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To us Pride means self respect and the daily evaluation of the meaning of diversity and inclusivity. To be proud also means to never let your guard down, and to be aware of how insidious homophobia (even internalized homophobia) is as the disrespect of diversity at large.

Describe a moment when being both an artist/designer and a part of this community has helped you through a difficult time / helped you find a way forward.

The realisation of being gay and the social stigma that comes with it was a difficult moment. At the same time, we quickly moved on because we also always loved queerness in the sense of strangeness, of anything that is different than normal. We always perceived diversity as something thrilling and the ultimate and most interesting feature of all living creatures on planet earth. The love for the unexpected and the queer is also what ultimately made us love ourselves for who we are. This might sound a bit cliche', but it is how we feel about it.

Are there any LGBTQ artists/designers that you’re currently a fan of?

Anhoni for her contribution to music, ecofeminist values and ecological activism.

What’s the next big trend happening in design that you’d like to see?

A real ecological development – seeing designers thinking about the needs of other non-human creatures with whom we share planet Earth.

What is your motto (or words you live by)?

Looking back to look forward. Always know the past if you want to know where you are going.

Any tips on working successfully as a design duo?

Make sure to have a very clear schedule and to never work at night. Organization is the secret of making it work.

How has sustainability changed the way you design? What does it mean to actually be sustainable in design?

This is a difficult question because while there are some parameters that we could describe, we actually believe the best way to approach this is another. We think every person, not only designers, should always consider the ethical implications of what they do and understand what they are or are not willing to compromise on.

Formafantasma

Describe a moment when being both an artist and a part of this community has helped you through a difficult time / helped you find a way forward. 

Every single step of my entire life. Being “other” and a creative person forces you to be aware at all times. I do not take anything for granted, nor do I overlook the world around me.

There are not enough pages, but I’ll give you a few examples of those still with us that immediately come to mind and have personally elevated me and my work: Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Apparatus, Zsela, Moses Sumney, Serpent with Feet, Perfume Genius, Miguel Gutierrez, Lady Fag, Desi Santiago, James Ivory, Anthony Roth Costanzo, John Cameron Mitchell, Io Tillett Wright, Savannah Knoop…. The list goes on and ON!

What advice do you have for young people in the LGBTQ community who want to pursue a creative path or career in photography?

Practice, practice, practice...and follow your gut.

You have been very successful at working across commercial photography and contemporary art. How do you bridge these two worlds in your work, and what does each side give you?

Honestly, I approach both in the same manner. I’m not interested in compartmentalizing the two. It took me 20 years to figure that out. Basically, I make shit with passion and sincerity. Everything else is secondary.

How did you begin your Wet Noise community, and how has cultivating these events contributed to your creative mindset?

If I’m not making things, I’m dancing. In 2014, I didn’t have a party that played my music, so I made one. I do not separate my dance party from my art practice. When I make things, it is with the intention to encourage others to feel what I feel. Just the right combination of light, atmosphere, sound and expression can translate everything I want to say about the world, whether that be setting the stage for a dance party or the set for a portrait. Most importantly, all of these things require collaboration and community to be successful.

Matthew Placek

To me, pride means feeling proud of who I am, as is. It means being comfortable in my own skin as a gay woman, artist, writer and educator. It means being happy to be who I am, in totality.

Describe a moment when being both a designer and a part of this community has helped you through a difficult time, or helped you find a way forward.

I didn’t come out until I was 50 years old. When I did, I was really scared that I would be seen differently, mostly because of my own internal homophobia. That didn’t happen at all—I felt tremendous support from the design and branding community, and that has only grown as I have become more of an activist and advocate for LGBTQ visibility in design.

SO MANY! I love the artists Lisa Congdon, Deborah Kass, Patricia Cronin, Chip Kidd, Adam J. Kurtz, Jonathan Adler, the writers Carmen Maria Machado, Grace Bonney, Maria Popova, Tea Uglow, Thomas Page McBee, Elissa Altman, Simon Doonon, musicians Kaki King, Erin McKweon, Lucy Wainwright Roche, writer and chef Julia Turshen, writer and astrologers Chani Nicholas and Christopher Renstrom and so many more!

You have been a podcaster for a long time. How do you think the medium has changed with increased popularity, for better or worse?

The year 2005 was a unique time on the Internet; a bit like the gold rush, new enterprises and platforms were popping up everywhere. Adam Curry (former MTV video jockey and radio broadcaster) and software developer Dave Winer created the first ever podcast in 2004 when they wrote a program they called iPodder. The program allowed Curry and Winer to download automatically Internet radio broadcasts to their iPods. They could then take their iPods, along with their broadcasts, anywhere. The actual term “podcasting” appeared shortly thereafter in the 2004 article by Ben Hammersley that was published in The Guardian. While much of the early podcasting software wasn’t user-friendly, the first commercially successful Software was created by August Trometer and Ray Slakinski. First called iPodderX, Trometer and Slakinski later changed the name to Transistr, and an industry was born. In June 2005, Apple added podcasting to the iTunes 4.9 software and built a directory of podcasts in iTunes. Here listeners could both subscribe and listen to podcasts. As soon as I read about this new technology, I decided to upload my brand new recorded Design Matters files to iTunes, inadvertently making Design Matters the first-ever design podcast to be distributed in this manner. The ultimate democratic endeavor, podcasting is (at least for now) free from government regulation. Podcasters don’t need a license to broadcast programming (radio stations do) and they aren’t required to conform to the United States Federal Communication Commission decency regulations. Anything and everything is allowed in podcasting, and this leniency is leveraged all over the Internet. In the last ten years the technology has changed, as has the landscape of podcasting. Once a frantic free-for-all, podcasting is now a worldwide phenomenon. I started planning Design Matters in 2004 and launched it online in 2005. Since that time, Design Matters has evolved from a show about designers talking about design to a show about how the worlds most creative people design their lives.

Branding is often overlooked or ignored by the general public, but is such a crucial part of our world. How do you help people to understand what goes into good branding and how it shapes our thinking?

Walter Landor, the great grandfather of branding stated, “Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.” In the same way a sign needs to be interpreted in order for it to be considered a sign, a brand does not exist until it is identified as such. It needs an audience of minds to create it. Only then, can it gather and move audiences, followers, or believers. Business sees branding as the purview of business. And it’s easy to fall into this mode of thinking. Agencies, marketing departments, public relations, and media are all businesses themselves, caught up in an echo chamber of brands. Brands promote other brands, partner with other brands, buy other brands, and have appropriated the symbolism of other brands. Branding is now inextricably linked to the way in which society, culture, the environment, and business interact. At this particular moment in our world, the discipline of branding has more impact on our culture than any other creative medium.

What’s the next big trend happening in branding and design that you’d like to see?

I find the role of branding now incredibly, incredibly exciting and a lot of that has to do with the energy and intellect of the new generation of designers and makers. Movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo are some of the most important instigators of change to enter our cultural discourse in a long time. As is the use of the Pink Pussy hat. Design has finally become democratized, and these efforts are not about anything commercial. These efforts have not been initiated for any financial benefit. They have been created by the people for the people to serve the highest purpose design has: to bring people together for the benefit of humanity. This is creating an environment wherein design and branding are not just tools of capitalism, rather they have become profound manifestations of the human spirit.

What advice do you have for young people in the LGBTQ community who want to pursue a creative career?

I would give young people in the LGBTQ community the same advice as straight people in regards to pursuing a creative career. We are living in a culture that leads us to believe that when you graduate from college you are expected to know exactly what you want to do, where you want to do it and what your life plan will be. And if you aren't successful right out of the gate, there must be something wrong with you. And this emotion builds into a palpable sense of hopelessness if you aren’t able to achieve something quickly. I believe that anything worthwhile takes time. Mastery is a process of years. If you are one of the few souls in the world that are actually able to hit it out of the ballpark before you are 30, you might want to consider how you are going to be able to sustain that success over the long term. The pressure to keep succeeding over and over will mount and you will likely feel that you must only hit the home runs. This is impossible.
Take your time and build your skills. Refine your methodology over time and give yourself the opportunity to grow and develop. Use your twenties to experiment. This is a time when falling flat on your face is expected. Build something meaningful rather than build something fast. The length of time it takes for you to succeed is generally a good measure of how long you will be able to sustain—and enjoy—it.

My personal motto is this: Busy is a decision. Of the many, many excuses people use to rationalize why they can’t do something, the excuse “I am too busy” is not only the most inauthentic, it is also the laziest. I don’t believe in “too busy.” I think that busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is shorthand for “not important enough.” It means you would rather be doing something else that you consider more important. That “thing” could be sleep, it could be sex, or it could be watching 90 Day Fiance. If we use busy as an excuse for not doing something what we are really, really saying is that it’s not a priority. Simply put: you don’t find the time to do something; you make the time to do things. We are now living in a society that sees busy as a badge. It has become cultural cache to use the excuse “I am too busy,” as a reason for not doing anything we don’t feel like doing. The problem is this: if you let yourself off the hook for not doing something for ANY reason, you won’t ever do it. If you want to do something, you can’t let being busy stand in the way, even if you are busy. Make the time to do the things you want to do and then do them.

Chair, Masters in Branding at the School of Visual Arts; Host of the podcast Design Matters

Debbie Millman

World-famous political activist, art and flag-maker Gilbert Baker

 (1951-2017) created the Rainbow Flag in 1978. Over the next four decades, his creation would become embraced across the world as the universal symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement.

Baker was born in Kansas in 1951 and suffered as an overtly creative child in a conservative state. It was when he moved to San Francisco as an Army medic that he found a home as an openly gay man in the counterculture movement of the post-Stonewall era.

There, Gilbert used his artistic talents to create banners for anti-war and pro-gay marches and protests. Seeking to find representation for the gay and lesbian political movement, replacing the pink triangle, a Nazi relic from World War II, Baker and friends dyed and sewed the first Rainbow Flags, raising them on June 25, 1978 in SF’s United Nations Plaza to commemorate that year’s San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.

Influential figures such as San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk and mayor Dianne Feinstein supported Baker’s efforts, and helped raise the symbol to new heights, and Baker went on to create flags and banners for the city, culminating in the 1984 Democratic National Convention at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

The Rainbow Flag, which resides in the public domain, grew to become an international symbol for the LGBTQ community, allowing a previously oppressed population to celebrate their gifts and individualities openly. Baker himself won tremendous accolades for his design, and was a staunch advocate for the community for the rest of his life.

After his death, the Gilbert Baker estate, administered by his sister Ardonna Baker Cook, convened an Advisory Committee to help evaluate and support various programs, events and product endorsements that would properly honor Gilbert’s legacy of LGBT pride, liberty and visibility, work they continue to this day.

Why was the foundation set up after Gilbert’s death? What is the mission of the organization?

When Gilbert passed away in March of 2017, his friends and family worked together on a memorial honoring his life. We continued this work first by managing his estate, then by publishing his memoir and organizing an exhibit of his art, and finally by forming the official Gilbert Baker Foundation last year.

Our mission is to protect and extend the legacy of Gilbert Baker, the creator of the LGBTQ Rainbow Flag, as an activist, artist and educator; to record and promote the history of the creation of the Rainbow Flag and its impact on the world; to educate future generations about the LGBTQ Rainbow Flag; to support and empower our mission on a collaborative level between the Foundation and allies, including the LGBTQ community and artists, organizations, educational institutions, non-profits, museums, archives and the press; and to promote this mission to the wider world beyond the LGBTQ community.

“The rainbow flag is a symbol of freedom and liberation that we made for ourselves.”

Gilbert Baker

To me, pride is about reflecting the past and envisioning the future. Nothing we do today would be possible without the people who led the trail before us.

Describe a moment when being both an artist/designer and a part of this community has helped you through a difficult time / helped you find a way forward. 

When I was growing up and realizing that my life would not conform to the “standards" of society, it helped me challenge what people describe as standard since it is such an artificial construct. All my work is looking into standards and challenges them.

There are many - but I am a fan of the people society did not pay much attention to until recently. The people without a shiny Instagram account - those going into a hospital and caring for people they do not know. Scientists who have so much more to offer to the world than influencers… and many of them are from our LGBTQ community.

Why is designing for aging populations important to you?

Why do you think mainstream architecture doesn’t pay as much attention to it? Truth is, we are all aging, and we are not paying attention to the fact that our world is not designed for a user group we all will become one day if we are lucky. The problem is that designing for older people is not sexy in the eyes of society, so it is overlooked.

What advice do you have for young people in the LGBTQ community who want to pursue a creative path?

Look for long term goals and different paths towards them. Growth and change are very exciting when we initiate them. Look for people in the community who support you and your vision. The LGBTQ network is very powerful and it rewarding to tap into the network - but also remember .. it is all about taking and giving - return the favor to your peers.

Principal Architect, HWKN Architecture DPC

Matthias Hollwich

Pride means confidence, love, acceptance and gratitude: for who you are and for the people and world around you.

Describe a moment when being a creative member of the LGBTQ community has helped you through a difficult time.

 Believing in yourself as an artist means you believe in what makes you different. I think embracing a creative way to live your life makes it easier for us to accept and embrace the things that make us stand out. During a difficult period, this sense of worth gives me a sense of peace with myself, that my journey shouldn't be compared or measured against anyone else.

How has your previous work in architecture helped your current path as a fragrance designer?

 It’s given me a holistic sense of design, of how the packaging, bottle, materials and even the story behind the scent should all work together. Architecture and fragrance have a lot in common, both are arts grounded by technical knowledge. Both require structure, both indulge in ornament and beauty.

 Live life fully - savor all the moments, the places, and all the emotions.

Architect and fragrance designer, ARQUISTE Parfumeur

Carlos Huber

LGBTQI folks are naturally great designers because many of us, in an effort to make a world that fits who we are and feels right, have designed our own identities and ways of existing. As a young queer kid I didn’t see any models (in the media or my small town) that were even remotely appealing to me. I think it was because I had a designer’s mindset that I began to invent my own version of how to live and work, and most importantly build my own non-traditional family to explore that with.

As a toy designer, what is the biggest difference between designing for children versus for adults?

I think adulthood is a performance, and one that I don’t find very compelling, so I prefer to design for children! As we become adults we train ourselves out of many natural instincts – play being the most obvious. We are born knowing how to play, express ourselves, be open to the world and curious… and somewhere in the process of “growing up” we stop valuing those traits and activities. I’m biased, of course, but I think queers are really good at playing because we inherently challenge many rules and norms.

Easy is Boring. For better or worse, it guides me. My toys are about “figuring out” and imagining what doesn’t exist. I had the same path with my identity. When I came out to my mom, she was upset because she wanted my [adult] life to be easier than my childhood had been. I understand that logic, but most LGBTQI folks likely relate – when it comes to identity, easy isn’t an option.

Realize and believe that your perspective as an outsider or outlier or “weirdo” is an asset.  Bring who you are to what you do. Be confident in the value of the creative work you’ve done just to be who you are, and make it part of your work.

Designer and president, Heroes Will Rise, Inc.

Cas Holman

To me, Pride means being unapologetically proud of who I am and who I strive to be as a human being. It means not being afraid to express myself and be visible in my authenticity. Pride can be loud and mean having a public voice, but it can also be private – in ways like how we express ourselves through fashion or how we do our hair. There is no one way to express Pride.

I would love to see the evolution of gender neutral fashion to be more unique and creative because gender neutral doesn't need to be and shouldn't be boring. It doesn't need to only be in grayscale or sweatpants. We can be more creative and rethink what neutrality and equality means. For example, for me creating a gender neutral design means when you look at it, you cannot decipher whether it is meant to be worn by someone masculine or feminine. I believe products don't have genders and the wearer or user is the only person who needs to (if they desire) to decipher their own identity. What I really would love to see is gendered pricing, sizing and shapes to be re-invented or upgraded to be equal for all humans.

“I don't just dream. I do.” and “Take up space. Be visible. Speak your truth.”

Who are some of the designers you’d love to work with or learn from?

Growing up, I was a huge fan of Jean-Paul Gaultier because he was not afraid to break the rules and he was out and proud. As a masculine of center individual, I am a fan of John Varvatos' vision for my own wardrobe, and of course Calvin Klein was one of my first heroes for coming out with the first unisex fragrance before gender queerness was cool. It was one of my first colognes I ever wore for years! Finally, if I could work with anyone on shoes, it would be Christian Louboutin. I would love to work with the master and develop footwear together that is truly gender equal.

What drew you to designing shoes? And to LA?

I came to LA in 1993 for college; after graduation, I moved to Singapore, but realized my heart was in LA because I love who I am here. I left my career as a producer to design shoes because I was sick of not being able to find footwear that fit both my feet and my identity. But I couldn't in good conscience only develop shoes for my own personal satisfaction. Instead, I wanted to redefine footwear and make shoes that were stylish, comfortable, durable and timeless, while breaking the gender binary. My designs are based on a gender neutral mold, and the wearer can [wear them comfortably] no matter how they choose to identify.

Do you see the fashion industry becoming more open to creating options for the transgender community? If not, how can they get there?

Absolutely, and the sooner the better! The LGBTQ+ community has always been at the forefront of inciting change for society and cultural norms, and fashion is one of the biggest industries inspired by the queer and trans community. As queers who are historically under-represented, we are often forced to have to come up with our own solutions in order to live an authentic life. We will always continue to be resilient and innovative that way. However, I believe as the world is become more queer friendly and inclusive, and as our younger generations' gender identities continue to expand and become more inclusive, we will hopefully become a society that is mindful of all identities and gender spectrums.

Executive Producer and Fashion Designer, NiK Kacey

NiK Kacy

 It’s a complicated thing with a lot of positives and negatives. But when I think of the positives I think of Pride in being a part of a community. Pride in supporting that community.

 There are so many, but at the moment I'd say Broobs (@Broobs.PSD on instagram). They are putting a lot of effort into support for workers’ unions during this epidemic, and I find that the way they express their compassion very inspiring.

What is The Outside Project, and what do you do in your capacity for them?

The Outside Project is the UK’s first LGBTQIA+ shelter and community centre, and we have been around for 3 years. I joined about 2 years ago. I volunteer as an art director and help out with organising the community centre.  I also run my youth group (Queer Youth Art Collective) for queer kids who have an interest in the arts. Because so many of my teachers in art school (as is true with so many schools) were white cis het tutors who thought that they understood queerness, I attempt to work through this with these groups. Queer artists deserve better.

I would say something that I believe designers, artists and everybody should be better at is talking about social issues or political causes [productively]. As good as it is to highlight problems, do your research to make sure you find the people that are working towards a solution.

Don’t be scared to admit mistakes, just remember to learn from them.

Fred Andersson

For me it means self-acceptance without exception, and being part of a community that accepts who you are.

I adore Christine and the Queens. She is a breath of fresh air in every respect.

Do your own thing. Vivienne Westwood said it to me in the 90s when I was 18 and working for hers. I was about to leave my apprenticeship with her to study fashion at Central Saint Martins, and it has stuck with me since.

Be authentic to who you are and how you create - you need to have a point of difference if you want to become successful in the creative industry. Combined with lots of hard work, it will all just fall into place eventually.

You worked in fashion, with Vivienne Westwood, before pivoting to lighting and interiors. What inspired you to make the switch?

How do you see your initial training helping you in your work now? It doesn’t matter if it’s a tailored jacket or a table lamp, the process of creating something new is the same. Vivienne taught me how to look to the past for inspiration and technical ability. I adopted this tenet into my own work in furniture and lighting design.

Lee Broom

 Working at Oscar Wilde Bookshop when I was a freshman [in college] helped put Pride in perspective for me. I quickly realized that I had a relatively easy time coming out and was allowed for a level of comfort, freedom and confidence that was not afforded others. Seeing all of these folks from all over the world come to New York (the Pride that I attended) and express such joy and community showed me just how important it was to them to feel that same freedom. This was a weekend (now a month) where people could feel a part of the world more fully and not feel afraid to hold hands, show affection, express themselves and just be.

I was born in Pennsylvania but spent summers in NYC from the mid 70’s onward so I got to experience Pride pretty much at its inception. As a teen, Pride taught me not to be ashamed because I was different and that there was a family and community I belonged to. Pride is one of the main reasons I moved to NYC.

We channel most of our difficult times through what we create. The act of working with your hands in itself can be quite therapeutic but then seeing your work in the world affecting others explodes that feeling exponentially. In some ways being LGBTQ+ is always in the background of what we make, as it is the lens in which we can’t help but see our world through. That may result in playing with the context of a piece of clothing or in some cases being inspired by other LGBTQ+ works and introducing them to newer audiences, that makes the rough times worth it.

We have been huge fans of Nayland Blake for many years. His works have been important to us. Scooter LaForge, Arca, Nicole Eisenman.

To us, living in a world that has made gathering information and finding inspiration so easy has led design down a very interesting path.

Amalgamations of decades and genres sometimes without context has brought design all to a place where almost anything goes and in any configuration.

If there was one thing I always felt was boring, it was the articles that would connect many works through the lens of one particular point; the “color of the season” or “the length of a season". That was not as interesting to us as the journey of the individual artist. It is so much harder to group design these days, as there are more artists working today whose voices have a greater opportunity to be heard, their works can be much more singular and less trend driven because they/we get to control our own “media” like never before.

It’s the mindset of combining the analog worlds and digital worlds. We place craft at the same level as technology in everything we do.

Why do you feel that your method of fashion - bespoke, on demand, and with a focus on sustainability - is the future of the industry?

The future of this industry has to be considerate of the past and not continue operating blind to the damage it is doing to the environment and to people. By making only to order, we at JCRT operate in a way that is not only personally and creatively enabling, but the way we operate also cuts down on waste and pollution. There is much clothing and fabric that goes unsold, is heavily discounted and ends up either incinerated or in landfills. [Clothing production results in] millions of tons of waste, and that is unacceptable and reckless and for the consumer. It devalues what they have chosen to spend their money on.

What are your secrets to working together creatively, while being married and sharing that side of your life as well?

We have worked together since the very beginning, which has made it natural for us. We have never really separated the business and personal things, it just seemed too impossible to stop discussing ideas just because we are at dinner or getting ready in the morning.

JC-RT

José Roda is a Spanish illustrator who tells stories through vibrant drawings. His illustrations offer his perspective on the world, through the lenses of passion and social justice.

In addition to his work for the Design with Pride gallery, José worked with Harry's to design the artwork for both the 2019 and 2020 Shave With Pride sets. He has illustrated works for clients like Hyundai, the city of Barcelona, and Refinery29. He currently teaches in Madrid at IED Madrid.

https://www.instagram.com/josearoda/

https://joseantonioroda.com/

José Roda

Design with Pride celebrates the exceptional talents and personalities of those in the LGBTQ design community.