Designed to Be Red
Native American & Indigenous Graphic Works
Designed to Be Red: Native American & Indigenous Graphic Works is the first publication to document Native American and Indigenous graphic design as a foundational practice.
Written by Brian Johnson (Monacan Indian Nation) and edited by Heidi Brandow (Diné/Kanaka Māoli), the book launches September 22, 2026, published by DelMonico Books.
Hardcover
240 pages
9 x 10 ¾ inch
Environmentally friendly
Archival acid-free FSC certified
5 color
Dr. Jessica Moore Harjo (Otoe-Missouria, Osage, Pawnee, and Sac & Fox Nations)
Monique Ortman (Cherokee Nation)
Jackson Polys (Tlingit)
Sadie Red Wing (Spirit Lake Dakota/Cheyenne River Lakota)
Kathleen Sleboda (Nlaka'pamux/Coldwater Indian Band)
Leo Vicenti (Jicarilla Apache Nation)
IN CONVERSATION WITH:
Hierophants, Inc: Brian Johnson and Emma Waggoner with Polymode Randa Hadi and Silas Munro
DESIGNED BY:
Editor: Heidi K. Brandow (Diné/Kānaka Maoli)
Developmental Editor, Copy Editor, and Proofreader: Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Chippewas of Rama First Nation)
Rights & Permissions: Emma Waggoner (Cherokee Nation), Kris Nuzzi, and Gina Broze
EDITED AND REVIEWED BY:
FOR A FULL LIST OF ARTISTS AND CONTRIBUTORS:
Design history has a problem.
Native American and Indigenous graphic design has always been a foundational practice, not a footnote.
Three years in the making, Brian Johnson has been tracing design lineages across Turtle Island that colonial histories tried to erase: from the sovereign visual systems of wampum, pottery, and parfleche to contemporary works of resistance and joy.
The book, published by DelMonico Books, edited by Heidi Brandow (Diné/Kānaka Maoli), with developmental and copy editing by Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Chippewas of Rama First Nation), spans over 100 works, more than 80 Tribes and Nations, and nearly eleven centuries—from petroglyphs and wampum belts to contemporary typography and protest design.
It also includes a community conversation with six Indigenous designers, teachers, and scholars on what Native design means, where it comes from, and where it's going. Much of the research was deepened during his time as a 2025 Mellon Research Fellow at the IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe.
Shrine of Hypocrisy, 1976
Akwesasne Notes, (Mohawk Nation)
Poster, 22.5 × 17.5 inches, printed in color
