By Alysha Conner

Via. National Black Guide

Blended Designs, LLC is the leading Black-owned family business to provide school gear that produces positive images and messages for students in the African-American community. Casey and Harvey Kelley, Blended Designs CEOs, launched their 1954® initiative in 2017 to further promote and advocate for equal treatment and advantages amongst African-American students. Once Casey discovered that only two percent of all backpacks represent people of color, she decided it was necessary to fill the void. 

The Kelley’s chose the name 1954® to commemorate the legendary Brown versus Board of Education Topeka ruling on May 17, 1954. It declared racial segregation of children in public schools as unconstitutional. 1954® is of a collection of uniquely designed backpacks, lunch boxes, and pencil cases. Each item highlights the diverse characteristics of African-Americans to uplift and empower students of color.  Learn more about Blended Designs here.

Blended Designs founder, Casey Kelley, was interviewed by The Entrepreneurship Institute of Atlanta on Facebook Live called "How to Win Big at Entrepreneurship (From The Inside Out)." Check out the interview here. 

Blended Designs CEO, Casey Kelley, was interviewed on On Point Talk Radio with Charlette Christmas. Check out the interview below. 

Each year Blended Designs partners with several organizations and donates backpacks to them so they can give backpacks to kids in the community. One of this year’s partners was the Southeastern Region of Jack and Jill for America, Inc.

Jack and Jill of America, Inc., is a membership organization of mothers with children ages 2 – 19, dedicated to nurturing future African American leaders by strengthening children through leadership development, volunteer service, philanthropic giving and civic duty.

They stuffed hundreds of backpacks with school supplies for a community service event in the Miami Dade area.

Applications to become a recipient of donated backpacks from Blended Designs are available each October for the following year. 

Via. Bombshell by Bleu

When doing research on character backpacks for her son, she found that of the 670 character backpacks on the market only two percent featured a child or character of color. With her new brand, Blended Designs, Casey Kelley and her husband plan to change that percentage and encourage youth of color to be their best, academic selves. 

“If you’re not seeing positive images of yourself, how do you know that you can be successful?” said Kelley. “Unfortunately with the way the media portrays people of color, what you tend to see in order to be successful is to be in entertainment, in music, or an athlete.”

Blended Designs has created 10 characters that represent what the brand stands for. Kelley explained that in each of their bios, they possess academic qualities such as being a good student, and having goals of graduating college. 

“The overall goal of our company, our mission is to empower young people, and also to create more first generation college students,” stated Kelley. “If you’re a first generation college student, you’re able to break the cycle of poverty and create more [economic] wealth in the community.” 

To read the full article, click here.

Blended Designs was featured on the Today Show this morning with anchor Jill Martin. Co-Founders Casey Kelley and Harvey Kelley talked about how less than 2% of the character backpacks in the market feature children of color. Their son, Carter, came up with the idea for Blended Designs when he could not find a backpack that looked like him.

Check out this video to see the segment: 

Carla Harris, Vice Chairman at Morgan Stanley, Loves Blended Designs

Blended Designs had the absolute pleasure of presenting to Ms. Carla Harris, Vice Chairman at Morgan Stanley, who is known world wide as an entrepreneurial leader and investor in early stage disruptive solutions. Ms. Harris runs the Morgan Stanley early stage investment fund and is always looking for deals across many industries.

Blended Designs founder was introduced to Ms. Harris though Jim Stallings and PS27 Ventures. Ms. Harris loved the backpacks and resinated with the Blended Designs Delta bag, the 'Devastating Divas Duffle Bag' pictured below.