Strands of Genius: Queer Design Count 2019, Nastassia Rambarran: Ize Queer: Naming And Claiming In The Caribbean, What Is Queer Typography By Paul Soulellis
Guest curated by Rebecca Booker
Each year we aim to highlight 50 creative thinkers that have inspired us by giving them the opportunity to guest curate this newsletter, Strands of Genius. This edition is guest curated by Rebecca Booker, Co-Founder @ Queer Design Club, Art Director @ Ghost Note Agency.
:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, REBECCA BOOKER ::
LOCATION: Buenos Aires, Argentina
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: Queer Design Club and Ghost Note Agency
I'm Becks, a Trinidadian born designer, art director, the co-founder of Queer Design Club. I currently live in Buenos Aires with my partner and our toy poodle, Luna. I knew I was queer before I could really put it into words, but growing in the Caribbean made it doubly hard for me to explore my identity. I didn't have that many queer icons to look up to, and didn't know much about gender and sexuality outside of girls being of interest to me. I've spent the past decade of my life really searching for resources around queer identities, and even forming a community of my own - Queer Design Club.
One of the things I've found curious after being in a community with queer people is that there is still so much to learn, so much to explore, and so much to understand about each others' experiences. I revel in being able to share cross-cultural perspectives about queer identity and how it impacts my day to day. I'm lucky to find a natural expression of my queerness through design, but I often wonder about how my queerness would come across if I weren't creative?
Editor’s Note (Team Genius Steals): We're big fans of Buenos Aires, so we might have to meet up there one day! Thanks so much for being here, and for your thoughtful contributions below. We love what you're doing with Queer Design Club!
:: THE LINKS ::
QUEER DESIGN COUNT 2019
We founded Queer Design Club in 2018 as a safe space to connect with other LGBTQ persons in design. One of the early discoveries was that we really didn't have a ton of data about our community and the audience we were trying to reach. It was clear to us that we needed to survey our community and intended audience (LGBTQ persons in design) to learn more about their demographics, their interests, and their experiences with queerness in the design industry. We surveyed over 1000 persons, analyzed trends across income, gender, sexuality, etc and summarized it into a read out of our findings.
Major keys (TLDR):
40% of LGBTQ+ designers reported having to point out design decisions that excluded queer people to their colleagues.
13% of LGBTQ+ designers had been asked to work for anti-LGBTQ+ clients.
22% of respondents of color reported making less $25,000 annually compared to 15% of white respondents. (Queer Design Count 2019)
NASTASSIA RAMBARRAN: IZE QUEER: NAMING AND CLAIMING IN THE CARIBBEAN
On my search for community and queerness, I wanted to return to my roots of Trinidad and Tobago and really explore the queer experience in the Caribbean. Growing up, I'd been privy to more than one homophobic experience that left me knowing how difficult it would be to embrace my full identity at home. In my research, I came across this talk by Dr. Nastassia Rambarran, who explores the relationship between her own queer identity and the history of queerness in Caribbean history. She examines the use of the word 'queer' itself, and how its historic ties may impact how people identify, and even the language we use to describe ourselves today. (Queer Disrupt)
WHAT IS QUEER TYPOGRAPHY BY PAUL SOULELLIS
In Fall of 2021, we had the opportunity of hosting Paul Soulellis as part of our Queer Design Chats series. Paul presented an incredible talk about "What is Queer Typography" where he shares musings, research and reflections on the connections between queerness and letters.
Paul Soulellis is an artist and educator based in Providence, RI. His practice includes teaching, writing, and experimental publishing, with a focus on queer methodologies and network culture. He is founder/director of Queer.Archive.Work, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit reading room, publishing studio, and community space, and Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Rhode Island School of Design. (Queer Design Club)
Looking for more from Rebecca Brooker? Those enrolled in The School of Stolen Genius will receive a deep dive from Rebecca in their inbox shortly! You can access all our expert interviews for SOSG here.
:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::
:: Game :: Scrabble!
:: City :: New York City
:: Book :: Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers by Ellon Lupton
:: Podcast :: Dissect on Spotify
:: Album :: Circles by Mac Miller
:: MY ONLY TWO MOODS ::
Thank you for letting me share these gems with the community! Feel free to join us at Queer Design Club, or reach out to me on Twitter.
Becky Booker
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
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