The Visionary
Courtney Ahn on her social justice artwork and advice to future artists who want to change the game
Courtney Ahn is a graphic design and the founder of Courtney Ahn Design. Courtney became well known for her widely shared illustrations that outlined the Model Minority Myth, white supremacy, and BIPOC allyship. Courtney believe that design is visual form of problem solving, and she takes pride in being a visual designer, innovator, and user experience advocate.
We sat down with Courtney to discuss her experiences and her work.
Tell us about the community you grew up in.
I grew up in a very small coastal town in Oregon within an even smaller-minded community of predominantly white folx. It’s one of those largely dispersed farm towns where poverty is rampant and dominated by several generations of white families living and running the area. I was one of two Asian American families in a handful of non-Black minorities in my hometown, so it’s safe to say I often felt challenged and limited by my identity in this community.
What drew you to graphic design and art? Did you know you wanted to be a designer when you were younger?
I definitely was one of those artsy kids from the get go: I fondly remember spending most of my childhood indoors, coloring utensils always in hand, drawing whatever cartoon character I had been infatuated with lately. I totally loved it, but it was definitely drilled on me from an early age that art wasn’t a valid career option so I always aspired to be something practical in the eyes of my family. It actually wasn’t until junior year of high school, which previous to I was set on becoming some sort of medical professional (thanks, dad!), that I discovered people were in fact making careers out of art, and particularly in the design space. A couple yearbook classes later and I was absolutely set on becoming a graphic designer and on a whim enrolled in college for it. At that time, I really didn’t even know what graphic designers did beyond my experience of laying out a few yearbook spreads, but just the fact that it was in the art space was thrilling to me. Luckily it worked out!
Art both reinforces and challenges our culture. Of all of your pieces, which art pieces are you most proud of creating? Which pieces were the most cherished by others? Most controversial?
Oh man, that’s a tough one! I’m honestly my worst critic, but I will say a piece that I thoroughly enjoyed making was, “A Guide to the Model Minority Myth.” And to be honest, it’s not my favorite in terms of artistic execution. There was just something so special to me about speaking on an issue that I had really internalized and repressed within myself for so many years that made me feel so relieved. I would definitely say, “A Guide to White Privilege,” is certainly the most popular, and a close second in my mind, as it still remains the most widely shared piece of my work and really the catalyst for my work being viewed on a wider scale in recent months. The tremendous outpour of support from that piece to this day never ceases to amaze me. However, no doubt that piece has also been the most controversial just because of the topic alone.
The day it blew up I remember waking up to hundreds of hateful comments and direct messages from white folx and had to quickly disable comments for that post and eventually restrict comments on all my posts to avoid the mental exhaustion of constant racist rhetoric. And while I want to say most of the work I do is controversial now, I’m not sure if that’s the right word to describe it anymore. It’s almost as if I’m giving validity to ideas that imply the erasure of oppression and white supremacy is okay by saying it’s controversial. I don’t think my work is controversial, I think it’s purposely disliked by those who choose not to take accountability for being complicit in systems that continue to oppress BIPOC. Choosing to value humanity and equality should not be controversial.
Some of your illustrations center on social justice and activism. Do you feel that art should have an underlying message?
I think it depends. I will say that I don’t think art should ever need to adhere to a predetermined set of standards to be deemed worthy of creation or value. But, I do think that all artwork has some underlying message, intentional or not from the creator, whether or not that message may be understood or valuable to you as the viewer. But, there’s a lot of power there. Art has historically been such a huge proponent of social change, a way for artists to summarize complex ideas in attractive pictures and do it in a way that can be shared widely and understood by the masses.
The context matters here too. Should you create art that doesn’t necessarily have a political message just because you enjoy it? Yes. Should you actively choose to keep posting artwork that pays absolutely zero awareness to the systemic oppression of BIPOC being put on display right now? Probably not, and when you choose to disacknowledge this in your art you are making a message, and one that shows complicity. So I will say that art doesn’t always have to have a message, but you should always be mindful of what space you are occupying that could be valuable for art that does.
Who are some designers and artists you admire?
Honestly, this has been a challenging question for me the past few months! I always had a preconceived notion of what designers/artists I deemed admirable from college art history classes, but I’ve been looking for ways to decolonize this mindset of only praising predominantly white male artists. A few artists/designers that I’ve been admiring lately are Dani Coke (@ohhappydani), Jess Bird (@blessthemessy), and Florence Given (@florencegiven), all instagram creators of course.
To all of the aspiring Asian American artists, illustrators, and graphic designers, what is your advice to them?
Just keep doing it! I think so many of us Asian Americans have internalized or been conditioned to believe that a career in art isn’t practical. First off, practicality should never be the determining factor of your life, your interests and dreams should be! Secondly, art is practical! There are so many meaningful ways in which we can find value in the creative community as a career path or just a hobby: financially, emotionally, spiritually, politically, etc. You don’t have to fulfill someone else’s idea of success to find happiness in your career. Also, you don’t have to sacrifice your identity to be a part of it. You don’t need to sacrifice your values, your morals, or your experience as a marginalized group to be successful. You can be a part of an industry that is white-dominated without adhering to its standards AND actively work to dismantle it and create meaningful space in it for you and BIPOC.
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