Queer Designers’ Favorite Things
Get to Know Queer Design Club through Its Members’ Top Locations, Skills, and Inspiration
It’s hard to believe that Queer Design Club is 3 months old! Since launching at the start of Pride month (a.k.a June), our club has grown to:
- Almost 300 members in our Slack
- Over 150 listings in our LGBTQ+ Designer Directory
- Hundreds of followers Twitter and Instagram
But it’s not the numbers that matter, it’s the people. Like any space, QDC is what the people inside make of it. In just 3 months, queer designers across the globe have made our corner of the industry something special. By providing design feedback and career advice, listening when times are tough, and gassing up each other’s work, our members have turned Queer Design Club from a cool idea for a resource into a real community.
Since the people are what makes Queer Design Club special, we thought we’d celebrate our 3 month anniversary by sharing a bit about our members based on their responses to
Top 3 Locations
Queer Design Club is connecting with LGBTQ+ designers from across the globe. (Thanks, internet.) We have members in Malaysia, the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK. Heck, half our founding team is in Beunos Aires. Here are our top spots for members.
1. San Francisco, CA
SF is a hub for tech and design and queer culture (as well as where the other half of our founding team is based). So it’s no suprise it tops the list.
2. New York City, NY
SF edged out New York City by a single designer. There’s no coastal rivalry inside QDC, though.
3. Oakland, CA
Oakland, another Bay Area city, comes in third. Oakland isn’t just a popular spot for designers who’d rather commute than pay SF rent, it has a vibrant design community of its own full of individual creatives, studios, and in-house teams.
Special shout-out to Los Angeles and Portland came in neck-and-neck right behind Oakland. And if you’re in the latter, look for our co-founder, Becks, at XOXO this week.
Top 3 Skills
Our members are a talented bunch! From research to illustration to textile design, our members are doing it all across digital and print media.
1. UX Design
The top skill in our directory is user experience design. Many of our members say that being queer helps them build empathy for people whose experiences differ from their own—an important skill for a UX designer!
2. Graphic Design
Not all of our members’ work is digital, though. We have graphic designers in advertising, brand design, and print. You better believe there are some queer zines coming out of our community.
3. Product Design
With SF as our top city, it’s understandable a large number of members are in product design. Many say their queerness inspires them to build more accessible and inclusive products, which the world needs more of!
Top 3 Pieces of Queer Visual Culture
One of the reasons we started Queer Design Club was to highlight all the inspiring queer contributions to visual culture. When asked what their favorite pieces of queer visual culture are, our members’ have too many amazing answers to list; but here are the three that came up the most.
1. Drag
Drag tops the list of queer visual culture our members love. And it’s not just Rupaul’s Drag Race, although a few members called out the show’s talented contestants and candy-colored production aesthetic as a source of inspiration. Our members by iconic drag queens like Divine, club kids who play with gender, and their local queens. Queer designers how drag manages to push boundaries while having fun and looking drop dead gorgeous. Remember to tip your queens!
2. The Art of Félix González-Torres
Félix González-Torres was an openly gay Cuban American whose work was informed by his active involvement in community, politics, and activism. Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) is inspired by the lover, Ross Laycock, González-Torres to AIDS-related illness.
3. The Silence = Death Poster
HIV/AIDS and activism are also essential to one of our community’s other favorite pieces of queer visual culture: the Silence = Death poster. The bold, confrontational poster is not only an iconic piece of design, it demonstrates the queer community’s resilience and power: turning symbols that have been used to other and oppress us into symbols of our strength. This essay about its creation, written by one of the founding members of the Silence = Death collective that designed it, is a must read.
Top 3 Inspiring Queer People
It’s not just queer creative work that inspires our members, it’s the people behind it. Our members draw inspiration from working designers like Debbie Millman and Chip Kidd, historical community leaders like Marsha P. Johnson and Harvey Milk, and out celebrities like Lena Waithe, Bowen Yang, and—of course—Ellen. Here are the three people our members cited the most.
1. Keith Haring
Keith Haring inspires a lot of members through his work’s distinct graphic style and fearlessness tackling sex, AIDS, religion, consumerism, and other important subjects. He was also committed to social change, working with causes like National Coming Out Day, World AIDS Day, and ACT UP.
2. Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe, who came out as pansexual last year, gets a lot of love from QDC members. And what’s not to love? From her music and accompanying visuals to her acting, Janelle brings queer black girl magic to everything she does. Plus, she rocks a pant suit like no other.
3. Adam J. Kurtz
Adam J. Kurtz is the artist behind ADAMJK®, a collection of products you’ve probably seen in Urban Outfitters or the gift shop in your favorite museum. He’s also a really fun follow on Twitter.
But you don’t need to be famous to inspire others. Most of our members list the queer people in their lives as their biggest source of inspiration. And we have to say, our members are pretty inspiring themselves! Come get to know them yourself over at queerdesign.club.
✨Keep designing and shining!✨
— John Warren Hanawalt and Rebecca Brooker
