Artfluential

12/23/2025

February 2025 marked 15 years of Artfluential/Soulo Theory Creative. I’m trying to do better at talking about the impact and imprint the work has made over that time in the city and industry—more on that soon. It’s been a grind, and while I’m not typically big on awards, I’m honored to share we brought home a few from this year’s Creative Best Awards—Awards of Excellence for Brotherhood Dance’s (.dance) identity work and Black Men Build’s ( / ) illustration and poster campaign for wartime.

But what matters more than awards is occupying spaces where we’re still underrepresented. Not for the accolades, but for presence. For inference about who belongs in these spaces.

This recognition for Brotherhood Dance and Black Men Build is a reminder of why we do this work. Design isn’t decoration. It’s an obligation to create more equitable objects, symbols, and systems.

This work is never done alone. Big thanks and congrats to my partners , , , , .

15 years in, still building. Still showing up.

12/09/2025

Anything not designed by god or nature is designed by people, so we have an obligation to design more equitable spaces, objects, things.

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Fam! We have the honor of hosting organizer, designer, professor, and author Omari Souza to Columbus to discuss his new book “Design Against Racism: Creating Work That Transforms Communities.” In conversation with Marshall Shorts.

This is about the choices we make every day as designers, the systems we either reinforce or repair, and the futures we refuse to imagine or dare to build.
Souza writes: “To design for liberation, we must first unlearn compliance.” That’s the work. And we’re building the space to do it together.

📍 The Maroon Culture Lab

📅 Thursday, December 11 at 6:30 PM

🎤 Presentation, Q&A with Marshall Shorts, audience discussion, book signing

This conversation centers design practitioners and welcomes all co-conspirators committed to equity-centered practice. Books available for purchase.

FREE RSVP: ARTFLUENTIAL.COM/LABS
FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A COPY OF THE BOOK!!! 📕

12/11/2024

✊🏿 Pitch Black is Back!! Let’s Make It the Biggest Ever! ❤️🖤💚

For the first time since 2023, Pitch Black returns—and we’re bringing it back bigger than ever in our NEW home: The Maroon Culture Lab! 🏢✨

Since 2021, Pitch Black has been a testament to the power of community. Together, we’ve raised over $65,000, funding 40+ Black-led creative projects that uplift and transform our neighborhoods.

This year, we’re celebrating Kwanzaa with the principle of Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) at the heart of it all. With just $10, you don’t just invest—you join the movement. You vote. You decide. And you help build a thriving ecosystem of change. 💡✨

📅 Save the Date: December 29th at 6 PM
📍 Location: The Maroon Culture Lab | 867 Mt. Vernon Ave., Columbus, OH 43203
🎟️ Tickets: $10 minimum investment

Let’s come together, honor Kwanzaa, celebrate creativity, and invest in the future of our community. 💛

04/10/2024

We’re excited to announce a unique opportunity!! Join Artfluential for an a special meet and greet evening as we welcome some of the authors and contributor of ‘An Anthology of Blackness: The State of Black Design’ to . Tomorrow April 11, 2024 5:30p - 7:30p

Curated and Edited by Omari Souza ( .souza ) and Teressa Moses ( ) An Anthology of Blackness examines the intersection of Black identity and practice, probing why the design field has failed to attract Black professionals, how Eurocentric hegemony impacts Black professionals, and how Black designers can create an anti-racist design industry. Contributing authors and creators demonstrate how to develop a pro-Black design practice of inclusivity, including Black representation in designed media, anti-racist pedagogy, and radical self-care. Through autoethnography, lived experience, scholarship, and applied research, these contributors share proven methods for creating an anti-racist and inclusive design practice.

The contributions in An Anthology of Blackness include essays, opinion pieces, case studies, and visual narratives. Many contributors write from an intersectional perspective on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and ability.

01/15/2024

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"The holiday must be substantive as well as symbolic. It must be more than a day of celebration . . . Let this holiday be a day of reflection, a day of teaching nonviolent philosophy and strategy, a day of getting involved in nonviolent action for social and economic progress."

- Coretta Scott King

04/23/2023

Join us as we come together today once again to support Black ingenuity, this Sunday, April 23rd at 6pm.

Pitch Black is a micro-granting gathering space designed to support and celebrate creative projects that impact Columbus communities. PitchBlack is a space for community collaboration and the democratic practice of funding local creativity that builds trust and fosters opportunity through crowd-funded micro-grants that impact the community in radically creative ways.

How it works:
01: Invest - Make an investment of $10 or more by purchasing a ticket. You can also boost your investment by making a donation toward the grant. Attend the PitchBlack event.

02: Pitch - Each presenter has exactly 5-8 minutes to share their idea with the community investors and answer 4 questions from the audience about their project. Attendees hear presentations from Four to Five community members leading projects in the Arts, Urban Agriculture, Social justice, Education, Technology & More.

03: Vote - Attendees vote on the project they feel has the most community impact. While votes are tallied attendees are able to network, share resources, enjoy music and art, take pics.

04: Build - At the end of the program, the votes are tallied and the winner goes home with the money raised by the attendee's investment to carry out their project.

05: Share - Winners will be required to come back to a future PitchBLACK to update the community on the success of their project.

PitchBlack Columbus is brought to you by Artfluential, Maroon Arts Group with the generous support of our sponsors.

Invest at PitchBlackColumbus.com or click the link in our bio.

04/11/2023

10/26/2022

— Design is world making and it has often been leveraged as a tool of oppression. What needs undesign, redesign, and what new stories do we need to tell about the role of design in our “world making”. All of us must be involved in the process of thinking about the world we want to create.

Join us tomorrow at for a convo with and .

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27TH

6:30 SOCIAL HOUR
7:30 PRESENTATION

Gateway Film Center, 1550 N High St, Columbus, Ohio 43201

06/18/2022

Today is the day! We’re super proud of the work we did creating the branding for if you’re in Columbus today make sure you stop by support and be in community with the people. 12p - 6p on Mt. Vernon Ave between 17th St and St. Claire Ave.

06/15/2022

“I call you , ‘cause you like one”

Join us this Saturday for a special photo presentation from at the MPACC Gallery during Oh and if you come through do we dare you not to smile.