June 2nd, 2020
Dear Friends,
There are far too few people of color in the American design community. In architecture alone, African Americans make up only 2% [1] of all licensed architects in the United States [2]. Female Black architects aren't even half a percent of the overall American architecture community. When it comes to furniture design, we couldn't find exact statistics regarding Black representation, but we believe the numbers are even less.
Please help us change this. To recommend emerging independent Black furniture designers or studios for feature on our platform, please email us at product@zzdriggs.com.
We are committed to bringing more African American design talent onto our platform, so today we commit to the #15percentpledge — and we ask that other retailers join us — in devoting at least 15% of our inventory to Black designers and makers.
Any designer we feature on ZZ Driggs is a long term engagement and financial commitment on our end, as we purchase and warehouse their work, market their studio, and support their growth.
We spent the last two years building a platform that strengthens, amplifies, and financially supports emerging independent American designers. We buy furniture from the studios we feature in order to rent their work and increase their audience and reach in a novel and innovative way. While we're proud to say we offer furniture from marginalized populations like women, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans — and ZZ itself is a women-led company — unfortunately we fail to feature furniture from African American designers.
Since ZZ’s inception, our hope was to be able to use our platform to highlight a diverse and inclusive community of American makers. About a year and a half ago, we put out a call to our community for Black designers, but we came up short. Yes, we could have tried harder. Yes, we could have had more conversations of significance around the topic. Today, that is changing. And today we are taking action, not just ephemerally, but where it really counts — with devoted human and financial capital on an ongoing basis.
To conclude, and speaking more broadly, here at ZZ Driggs our entire team stands united in our unequivocal condemnation of racism, violence, and discrimination. As a country, we have a lot of work ahead, and it is going to take an ongoing march of all of us together to move in the direction we need to. Thank you for your help, and here's to forging a new path of progress together.
In Solidarity,
Whitney Frances Falk
Founder and CEO of ZZ Driggs
Original Artwork by The Love Child
[1] National Organization of Minority Architects, Directory of African American Architects; 2021
[2] NCARB (National Council of Architecture Registration Boards); 2019