A Room For Design
Presentation of the CARTEL Tabloid at our Downtown Opening Party
Editorial Letter from CARTEL Tabloid Issue 01, page 2
To Reinero Zamora,
A decade ago, I found myself as a Creative Director at a Fortune 24 Company, in a conversation with Allan Peters, Target’s Creative Director. It was the AIGA Leadership Retreat in Salt Lake City. Allan was spearheading INitiative, a program aimed to bring the AIGA ethos into in-house creative departments across corporate America. “After 20 years in the profession,” he said, “there’s a point in the life of a designer when its only choice is to create a culture of Design.”
Eventually, a seasoned designer has done it all. Age settles in, and the path to relevance shifts towards the design of formulas versus the design of forms. A need for creating scalable systems kicks in. A hunger for nesting, teaching and processing eventually revolves around one goal: the design of a team. A vortex of creative energy starts to form by coming together. Propelled by curiosity, designers create. A bond for each other generates dependability. As new relationships are formed, projects arrive. Deadlines become a defined end point to an attainable challenge as the team learns together. New creative rituals emerge by repetition. Processes become narratives. Client interactions turn into a classroom for the designer to reveal itself as the engaged outsider that drives systemic change.
I used to believe Design was a bridge. A path between problem and solution. Sender and receiver. Product and consumer. A bridge “para crear lo útil” -to create what’s useful, was the tagline of ISDI, the Cuban Institute of Design, from where I graduated in 2000. From José Cuendias and the culture he fostered at the Cuban Design Institute we owe a lot of what makes CARTEL a useful design firm. From Pepe Menéndez and Casa de las Américas there’s a huge debt of gratitude as well. Trailblazer leaders that molded my ethos and sensibility. Both bridges.
For the last three years CARTEL has solidified its presence in the city we call home. The pages of this tabloid are a selection of our work. The house of CARTEL is a house of gratitude. To St. Louis all our respect and commitment for the foundation of our practice. To Havana -so near and yet so foreign, for the posters and the walls. To New Orleans and its ashé in the air of our studio. To Downtown STL and The Post Building for providing a high ceiling for deep thinking.
More than a bridge Design now must be a room. A conversation. A room for conversation that enables possibility. The connecting tissue between the mind, the heart and the hand. The alignment that enables inclusive development para todos y para el bien de todos.
Carlos Zamora
CARTEL Tabloid Debuts
A 20-page, trimestral tabloid with notes on design culture and inclusive development.
We published our agency's first tabloid, which delves into our favorite projects of 2023. A 20-page, trimestral tabloid with notes on design culture and inclusive development.
Driving Affordable Housing in New Orleans
A look into an organization focused on improving life for Louisianans
A client driving social change for generations to come
Oji Alexander in front of People’s Housing Plus Flag in New Orleans, LA
It’s a warm, partly cloudy day in January. We are in New Orleans for the week to attend a press conference for the launch of People’s Housing Plus (PH+), a new community development organization with a focus on affordable housing.
Oji Alexander, the CEO of PH+, is driving us around the city, showing off his organization’s latest affordable housing models. “We build new construction for a reason: we live in the Gulf South,” Oji says. “We know we’ve got to elevate for flood protection, and we know we have to build energy efficiency and storm mitigation into houses.”
Oji is a bundle of nervous joy as he explains the work that he and others do. There is still much to be done before the press conference tomorrow, but excitement is in the air. A more centralized, impactful organization is coming.
PH+ is being created through a strategic merger of three New Orleans-based community development organizations: Crescent City Community Land Trust, Home By Hand, and Tulane Canal Neighborhood Development Corporation.
With more than 40 years combined experience among the merging partners, PH+ will be a one-stop affordable home shop, providing marginalized communities with an affordable pathway to housing, stewardship and multi-generational wealth.
People’s Housing Plus poster plastered onto concrete wall
Oji led Home By Hand prior to the merger. He’s no stranger to the need. “One of the most gratifying parts of our work is when that person comes in and says, ‘I never thought I’d be able to own a home.’ Then, 6 months down the road, you’re handing them the keys.”
As we pass a golf course on the right, Oji points and shares a bit of local history. “We’re in Pontchartrain Park right now,and we’ll be driving into a neighborhood called Gentilly Woods,” Oji says. “These were segregated neighborhoods. Pontchartrain Park was the black neighborhood; Gentilly Woods was the white neighborhood.”
Decades of discrimination and segregation, coupled with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and a growing lack of affordability in the city, have shaped poor economic conditions for black families of New Orleans.
The average sales price of New Orleans homes is close to $300,000, which is more than double what a family of four making 80% of the Area Median Income can afford. While the Area Median Income for a family of four in New Orleans is $56,300, the median household income of African American families is only $25,806.
Organizations like PH+ need a strong brand identity and dedicated leadership to build credibility not only among their funders, but also among members of the community. Credibility and resources are critical to their success. It helps that President of the Board for PH+, Nia Davis, is a success story of the organization, having been through the Home By Hand program to become a thriving homeowner. Oji also lives in a home built by the organization.
“I live in what we’re selling. I’m not trying to sell anything to anybody that I haven’t tested,” Oji says. “And it’s the same thing with the knowledge. I’m not selling a statistic. I’m selling the experience, first hand, that it is possible.”
People’s Housing Plus “for sale” yard sign