Confidence, Community, and Rejecting Conformity: Navigating the Design World as a Queer Designer. “We are breaking the rules just by being” — It’s time to unpack the realities of being queer women in design.
PART 1: IDENTITY AND EXPRESSION
The concept of ‘identity’ is fundamental to design. In branding, for instance, ‘identity’ encapsulates the core of a company or product—its voice, appearance, feel, and spirit. And naturally, as the complex, multi-faceted humans behind them, creatives navigate their own identities too. In design, queer women thrive on the innovation and vibrancy of the field — one that celebrates stories and ideas that engage, delight, and challenge us in fresh ways — but face systemic biases from an industry shaped by capitalist constraints. Despite efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the facts don’t lie: design remains largely white, straight, and male-dominated. This is the ‘default,’ and we’re existing outside the ‘norms.’
As I write this during Pride month, I can’t help but notice many different push-and-pulls – one end advocating for sincerity and equality in the face of political turbulence, while the other treads the careful line between appearing ‘inclusive’ and appeasing shareholders. Yet, in the noise, how often do we stop and truly listen to the voices and stories of queer creatives? To spotlight their journeys and the impact of being LGBTQ+ on their careers, I chatted with four fantastic queer women creatives — Becca Brooker, Chris Campe, Cari Sekendur, and Dominique Falcone. Drawing upon the growth and evolution of their practices, they discuss embracing confidence, finding authenticity on your own terms, and what actions we can take to foster a supportive design community for everyone.
Finding Design
“Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago as a queer woman was difficult as it was often not a safe space to present as anything other than femme,” recalls Rebecca Brooker, a designer based in Portland, Maine and co-founder of Queer Design Club – the leading online directory for LGBTQ+ creatives. As a queer woman of colour born and raised on the Carribean island, design provided her with a digital outlet for all of the ways she couldn’t present herself in real life. “From the early days of Myspace, Hi5, and Neopets, I was using self-taught design to build my own corners of the internet,” she recalls.
Because of this, design has always played a huge role in her self expression. Like many out LGBTQ+ creatives at the beginning of their careers, “I was more self-conscious of the way I showed up,” she says. “I wanted to be taken seriously, and be seen as ‘professional,’ but I was sacrificing and stifling my own self and gender expression.”
Similarly, long before her design career flourished, Lisbon-based creative director and designer Dominique Falcone struggled with feeling like an outsider. “I think for a long time I was scared to authentically be myself,” she says. “Growing up I always felt a bit different, especially being a woman of colour in predominantly white schools. Very few people looked like me or shared like minded values and openness.” Over time, this propelled her to find a creative community of people who shared these traits and beliefs, allowing her to open up and feel comfortable being herself – not an outsider or judged.
“I think for a long time I was scared to authentically be myself.” Dominique Falcone
Navigating the nuanced intersection of personal expression and professional identity is a journey familiar to many queer creatives – particularly in spaces where such identities are less commonly represented – and it’s not unreasonable to wonder whether being ‘out’ will influence your career in some way. “In the mid-2000s, I studied Illustration in Hamburg and started to get my first commissions,” reflects Hamburg-based lettering artist, designer, and writer Chris Campe, as she looks back on the early days of her career. “I was convinced that to be a professional designer I had to hide that I am queer. I thought if people knew, they wouldn’t hire me. I thought it just wasn’t professional.” Campe entered the industry in a time before the capitalist-fuelled ‘branding’ of personal identity. Nowadays the ‘brand’ of the individual, especially freelancers, is a contributing factor to potential work offers. “I have mixed feelings about this, but today, it’s a great marketing strategy to articulate my queerness and I’ll be hired for that,” she acknowledges. “But that wasn’t the case 20 years ago.”
“I was convinced that to be a professional designer I had to hide that I am queer. I thought if people knew, they wouldn’t hire me. I thought it just wasn’t professional.” Chris Campe
Achieving Authenticity and Fulfilment
In today’s digital-first age, showing off your personal ‘brand’ is not just accepted, but applauded. It is perhaps even vital for emerging creatives to stand out in the rolling sea of talent. Being authentic in the creative industries means embracing your unique perspective and values, and incorporating these into your work. It’s about finding your voice and using it to express your unique creative vision. This doesn’t necessarily mean wearing your personal life on your sleeve, but rather letting your true self shine through in your work. Likewise, if you’re not only out or openly proud, that’s okay and still valid. Even in the creative industries, in progressive countries, there are plenty of reasons why someone doesn’t feel safe or comfortable to be ‘out’ to clients or colleagues. It is hard at the moment. Being authentically ‘you’, in the workplace or beyond, doesn’t mean you need to put on a show. So what does it mean to be authentic and achieve fulfilment in the creative industries?
“I studied Illustration, but I also have an M.A. in cultural studies, and reading theory for two years made me sceptical about the idea of the ‘authentic self’,” explains Campe. “Instead, I imagine myself being reconfigured again and again depending on context. That said, yes, design allows me to address issues that are important to me and express my perspective of the world. And my perspective is shaped by the fact that I have been identifying as a queer woman for 25 years.”
Creativity and your work can provide a space to connect with your authentic self in many ways, from idea generation to relationship building in communities. Early on in her career, Campe turned her focus to the realm of lettering, a deliberate move to sidestep the depiction of gender in her creative output. She felt that her figurative drawings about gender and queerness only resonated with those interested in these topics, and that those ‘outside’ of these topics weren’t even engaging with the artistry of the work. “This felt limiting and like preaching to the choir,” she says. “I sometimes wonder if this was a kind of self-censorship motivated by internalised homophobia,” she adds. However, opting to focus on letterforms allowed her to reach a broader audience and achieve fulfilment in her own way.
For Cari Sekendur, Founder of Butter Studio, finding creative fulfilment through her work brought her a lot of peace. “I did not go to art school, and for the first few years after graduating undergrad I was lost and unfulfilled in a non-creative career,” she says, having initially worked in marketing and operations. When the Berlin office of a company she was working for, Fab, shut down, she took it as an opportunity to switch career paths, eventually leading to the founding of her own studio. “Coming to design allowed me to more fully be myself and find intellectual fulfilment,” she reflects, where her liberal arts background and business experience give her a unique design industry perspective, leading to successful client relationships. One of the most enjoyable parts of her practice is, according to her, “the access to working with queer business owners to make impactful work for companies I believe in.”
“Coming to design allowed me to more fully be myself and find intellectual fulfilment…” Cari Sekendur
Likewise, Brooker’s growing experience within the industry, coupled with the unwavering support from her vibrant community of queer designers, has boosted her career journey. “The best designers are the ones who are confident in themselves and their work,” she says. “In fact, showing up as my authentic self and leaning into my experiences as an immigrant woman of colour has led me to accomplish more than I could have imagined.”
Queerness and Creativity
In embracing all aspects of her identity, Brooker’s authenticity shines through in her work. Whether it’s subtle or overt, the creatives I spoke to agree that their identities are not separate from their creative output, but rather, they shape and influence it.
“On a baseline level,” says Brooker, “there’s a little bit of queerness that goes into everything I make – just naturally.” It’s ingrained in how she sees the world and thinks about design, so it’s hard to separate the two. Sekendur agrees. “I can’t extricate one from the other. My creative output, my taste is all stemming from me, and I’m queer! So one influences the other.”
It’s also an important reminder of why queer voices, and marginalised voices as a whole, make the creative industries a better place. “We are breaking the rules just by being,” Sekendur emphasises. “So inherently we aren’t tethered to restrictive cultural norms and standards. I believe that once you’ve been freed from thinking ‘within the box,’ or forced to carve your own path, the opportunities for creative problem-solving are endless.” Our personal experiences can significantly shape the way we perceive and create design solutions. Therefore, if we ignore intersectional voices – those of queer, immigrant, people of colour, and more – we risk making the world an overwhelmingly inaccessible place for the vast majority. “Diverse voices and perspectives drive more inclusive solutions for everyone,” Brooker suggests. “Specifically, as it relates to queer issues, there are specific insights about building software, such as ensuring data collections forms are inclusive or the real-world example of transgender bathroom signage.”
Key Work and Projects
In their own work, the designers I spoke to have been able to channel their insights and experiences and actively contribute to projects by and for the LGBTQ+ community. Reflecting on a previous project, Brooker shares her experience working on a brand campaign for imi guide, an invaluable mental health resource app specifically designed for LGBTQ+ teens. “Leading the creative direction and design for the campaign allowed me to tap into my inner queer teenager, enabling us to make design decisions that would resonate deeply with our audience,” she notes. Understanding first-hand the type of support and messaging a queer teen needs made the campaign more sincere, successfully increasing engagement with the imi guide tool. “The passion and drive for the subject matter fueled authentic and audience-driven solutions, turning it into one of the best projects I’ve worked on.”
Sekendur is proud of Butter Studio’s work in supporting queer business owners and branding their businesses. “They come to me because there’s a shared camaraderie and lens through which we view the world,” she says. “There’s a level of trust that is inherent in working with a creative that automatically gets their point of view.” For instance, Butter has recently rebranded Emily Meyer, a queer-owned fashion design label that makes bespoke suits for women. “We recently launched two other queer-women-owned brands,” Sekendur adds, “One Trick Pony, a coffee shop in The Hamptons, and Business Casual, a consultancy helping queer small business owners with management.”
“There’s a level of trust that is inherent in working with a creative that automatically gets their point of view.” Cari Sekendur
Falcone, too, savours the moments where she can incorporate elements of queer joy and expression in her work. “As a creative working predominantly in music, I’ve found that the queer music I listen to and the queer music artists I’ve worked with have really allowed me to express myself and my queer joy,” she explains. “There is something so beautiful about music that makes you move and feel things that are otherwise dormant when you are still.” Falcone’s love for music started from an early age, having grown up dancing to her mom’s vinyl records featuring a formidable list of LGBT icons – Donna Summer, CHIC, David Bowie, Janet Jackson, Freddie Mercury, Madonna, and more. “There was always something so electric, energetic and open in their music, and the record covers themselves,” she reflects. “They were what propelled me to start making art. Bright colours, confident and sexy imagery – it all made me feel powerful.”
PART 2: THE INDUSTRY
As we take a step back to look at the creative industries as a whole, there is plenty to lament and celebrate. In the eyes of many women designers who identify as LGBTQ+, the industry still has a way to go. And a deeper look underscores that the call for greater diversity and representation isn’t just a plea for fairness – it’s a key to unlocking the boundless potential of visual communications.
Hurdles and biases
In the years 2019 and 2021, Queer Design Club conducted the Queer Design Count, a comprehensive survey of LGBTQ+ designers navigating the industry. “Our research consistently found that designers were underpaid and overworked, and more likely to be subject to discrimination and harassment at work, and more likely to be tokenized by the company,” explains Brooker. Queer designers were leaving the industry sooner, and the number of queer designers reaching executive or senior levels were less and less. In their deeply important work, the team highlights that LGBTQ+ creatives not only need to be hired, but respected, supported, and paid fairly!
In the past decade, Campe has found that her path was sometimes blocked by heterosexual men in positions of power. With her not fitting into their comfortable categories of a cis-het woman to flirt with or a man to connect with, they found the dynamics challenging to manage. “So often,” Campe continues, “these men seem to not know how to interact with me and they just ignore me, which can be a disadvantage.”
Falcone echoes the sentiment – to her, it’s disappointing that those with the power to uplift and champion those from marginalised groups opt not to do so. “I always wished I had more support earlier in my career, to feel inspired and supported by other creatives that shared my values,” she says. “But sadly, I felt most of the people I looked up to in terms of their work were different from me – traditionally white cis straight men that had little interest in building community or furthering others’ talent. This discouraged me.”
A need for diversity at all levels
These two examples are a tiny fraction of what queer women designers have faced, and continue to face, when navigating their careers. In the creative industries, diversity is not just a matter of inclusivity for its own sake, but a necessity. “It’s always beneficial to have diverse teams and listen to people who are part of traditionally marginalised groups,” says Campe, “not just queers.”
In leadership roles, this diversity is especially important. As Sekendur notes, a more varied mix in design leadership leads to “better, and more interesting work,” overall. But it also sets a powerful precedent. “Representation, especially at executive levels,” says Brooker, “has allowed other queer designers to see a future for themselves and understand that anything is possible.” It sends a message to the broader queer community that their future in the design industry is bright, and their potential, limitless.
“Representation, especially at executive levels… has allowed other queer designers to see a future for themselves and understand that anything is possible.” Becca Brooker
“It’s important for white men in particular to understand that they don’t lose when they are no longer amongst themselves in positions of power, and it’s not about being nice to the poor people who have been excluded for so long,” Campe explains. “Excluding members of non-dominant groups curbs the potential of everyone, not just that of those who are denied access, attention and resources.”
Falcone proposes that greater effort needs to be made by all creatives in positions of power to support and hire queer creatives. By focusing on our own individualistic goals and career trajectories, it reinforces an unhealthy competitive mindset, which hurts the wider creative culture. “Personally, I only hire people from marginalised groups – women of colour, queer, and non-binary folks, in an effort to make the creative space more equitable,” she reveals. Given that her clients are mostly from marginalised groups, making them feel safe and supported is a top priority.
Queer Design and the Industry: What’s happening, and what still needs to change?
Understanding the importance of diversity and inclusion is only the beginning. The real challenge lies in incorporating these principles into the framework of industries and organisations. Creative employers and leaders need to stay informed, not only voicing support for queer employees and colleagues but also understanding the systemic inequalities that lead to marginalisation. This is where genuine, enduring empathy resides. As Brooker suggests, “our industry must make deeper commitments to creating inclusive environments at work, and executing on those commitments.”
Hiring diverse talent, including queer individuals, can aid in this effort. In a climate where the LGBTQ community is often used as political pawns, championing the work of queer creatives and providing support and advice spaces for new designers is crucial all year round – not just during Pride Month! After all, employees are at their best when they can be their genuine selves at work, free from the pressure to conform to gendered expectations. Stability is key, so thoughtful and meaningful initiatives that support all employees are necessary.
According to Brooker, this could take the form of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) workshops, and training, as well as comprehensive health benefits for queer and trans individuals. “These are just a few high level ways that we can start shifting the needle, but it’ll take everyone to get on board,” says Brooker. “Intersectionality and diversity overall play a big role in being able to make policies that work for everyone.”
The Joy of Uplifting Others
Outside of workplace settings, the creative community has seen an inspiring surge of queer designers and makers who are not just making a name for themselves, but also paving the way for others in the community. A shining example of this movement is the Queer Design Club. Founded by Brooker and John Voss, QDC is a professional space, giving a platform to queer creatives who are shaping the industry and bringing visibility to those who deserve to be celebrated.
What began as a modest side project between friends has blossomed into a thriving global community of creatives. “Building Queer Design Club has been a dream experience that I never imagined,” Brooker reflects. “Seeing the number of members grow from 0 to 50 to 500 to 3000 over the past five years has been a constant source of joy.” Creating this space for queer creatives to connect, share opportunities, and open doors for each other has become a “deeply fulfilling” part of her work as a designer. This vibrant platform has evolved into “a place to celebrate your wins, platform emerging designers, and create an archive about ourselves.”
From her career’s earliest days, Campe strategically wove public speaking into the fabric of her professional identity. This, combined with her lettering practice, has been a powerful force for self-expression. “I decided early on that I wanted to be able to speak in front of large audiences, because if I had seen someone like me on a stage 20 years ago, it would have encouraged me,” she explains. “It still encourages me to see other queer people on stage.” Drawing upon her MA studies in cultural theory, Campe’s talks are ⅔ design and ⅓ queer-feminism. “People come to my talks for my design work and I use the occasion to talk about feminism, too. Using this strategic, somewhat activistic method of self-expression, I can reach a wider audience than if I simply included gender and feminism in the titles of my talks.
Mentoring and creating opportunities for younger designers
Campe’s activism and public speaking have undoubtedly inspired many, illustrating one way queer creatives can provide support. Many others offer mentorship and create professional opportunities as a powerful means to uplift others.
“Mentorship and creating opportunities for younger designers has been one of the most rewarding parts of my career,” says Brooker. “It fills me with pride and joy to share my experiences and help guide their path in the design industry. I love seeing others win, and coaching them allows me to share in their joy.”
“It fills me with pride and joy to share my experiences and help guide their path in the design industry. I love seeing others win, and coaching them allows me to share in their joy.” Becca Brooker
Falcone urges all creatives in power to consider mentorship. “I founded Sugar Studios to connect and uplift marginalised groups, specifically women, non-binary individuals, queer individuals, and WOC. My greatest creative work has been getting the opportunity to mentor so many incredible young talented folks,” she says. Her primary goal is to ensure they never feel the same kind of isolation she experienced. “I’ve found that this community, support, and dialogue have influenced my creativity more than any actual piece of art. I feel both inspired and supported to express and experiment in ways I would have been scared to before.”
Final Words
Designers Rebecca Brooker, Chris Campe, Cari Sekendur, and Dominique Falcone have generously shared industry musings, key insights, and invaluable nuggets of wisdom, drawing from their own experiences and personal philosophies. To conclude, we hand over the mic to them to share their words of advice for emerging designers in the LGBTQ+ community.
Incredible opportunities can come from fostering genuine relationships, advises Brooker. “Always show up as who you are, and you will find your people.” Falcone emphasises that like-minded people do indeed exist. “There’s no need to conform or adjust your values to fit in with a community that doesn’t identify with you,” she suggests. “Start your own. Even beginning with your friends can encourage those who appear less creative to embrace their imaginative potential.”
“There’s no need to conform or adjust your values to fit in with a community that doesn’t identify with you. Start your own.” Dominique Falcone
In her mid-forties, Campe realised that openly expressing her identity and values was not only a powerful form of self-expression, but also attracted the right collaborators. “For a long time I felt that I needed to make myself fit to the world, but increasingly now I expect the world to adapt to me,” she says. “It took me decades to overcome the things I was taught while growing up female and gather the self-esteem necessary to make this change of perspective and attitude.” Campe also encourages creatives to trust their instincts. “If a project or interaction with a potential client feels off from the start, I know it won’t work well. I trust this feeling and decline the project or client.”
“If a project or interaction with a potential client feels off from the start, I know it won’t work well. I trust this feeling and decline the project or client.” Chris Campe
With this in mind, it’s also helpful to remember that finding your people — particularly in the workplace — can take time, adds Sekendur. Like Campe, she says it took her years to find her groove and carve out a niche, but now several of her clients are queer. “They agree there’s a special connection where we just get each other and are able to create really successful identities for their companies because of this shared lens through which we move through the world. I’d say be patient. Practise deep listening and you’ll be able to instinctively feel out where the right places are for you to thrive creatively.”
Reflecting inwardly, Campe asserts that self-awareness and understanding are crucial for producing meaningful work. “My work as an artist is not actually to create lettering, but to allow for connection,” she notes. For her, the best way to connect with herself has been through writing, having kept a journal since she was 13 years old. “I pay close attention to my particular life experience and put it into words and images so that others can relate. I hope for them to recognise their own experience reflected in mine, possibly in a way they haven’t articulated yet. With my design work and writing, I want to encourage those who need encouragement because they don’t fit with the dominant societal norms.”
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Amid reminders that the world is on fire and right-wing governments are eager to reverse decades of social progress, there is hope. A thriving queer design community exists, and they’re doing brilliant things. They’re carving out space for themselves and others, delivering vibrant works for queer clientele, and amplifying the voices of the LGBTQ+ creative community. There’s a momentum building for queer, joyful creative expression, in whatever form it takes, and the design world is all the better for it.