You Can’t Ban Queer Joy
During Pride month, GLAAD, the leading advocate for LGBTQ acceptance and equality, launched the empowering “You Can’t Ban Queer Joy” campaign. This initiative aimed to magnify the vibrant spirit of the queer community by daily sharing typography treatments on social media platforms under the hashtag #YouCantBanQueerJoy.
Expanding beyond the digital landscape, the campaign encouraged individuals and businesses to showcase visually striking “You Can’t Ban Queer Joy” posters in their localities, disseminating messages of celebration and unity. These posters featured a QR code linking to a dedicated landing page where viewers could choose and print their preferred designs.
Participation in the campaign not only demonstrated support for the queer community but also inspired others to embrace joy and resilience. Social media involvement, including sharing photos with the posters and tagging @GLAAD, facilitated increased visibility, acceptance, and celebration.
The “You Can’t Ban Queer Joy” Campaign sought to spark a surge of creativity, solidarity, and positive change. GLAAD, alongside numerous participants from diverse communities, collaborated to make a meaningful impact and promote LGBTQ+ acceptance worldwide.
Campaign Strategy
Phase 1 - Social Takeover
We took over our social platform with diversely designed posters, reminding people daily of our primary message. Having diversity within the designs allows us to reach new corners of our community.
Phase 2 - Target Markets
Throughout June, our posters took over cities big and small; challenging cultural norms, generating curiosity, and promoting dialogue around LGBTQ issues, capturing content along the way.
We strategically selected 3 cities to achieve both English & Spanish “You Can’t Ban Queer Joy” posters. These activations were placed in communities that have been directly affected by the over 500 political attacks on the LGBTQ community this year alone.
Posters could be seen in Washington D.C., Miami, and Atlanta.
PHASE 3 - Engaging our Community
Every poster had a QR code leading to GLAAD.ORG/ACTION - where they’re encouraged to download, print and display their favorite designs wherever they like.
PHASE 4 - Riding The Momentum
Pushing the content we’d created, capturing the community interacting, and truly enjoying the messaging was the best part of the entire campaign. People were so elated to see these signs and couldn’t wait to engage once they were presented in real life. Here are some social highlights from the campaign.
NYC Mermaid Parade
NYC Pride
‘Queer Joy’ Campaign Photography
In addition to the poster campaign, we commissioned a group of photographers to capture queer joy in their hometowns. This was a beautiful compliment to all the pride content flooding in at the end of Pride month.
Michael Grant
@mikaelgrant
Cindy Trinh
@cindytrinh.photo
Elvin Tavarez
@friedplatano
Tré
@treybabee
Lauren Jones
@itslaurenjones
Tré
@treybabee
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33rd GLAAD
Media Awards
Premiered on Hulu 04/16/2022
'Survivor's' Zeke Smith (left) surprise proposes to 'Superstore's' Nico Santos onstage at the 33 GLAAD Media Awards
Actress Michaela Jaé Rodriguez accepts the Stephen F Kolzak Award from Andrew Garfield
2022, the GLAAD Media Awards transitioned back to our traditional in-person format. This marked the creative team's official ownership of branding, designing, and managing the live broadcast of the GLAAD Media Awards—an unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The year prior, we benefited from the significant creative freedom of GLAAD’s one-time virtual event Together in Pride: You are Not Alone. With the return of in-person events, we knew the importance of designing enduring visuals that could evolve with future events. This pushed us to craft an identity that seamlessly balanced classic appeal with current trends, allowing room for cohesive evolution and recognizability.
Trophy Rendering Process
In line with the previous year's approach, we maintained our focus on highlighting the trophy as a central element in the event's branding, fostering a sense of desirability around the object itself. This year, our shift in perspective was marked by a determination to craft something enduring. Originally rendering the trophy in its physical form, we recognized the need to infuse a touch of fantasy for vitality. Playing with proportions, we reduced the height of the trophy's base to enhance visual stability, anchoring it in a captivating depth of field. This "melting" effect imparted a dynamic quality, making the trophy appear as if it were emerging from a liquid metal surface, adding a timeless and captivating dimension.
We took the trophy rendering a step further in broadcast design, introducing a secondary color scheme exclusively for winner celebrations. We crafted a version of the trophy render with pink and purple hues complementing the original blues, which consistently remain present.
Typographic Design Process
Once the trophy renderings were finalized, our attention turned to the type treatment. Recognizing that Futura, GLAAD’s primary font, lacked the distinctiveness required for our envisioned aesthetic, we delved into envisioning a custom GLAAD Media Awards font. Adhering to GLAAD’s brand guidelines, we aimed to maintain a connection with Futura while infusing subtle enhancements. Through adjustments in line weights, crossbars, terminal points, and letter width, we carefully refined the lettering. The result was a type treatment that achieved a more elevated and curated look, seamlessly aligning with GLAAD’s overall brand style.
Finally, we selected Brioso for the event's year number (33rd) font, making slight adjustments before arriving at our final choice.
Official 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards Logo
Stage Design
Jeopardy!
Drag Queen Edition
Screen Design
Winners Graphic Template
Special Guest
Announcement Template
Layout Design / Broadcast
Off Stage Winners Reel
Wireframes design guide for production team
Production Team
Thanks to the success of our 2021 virtual broadcast, we secured a substantial budget increase, enabling a collaborative effort with the exceptional creative studio, Warm & Fuzzy. Their expert creative support allowed us to bring our ideas to life, guiding them toward our desired aesthetic and achieving incredible artistry beyond our capabilities. Additionally, we enlisted the services of Stamp Events Co., a management team ensuring seamless coordination of the numerous moving parts. With both organizations on GLAAD's side, we collectively established a safe working environment, fostering calculated creative risks deemed necessary to propel the brand forward.
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32nd GLAAD
Media Awards
Premiered on Hulu & Youtube 04/08/2021
This was the first year GLAAD's internal creative team had the opportunity to design and manage the production of the Media Awards.
The world was still grappling with COVID, so this marked the inaugural occasion for GLAAD to produce a completely virtual show. Despite the numerous firsts we had to overcome, we were tremendously excited about this chance to propel GLAAD to the place the organization truly deserves.
Our initial focus was on reimagining the logo. In previous years, the organization hesitated to use the trophy in event visuals, fearing it wasn't recognizable to the general public. After researching longstanding successful award shows, we realized that the trophy itself should play a central role in the design. Our aim was to make the trophy a recognizable icon that people would appreciate. Quickly, our goal shifted to making people fall in love with the trophy and ensuring it was as visually appealing as possible. We recognized that it was our responsibility to elevate the trophy as an object worth earning.
Logo development
Digital/Print Event Program -
Select pages
Winner Graphic Template
Guest Announcement
Graphic Template
GLEE Virtual Reunion - Remembering
Naya Rivera
FULL BROADCAST
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20 Under 20:
GLAAD +
Teen Vogue
2020 - 2022
The main challenge in designing this logo was the need to merge 2 initiatives into one.
The 20 under 20 list: GLAAD + Teen Vogue was born out of GLAAD's Rising Stars program. The Rising Stars program created a platform through a large network of college ambassadors to elevate young queer voices in media, using the GLAAD Media Awards as a means of recognition and representation. There was a need to preserve the strength built within the Rising Stars community while shifting the focus to a more publicly visible outlet.
Teen Vogue’s partnership, marks an amazing step forward for the program, bringing a well-deserved platform to GLAAD’s vetted queer titans in media.
Original Rising Stars branding
LOGO DESIGN
ALTERNATE LOGO CONCEPTS FROM 2020
2021
Sponsors requested a new look and feel for the initiative - still a Teen Vogue feature
2022
We returned to the original branding from 2020
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Spirit Day
2020 Rebrand
In 2020, I was entrusted with the task of giving GLAAD's robust Spirit Day collateral a well-deserved facelift. The program, born in 2010, was approaching its 10-year anniversary and needed to be more digitally appealing.
First, what is Spirit Day?
#SpiritDay is the world’s most visible anti-bullying movement, inspiring LGBTQ youth—especially transgender and nonbinary youth—to live their lives in truth and authenticity. This year, on Thursday, October 19th, GLAAD will organize thousands of celebrities, influential voices, news and media outlets, TV and film studios, brands and corporations, landmarks, sports leagues, tech leaders, influencers, faith groups, and many more to go purple and support LGBTQ youth by creating clear possibility models for them to thrive and be represented in the world.
The most significant change for this program was the logo. The previous logo lacked personality, utilizing a boxy structure and unaltered typography. For a campaign created to engage with and protect youth, the logo felt very corporate and unapproachable.
When approaching this design, we aimed to embrace GLAAD’s brand standards while infusing a more youthful energy. Pink underlines, previously employed in past collateral, naturally evolved into a prominent element of the main design, featuring layered natural spray paint effects that allude to GLAAD’s politically rebellious origins. This became a central feature of the campaign and was incorporated into the overall brand guide.
Additionally, we opted for an all-lowercase type treatment to distinguish the program from other GLAAD initiatives. Across various deliverables, lowercase treatment was consistently applied to headers and bold statements, creating a simple yet effective tool for cohesion and individuality.
The logo and brand guide crafted by us in 2020 continue to be in use today.
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GLAAD Social initiatives
“Protect Trans Youth'“ Valentines
Trans Love Stories
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San Francisco Gala 2019
As Art Director of the 2019 San Francisco GLAAD Gala, I created a cohesive design communicating elegance and simplicity. My main focus was to templatize content, streamlining the process for the years to follow.
TALENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
EVITE
EMAIL DESIGN
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Evergreen Pride Logo
Effortlessly integrating a rainbow, infused a sense of natural cohesion and purpose. Upon reviewing old pride logos, it was clear the connection between the logo and the rainbow needed to be more natural. Its integration within the overarching brand identity is important considering how large the role of a rainbow plays in the LGBTQ. community.
OLD
NEW
After many discussions with the development team and an email voting campaign, the following logo was chosen.
This was my ideal choice and I'm extremely happy this is what we settled on.
2018 updated Pride Logo
Once the design was finalized it was used to promote the brand and raise money during pride month 2018.
The following is a representation of some of the ways the logo was utilized.
Stickers
