The People Behind the Community
Meet the Team
Dave McClinton | Founding Partner, Art Director
Dave McClinton has been a brand designer for more than two decades. His expertise in branding consultations, corporate identity, and web design has been developed by participating in every level of the creative process. Dave has creatively directed 50+ projects, with responsibilities ranging from brand development, creating logos, designing for digital platforms, marketing collateral, and project management. Examples of Dave’s design work can be seen at www.dmdesigninc.com
He earned a BFA in Visual Communication at Texas State University at San Marcos. Dave has been published for his logo design work in the Print Regional Annual and Logo Lounge publications. Dave is a key collaborator and core team member of African American Graphic Designers (AAGD). He is also a member is the Austin chapter of The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).
In addition to continually serving logo and branding clients, he is also an emerging artist who has exhibited highly personal work for the five few years. It’s not an either-or situation as Dave will happily continue to pursue challenging creative outlets of all sorts.
Russell Toynes | Founding Member
Nakita Pope | Founding Member
Nakita M. Pope is the Chief Chick and Principal Brand Strategist of Branding Chicks, a boutique branding agency in Atlanta, GA with clients all over the United States. Branding Chicks specializes in brand strategy, development, consulting and management for femme-owned businesses and femme-focused brands. She also helps businesses large and small to brand or re-brand to attract and grow customer bases for new products and professional services through custom, creative, relevant brand-promoting strategies. Over the past 20 years, she has worked as a strategist, graphic designer, creative director and brand manager which has given her experiences that inform how she works with her clients. Her passion for brand strategy also extends to her advertising strategy, branding and design professorship at The Creative Circus for the past 12 years. In 2019 she also took on an additional role there as their Diversity & Inclusion Advisor. In 2020 she was also named one of Graphic Design USA Magazine’s People to Watch.
She is involved in several professional and non-profit organizations including AIGA, African-American Graphic Designers (AAGD), Smart Girls on Campus, Good Thinking Atlanta and Practise Makes Practice. Along with her work and passion projects, she now gets to share her knowledge and experiences with a variety of audiences on the international speaking stage.
Terresa Moses | Founding Member
Terresa Moses (she/her) is a proud Black queer woman dedicated to the liberation of Black and brown people through art and design. She is the Creative Director at Blackbird Revolt and an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and the Director of Design Justice at the University of Minnesota. As a community engaged scholar, she created Project Naptural and co-created Racism Untaught. She serves as a core team member of African American Graphic Designers and as a collaborator with the Black Liberation Lab.
Richard Manigault | AKA The Professor
Educator, Mentor, Moderator, Content Creator for AAGD Facebook Page. The only person who has been in it since the beginning. Thanks so much for your faith and diligence.
And Help from the Black Pool of Creative Genius
Denishia Macon, Shelby Brown, Jakia Fuller, Ashley Blackwell, Chuck Scott, David Yarde, Chiara Bartlett, Alexandria Eddings, and Shelby Taplin.
Special Thanks to
Ron Tinsley, Juan Roberts, Mona Morton, Jacinda Walker, and the host of others who support us and help us grow.
Vision + Beliefs
This is where our mission, vision and belief statements live. Take a look at what we want achieve this year and help hold us accountable. Our Ethics
Our Story
What had happened was... If you're interested, we'll tell you how we got started out of need for community. We started from the bottom and now...Our Story
The Staff
We have a small and colorful cast of characters helping us out with our mission. Take a second, hang out and Meet the Team