Queer Design Club

I am a queer artist in the Boston area. I specialize in graphic design, marketing design, brand design. In my spare time I love to craft on my cricut and I am a part time graduate student at MassArt earning my Masters in Design.

How does being queer inform your work?

It helps me be aware of how marketing materials are depicted. Such as when I'm searching for stock photography, it is easy to find white nuclear family photos, but I always search for diversity in representation in stock imagery, mixed households, single parents, gay parents, and so on. I also try to influence design during pride month by making sure marketing materials aren't just rainbows, but design with meaning. If a company designs for pride month, there should be real support behind it, not just rainbow washing.

What are your favorite pieces of queer visual culture?

There's so much to choose from. In my undergraduate studies, I wrote papers on Frida Kahlo, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Rosa Bonheur. Frida first inspired me once I saw her 1924 family photo with her in a three piece suit, it gives WildFang vibes. I also wrote about the closeted relationship between Robert and Jasper, as they both came from strict southern states. I thought it was brave for them to be together in the 1950's. Rosa Bonheur was especially inspiring to me because she was brazenly and unapologetically herself, for a queer female painter in the 1800s. Her paintings were so detailed, beautiful, and arguably more technically skilled than most men in her field at the time. There are so many more queer and/or female artists I think about when creating and designing my own work.

Which other queer people inspire you?

In pop culture my guilty pleasure is following Miley Cyrus. They are inspiring with how they unapologetically live their life, and how they give back to the queer community.