Here is a fairly comprehensive list of resources that are featured in or informed my talks on queer theory and design. If you’d like to work together on a talk for your event or workplace, email me.
Books
- Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement, David K. Johnson.
A microhistory of the role played by physique pictorials in the gay liberation movement - Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, Sasha Costanza-Chock.
Includes the role ”unmarked identities” in user experience design leads to biased outcomes and offers an overview of participatory design techniques for a more just design practice - Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, Kat Holmes.
Essential reading about Inclusive Design, including an explanation of different models of disability and methods for creating more accessible products - Queer X Design: 50 Years of Signs, Symbols, Banners, Logos, and Graphic Art of LGBTQ, Andy Campbell.
A beautiful visual history of the LGBTQ+ community, full of inspiring examples - Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers, Ellen Lupton, Farah Kafei, Jennifer Tobias, Josh A. Halstead, Kaleena Sales, Leslie Xia, Valentina Vergara.
An intersectional collection of reflections on design from creators of marginalized identities, including thoughts on queer design - Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Judith Butler.
The text which introduces gender as performance, arguing against biological essentialism in feminist thought - The Queer Art of Failure, Jack Halberstam.
Combines ”low” cultural criticism of popular media and queer theory to explore how queer stories stand in opposition to traditional narratives of success - Queer Theory Now: From Foundations to Futures, Hannah McCann, Whitney Monaghan.
An approachable overview of the history of and concepts essential to queer theory as well as the diverging schools of thought within the discipline - Queer Theory Gender Theory: An Instant Primer, Riki Wilchins.
An introduction to post-modern gender studies that includes in-depth discussion on the socially constructed aspects of gender and sex
Creators Featured
- Andy Warhol
Noted gay artist whose series Ladies and Gentlemen (1975) depicts trans women and drag performers of color - CPB London
Agency behind the International Women’s Day poster campaign (2022) highlighting assumptions made based on the gender binary - Daniel Quasar
Designer of the Progress Pride Flag, which incorporates Trans Flag colors into the original rainbow flag - Elizabeth Critchlow
A multidisciplinary designer and printmaker whose piece It Was Not Acceptable in the 80s revisits the HIV/AIDS crisis through the eyes of a younger queer person - Hal Fischer
Photographer behind the iconic Gay Semiotics (1977) - Lucas LaRochelle
Designer who created Queering the Map (2017) - Mel Reeve
Runs Bi History and creator of Bisexuality is Freedom print (2020), with FOMA Press - Namsa Leuba
Photographer whose work The Myth of the 'Vahine' through Gender Dysphoria (2019), documents gender diversity in French Polynesia - Paul Soulellis
Queer archivist and creator of What is Queer Typography zine - Pretty Boy Zines
Designer of a The Agender Agenda, a zine tackling identity, politics, and anarchy - Tré Seals
Founder of Vocal Type, which makes Marsha, a typeface inspired by the Stonewall Inn and named after Marsha P. Johnson - Vern Martin-Ivie
Collage and digital artist whose work reflects their experiences as a disabled, fat, trans and queer person
Groups
- ACT UP
The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, a diverse group of individuals, united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis - Fenway Health
Nonprofit community health centers serving the Boston area’s LGBTQ+ community with a research arm dedicated to LGBTQ+ health and HIV/AIDS research - Guerilla Girls
Anonymous artist activists who use design to expose gender and ethnic bias and corruption in art, film, politics and pop culture - HIV.gov
HIV/AIDS resources including testing and treatment resources, awareness day calendars, and reusable campaign materials - Human Rights Campaign
The nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, instrumental in the campaign for marriage equality - Intersex Equality Rights
Campaigns to support people born with diverse sex characteristics - Keith Haring Foundation
Dedicated to Keith Haring's artistic and philanthropic legacy through the preservation and circulation of his artwork and archives - Queer Design Club
An online community of LGBTQ+ people in design with a talent directory, Slack group, and other resources - National AIDS Memorial
Works to ensure the people who died from AIDS are not forgotten and fight against fear, silence, discrimination, and stigma - Queer Nation
LGBTQ+ activist organization founded in New York City in March 1990
Instagram Accounts
- @autoer0ticasf
San Francisco gay adult shop that shares designs from its vast collection of vintage smut (Censored for Instagram but still NSFW) - @bihistory
Run by Mel Reeve, collects photos and design from bisexual history - @bipanlibrary
A physical archive and online directory of media created by and about bi, pan, and m-spec people - @homocommunist
Leftist account that collects Queer Liberation ephemera - @h_e_r_s_t_o_r_y
Maintained by Kel Rakowski, founder of Lex, features many historic visuals centered around queer women - @lgbt_history
Maintained by Matthew Riemer & Leighton Brown, authors of We Are Everywhere, featuring visuals from LGBTQ+ history - @lgbtqdesign
Maintained by Kinda Savarino, somewhat out of date but includes excellent examples of design by and for LGBTQ+ people
Etc.
- AnOther Magazine, Jennie Livingston on the Complex Legacy of Paris Is Burning
More on the cultural significance of the documentary Paris is Burning - The Design Museum, A quick look at Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles
Industrial designer Dieter Rams’ famous principles of good design and a bit of the history behind them - Eye on Design, The Digital Closet Tells the Story of How the Internet Became Straight
Write up on a book detailing how heteronormative biases are coded into digital platforms and experiences - History, What Were the White Night Riots
Deeper background on the riots that inspired the No Apologies! design shared - The Nation, The First Drag Queen Was a Former Slave
A history of the first self-proclaimed drag queen, William Dorsey Swann - Washington Post, What should be the restroom sign of the future?
Designers explore gender inclusive symbolism for restrooms - Wikipedia, Five Whys
An overview of the Five Whys technique for lightweight deconstruction shared in the talk
