Rajie Cook designed the visual symbols used to navigate our world, but had to find his own way through his Palestinian identity. As his pioneering designs achieved worldwide acclaim, his visual art confronted the often-ignored suffering of his lineage. Cook's life journey was the arc of a first generation American
SYNOPSIS
Roger Cook is arguably the most influential designer you’ve never heard of.
Reducing visual design to its most fundamental forms, American designer Cook created the symbols by which we navigate airports, train stations, and finding the bathrooms. However, while his work provided way finding to the world, he spent his life unpacking who he was down to his bloodline and his very name, which turned out to be an adaptation of Rajie, a name given to him by his immigrant parents from Palestine and lost early on in the fast adjustment to their new life.
Raised as a Church-going, all American child in NJ, Roger shows a drive for art and design, then an explosive field that leads him to the booming world of Madison Avenue. Ever competitive and fiercely original, he starts his own firm and with his partner, comes up with the universally recognized designs that guide the world.
After a first trip to reconnect with his Palestinian roots, Roger reclaims his name, Rajie. Witnessing the ignored suffering of a people from whom he hails and increasingly identifies with, Rajie finds his mission, to tell the story of his people through his visual art.
Using interviews, archival photos and home videos, recordings, as well as AI to bring Rajie’s work to life, our film retraces the biography of this passionate artist.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Valentina Canavesio
Valentina Canavesio is a director and producer whose 2016 documentary film, Footprint, premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest. Her second feature doc, Marianne, follows 7 French Muslim women in the context of France’s laïcité. It has been screened in theaters across Europe and is now streaming on the French platform Maya +. Both her films are distributed by Women Make Movies.
Valentina’s work as a producer includes: My Italian Secret (2014), These Birds Walk (2013), Welcome to Detroit (2010), Les Vulnérables (2008). Between them, the films have premiered and screened at SXSW, Hot Docs, Berlinale, True/False, New York Film Festival, and at other festivals around the world.
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