Preserving and amplifying the historical legacy of William & Ellen Craft
T H E L O G O
The William and Ellen Craft Foundation is honored that its new logo was created by renowned L.A.-based graphics and visual artist, Derek Shields. It symbolizes the disguise worn by Ellen to pretend that she was the white male enslaver of William, who had devised the entire daring and dangerous escape plan to freedom for the two of them. There is also meaning behind the colors used on this site and material generated by the WECFoundation, which is explained below...
THE MEANING OF THE GREEN
The use of this particular color green is to represent the green tinted glasses that Ellen wore to disguise her eyes and infer that she had bad eyesight.
THE MEANING OF THE OFFWHITE
The offwhite represents two things. The first are the bandages that Ellen wore to wrap her face/jaw are to obscure her smooth skin, and to infer that she was suffering a toothache--therefore, unable to talk. She also wore her arm in a sling to prevent her from having to sign anything (since she wasn't legally allowed to read or write). This color also represents that she was a white-presenting, due to her being the offspring of such a power dynamic the interaction between an oppressor and oppressed, that as to make it impossible to ever believe there was consent...
THE MEANING OF THE BROWN
The meaning of the brown palette is in homage to William, who's complexion compared to Ellen's made it sadly possible for anyone to believe that they were indeed a frail, sickly white male enslaver who needed his enslaved valet to speak on "his" behalf.
THE MEANING OF THE GRAY
The meaning of the steel grey is that it represents the train that Ellen and William used to escape the fousthe as well as the ferry. And finally it represent the ship that took them to England the one that returned them to the U.S.