The 21st century Maroon Colony is a NY/SF based critical art & design collective representing the Afro-Triangle and the 2/3s world.
Comprised of 3 primary cadres, we employ a Think-Tank, Make-Tank, Break-Tank approach-
initiating and executing interactive design projects, developing and designing conceptual textiles & design objects, and distributing physical/digital information & goods.
THINK-TANK / 21TRILLION
1. Live from the 1st World, 21X serves as the interactive think-tank and Collaboration Studio of The 21st Century Maroon Colony which specializes in visual language and identity direction & development, creative direction, art direction, graphic design, illustration, custom typography, commissioned artist installations and the like.
MAKE-TANK / 21MC
2. Live from the Afro-Triangle, 21MC serves as the make-tank of The 21st Century Maroons Colony, which aims to produce Tropical Wear garments, and functional goods for the Maroon Colonies of the 21st century. The rhythms, patterns, textures, and colors of Africa and Her diaspora, passed on to us by our ancestors, inform the way we create and the way we wear ourselves on the streets. Each garment collection 21MC brings forth tells of the rebellions on the plantations, and survival in the belly of the beast (the “1st” World).
BREAK-TANK / 21BIZARRE
3. Live from the Worldtown, 21Biz serves as the break-tank of The 21st Century Maroon Colony. Born from a collaboration between 21MC and maverick indie music company, Rxlngr, the online distribution division focuses on providing the Maroon Colonies of the 21st century with the tools necessary for the destruction of modern perceptions.
THE 21ST CENTURY MAROON COLONY FLAG
The flag was created from a wide range of influences, but was primarily based off two things: one being the hours upon hours spent staring at African flags (as well as the many flags of the Caribbean I had hanging over my desk in San Francisco). The second major influence on the design of the flag was the “21MC 7 Color Theory“, our exclusive system of Afro-Eyez’d * (see footnote) color theory that we use to determine color selection and hierarchy. The particular 7 colors we used in the 21MC flag are drawn from our conceptual vision of what “the universal colors of the tropics” could/would be. (More details on our 7 Color Theory coming soon.)
*Afro-Eyez’d (pronounced Afroized) A 21MC term we’ve developed out of necessity to describe the use of Afrikan/Afro-Amerikan experiences and aesthetics as the major source of influence in our approach to what visual communication means in the 21st century in relation to Black people and People of Color in general. This approach is not used in mere blind reaction to European design ideas (90% of design is Euro-centric), but as a sort of visual patois Black people can use to better express themselves and their experiences. On our most indulgent days, we see the Afro-Eyez’d approach to design to be a visual answer/solution equal to the concept of “Nation Language” and the use of patois in West Indian poetry (See Kamau Brathwaite’s History of the Voice) or Aime Cesaire’s ideas on Afro-Surrealism and imagined self (Discourse on Colonialism).
