Hidden Figure: Sylvia Harris

Hidden Figures are littered throughout advertising, graphic design, and user experience design. None more so than Sylvia Harris.

Sylvia Harris was a strategist, creative director, and graphic designer. She was one of the earliest practitioners of user-centric design and strategy. The most impactful work would be defined as public information design. She had a passion for communicating with mass audiences on behalf of large institutional clients. Her clients included museums, cultural institutions, and the US government to name a few.

Sylvia got her MFA from Yale University. After college she co-founded Two Twelve Associates with Juanita Dugdale and David Gibson. They did ground breaking work in digital consumer banking and set an early standard for human-centered automated customer service.

After she left Two Twelve Associate, she founded Sylvia Harris, LLC. She shifted her focus to design planning and strategy. She was Creative Director for the redesign of the 2000 US Census Bureau. She was tasked with encouraging more Americans to participate in the census to boost awareness of the census brand.

Sylvia transitioned her company to Citizen Design Research, a user research and communications firm. One of their most impactful projects was the redesign of the NYU environmental mapping and signage.