Queer Design Club

I'm Ray. I love designing assets pertaining to music & entertainment, which include motion graphics, photos, promos, web design & much more.

How does being queer inform your work?

I'm a Mexican-American, cis-gendered gay male who grew up in a Catholic household. I overheard a lot of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, and had minimal to no queer role models. It has been my goal to seek our the work of designers, artists, photographers etc., past & present, who are LGBTQ+ and OUT because their work serves to educate, inspire and entertain me while they simultaneously act as role models.

What are your favorite pieces of queer visual culture?

This is a very difficult question to answer as I can rattle of a number of pieces, however the most moving and powerful to me is Keith Haring's 'Unfinished Painting'. While there are medications widely available to help combat the contraction of HIV/AIDS in the U.S., there are still communities and cultures where declaring your sexual orientation is unaccepted. They are very much at risk and I firmly believe this can be de-stigmatized by being out and taking up space in public as well as holding space for . Its my goal to wear both my ethnic and queer identity on my shoulder so that any youth without the infrastructure to proudly be themselves observe others doing so and hopefully get there themselves.

Which other queer people inspire you?

Besides being a designer, I'm also a bartender, event promoter and DJ at a gay bar. I work alongside a whole cast of queer identifying humans from drag queens and kings, to trans people, photographers, artists, and they all serve to inspire me.