
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.
TRAVEL UTILITY
Functionality includes the ability to geolocate, create “favorites” lists, “Add to map”, search, a freestyle explore mode, +30,000 discoverable points of interest, a Black-travel social feed, and integrates with other mapping platforms to facilitate routing and directions.
CURATED CONTENT
Users can explore the map through 12 curated city guides and 10 national guides, which contain dozens of original content models, such as Black-owned wineries (“Melanin Vines”) and restaurants that fuelled civil rights (“Civil Bites”).
ICONS & TYPE
The project’s impactful headline font is “Martin”, and is based on Civil Rights protest posters. The body copy is “Du Bois.” Both were created by American designer Tré Seals, also created the project’s original “points of interest” icon set, based on his survey of West African symbology.
NEW WAYS OF SEEING
From its Black-culture-centering international tours, to its representation-pushing online activity, Black & Abroad is known for using creativity and technology to challenge the way the world sees travel. The Black Elevation Map is a choice to see America through a lens of joy and community.
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.
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.
TRAVEL UTILITY
Functionality includes the ability to geolocate, create “favorites” lists, “Add to map”, search, a freestyle explore mode, +30,000 discoverable points of interest, a Black-travel social feed, and integrates with other mapping platforms to facilitate routing and directions.
CURATED CONTENT
Users can explore the map through 12 curated city guides and 10 national guides, which contain dozens of original content models, such as Black-owned wineries (“Melanin Vines”) and restaurants that fuelled civil rights (“Civil Bites”).
ICONS & TYPE
The project’s impactful headline font is “Martin”, and is based on Civil Rights protest posters. The body copy is “Du Bois.” Both were created by American designer Tré Seals, also created the project’s original “points of interest” icon set, based on his survey of West African symbology.
NEW WAYS OF SEEING
From its Black-culture-centering international tours, to its representation-pushing online activity, Black & Abroad is known for using creativity and technology to challenge the way the world sees travel. The Black Elevation Map is a choice to see America through a lens of joy and community.
2023 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
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
Associate Creative Director
Benson Ngo
Pedro Izzo
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
Agency Partner
Meta / New York
Analytics Analyst
Abdul Dau
Analytics Manager
Anil Iqbal
Chief Executive Officer
Andrea Cook
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
Program Manager
Kaylen Dillon
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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