George Sully’s Designing in the Dark puts a Canadian design career into memoir

The cover of George Sully’s Designing in the Dark: A Memoir of Vision, Resilience, and Redefining Canadian Design, out Oct. 6 from ECW Press.

Photo credit: ECW Press / book cover

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Toronto designer George Sully’s memoir, Designing in the Dark: A Memoir of Vision, Resilience, and Redefining Canadian Design, arrives Oct. 6 from ECW Press. The book brings his work in fashion, footwear and design advocacy into a book-length account.

ECW describes the memoir as following Sully from public housing in Ottawa through his career as a designer and entrepreneur, including work connected to Sully & Son Co. and House of Hayla and the founding of Black Designers of Canada. The publisher says the book also deals with systemic exclusion in the design industry, entrepreneurship and identity. Those are ECW’s descriptions of the memoir rather than an independent assessment of the book.

From footwear to Black Designers of Canada

Sully is based in Toronto, and ECW identifies him as an award-winning designer, creative director and entrepreneur. The publisher credits him with creating the Starfleet Boot for Star Trek: Discovery, while the Bata Shoe Museum has included his designs in programming highlighting Black designers and creatives represented in its collection.

Black Designers of Canada identifies Sully as its founder and describes itself as a national platform for Black design professionals working across Canada. Its directory includes fields such as fashion, graphic, interior, industrial and digital design, and the organization describes it as the first directory of its kind in the country.

ECW’s description places the founding of Black Designers of Canada alongside Sully’s own experiences of systemic exclusion, entrepreneurship and identity. The memoir therefore connects his design career with the organizational work that grew alongside it without extending the publisher’s claims beyond Sully’s own account.

A memoir at the intersection of design and publishing

Designing in the Dark is being published by ECW Press, a Toronto-based independent, Canadian-owned publisher whose catalogue includes fiction, poetry, memoir, biography, popular culture and other nonfiction. The memoir’s subtitle — A Memoir of Vision, Resilience, and Redefining Canadian Design — makes its Canadian design focus explicit.

ECW also credits Sully with mentoring emerging designers. Black Designers of Canada describes its work in terms of visibility, connection and support for Black design professionals across the country, providing current context for the organizational work discussed in the memoir. Designing in the Dark: A Memoir of Vision, Resilience, and Redefining Canadian Design is scheduled for release Oct. 6 through ECW Press.

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