When I first sat down to help create The Scholarly Sewist, I knew we were doing more than a one-off. We were documenting the birth of a movement within academia. It all started with PhemmeD, a t-shirt series celebrating women of color earning or holding PhDs. We ordered custom fabric printed with a collage of scholarly articles, and Dr. Reka Barton cut and stitched that fabric into her first handmade shirt. That single piece sparked a wave. The PhemmeD line soon expanded into limited-edition totes, pillows, and small-batch accessories that blended academic identity with intentional fashion.

As the momentum grew, the brand needed a visual language that could evolve with it. During the later stretch of the PhemmeD campaign, I designed the now-signature “S” lettermark - a clean, diploma-inspired emblem threaded with a subtle needle motif. It was built to carry symbolic weight while expanding the brand beyond one product line. That mark became the anchor for a broader identity, merging scholarship and style into a unified aesthetic.

From that foundation, we developed a full visual ecosystem: bold yet disciplined typography, a warm neutral palette accented with golden yellow, and UGC-style photography centered on travel and Black Girlhood in scholarly spaces. The brand needed to feel academic without being rigid, fashion-forward without losing its soul.

Our work naturally expanded into Manuscript Mixtapes, a multimodal series exploring scholarship, identity, and creativity, and later came Craftivism for the Soul, a collaboration with Futureverse Studios that uses visual design to highlight sustainability and self-expression. My role has been to translate purpose into visuals, ensuring that every color, typeface, and graphic echoes the same heart as handmade and curated garments.

Watching The Scholarly Sewist grow from a pandemic moment into a recognized movement has been deeply rewarding. When design honors lived experience, it does more than look good. It speaks.

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