To celebrate Black History Month we're spotlighting some of the British artists we've worked with across the past year within our ADF programs, Yinka Ilori and Jahday Ford. 

Yinka Ilori, is a London-based designer who expresses his Nigerian upbringing and culture in his practice through his signature use of bright colours. We spoke to Yinka last year as part of our Design Connections programme in 2019 and heard how he actively uses design as medium through which to tell stories of culture, heritage and community. Recently appointed as a member of the Craft Council’s Board of Trustees, Ilori’s designs are commonly situated within public spaces, allowing them to be interacted with and to play a role in how we, as a community, use and respond to public space. Recent works include the ‘Colorama’ Skatepark near Lille in France, a series of large-scale murals in collaboration with Jack Arts around London, ‘Happy Street’ in Battersea and the ‘Colour Palace’ pavilion for Dulwich Picture Gallery and many more besides.
You can watch our interview with Yinka Ilori here

Jahday Ford is a recent graduate of Manchester School of Art. A designer who uses fuses the traditional aspects of glassblowing with the contemporary technology of digital design – finding a balance between the two and bringing the signature aspects of digital design into the physical through his pieces. His award-winning project ‘Breathe’ has been exhibited nationwide and he was one of our practitioners for the global Crafting Futures ‘Why I Make’ campaign launched earlier this year. You can join Jahday in the studio and hear more about his process – both in design and production here.

Follow Black History Month across the British Council Arts teams here.