Dong-Ping Wong, Hassan Rahim and Virgil Abloh among co-creators of BIPOC Studios list

Spreadsheets and Google Docs have become the medium of choice for the fast-paced gathering and disseminating of information in the Black Lives Matter movement, to great effect. One such list that has appeared in the past week is created by Dong-Ping Wong, director of architecture studio Food New York. It called for entries to a list of BIPOC-owned graphic design, architecture, industrial design, engineering, fabrication or planning studios. Billed as co-creators are Hassan Rahim and his studio 1201.am, and Virgil Abloh, a close collaborator of Wong’s in multiple architectural projects – though Abloh has been subject to criticism for his response to the movement, he has since publicly apologised.

Fellow co-creators credited are design and research studio Alaska Alaska, Mahfuz Sultan from design and studio Clocks, artist and architectural historian Esther Choi, and architects Oana Stănescu, MN and Leong Leong.

Wong first invited suggestions for the list on Friday 5 June, and at the time of this article’s publication it already features 125 individual studios, which Wong says are “about half Black-owned and led,” the other half with women of colour at the helm. It details the name, city, and if they’re hiring. Wong also comments on his Instagram that if readers are “seeing a tonne on the list that aren’t labelled as hiring, send them your portfolio anyway. It doesn’t mean they aren’t hiring and trust me you never know where an office is at week by week, including mine.”

Wong is still accepting suggestions for the list, and says he is awaiting confirmation from others. To get in touch with entries or comments, you can email bipocstudios@gmail.com.