Hi, my name is Sebastian Ellington Flying Eagle Ebarb. I am a member of the Choctaw Apache Tribe of Ebarb based in Louisiana and I’m currently living in the Boston area.

Where and what are you working on right now?

I currently have two jobs. My day job is as a Teaching professor of design at Northeastern University.
And then I run a design studio named Nahi meaning we in Apache with my co-founder Reilly Martin.

Beyond that, I just wrapped up building and giving a talk around the visuals in Black and Native Liberation movements. I’m currently working on an all-age cultural activity book for the members of My Tribe. I’m also working with the Town of Natick to revamp their town seal. Currently, the Natick Town seal has some outright racist imagery on it, so the update is a positive step

If you could choose a thesis topic today, what would you pick?
I’ve given this a lot of thought recently even before being asked this question. I have two ideas that come to mind.

The first idea was recreating the graffiti from the Indignauous takeover of Alcatraz Island. I would love to turn what’s there into a series of usable typefaces. There’s something very special about bringing history to life and I feel like this is an often overlooked history. Strong type allow people to build strong designs and this could be a really interesting way to do that.

The second idea would be to create language guides and tools using custom iconography for The Choctaw and Lapan Apache. For so long within the United States native languages were beaten down and stolen from tribes. It would be a great honor to create tools that allow people to learn and build on those languages and culturally appropriate ways.

Anything else you would like to share?
Not much, Life’s good, and shout out to the SVA class of 2012

Instagram: @sebastianebarb
Portfolio: nahimade.com