Designed to Be Red is an exploration of Native American and Indigenous visual history and humanity that was oftentimes erased in North American culture due to the American mythos that its numerous and distinct tribes are dead and in the past. Advertisements and other marketing materials were used to tell stories about Native Americans rather than with them, perpetuating reductive, inaccurate and harmful characterizations of living groups of people.

The exhibition is a celebration of Native American history, spanning nearly two centuries and representing more than 60 tribes and nations, and its resistance to dominant colonial narratives. Posters portraying beadwork bling, frybread and sacred corn in addition to other imagery, highlight how Native people have shaped design. Native graphic art was dynamic, subversive and optimistic despite centuries of cultural obliteration, land theft and socioeconomic marginalization. Designed to Be Red further challenges the idea that Indigenous authenticity requires subjugation, suffering or segregation from the modern world, focusing instead on the full spectrum of Native life.