SARA DUELL

I conduct playful investigations of symbols of perceived good and evil, success and failure—especially how they relate to gender and sexuality. 

Informed by my experience as a graphic designer my work takes the form of printed publications, videos, flags and clothes. Using the ubiquitous nature of design that otherwise often upholds the status quo allows me to use the same visual language to instead create speculative and radical futures.

Recent collaborative updates include the launch of the fifth issue of WMN, a lesbian art and poetry zine (awarded the 2023 Queens Art Fund grant) that I publish together with artists Jeanette Spicer and Florencia Alvarado ; and the publication of Grace Han and my article about how designers can address power inequity for Eye on Design. I also had the pleasure of teaching Visual Language and Thesis Research for the Communication Design Graduate students at Pratt Institute. Until May 2024 I’ll be pursuing a MFA in graphic design at Yale School of Art.

email: info (a) saraduell.com
instagram: @morningslayer

SELECTED WORK

COMMISSIONED PROJECTS

Art Direction
Civilian Crisis Response—A Toolkit for Equitable Alternatives to Police
Photography by Tina Russell and Justin Katigbak
Vera Institute of Justice. Apr 2022.

Art Direction
[It’s] a Torture Chamber—Stories from Rikers Island
Photography by Reece T. Williams.
Vera Institute of Justice. Feb 2022.

Creative and Art Direction
Sixty Years of Fighting for Justice.
Vera 2021 Annual Report

Illustrations by Jasjyot Singh Hans and Mike Centeno. Photography by Jeanette Spicer and Anjali Pinto.
Vera Institute of Justice. Nov 2021.

Art Direction
ICE’s Deadly Practice of Abandoning Immigrants with Disabilities and Mental Illnesses on the Street
Illustrations by Michelle Garcia.
Vera Institute of Justice. Sept 2021.

Design
Kira Josefsson—Writer, Translator, Editor
Personal Website
Collaborator: Sasha Plotnikova

Design
Jeanette Spicer—Photographer
Personal Website

Design
Madeline Leung Coleman—Writer and Editor
Personal Website

See more projects in the project archive

PRESS

Curve MagazineA New Generation of Lesbian Publishing. Merryn Johns. May 2023

i-DWhy zines have always been vital textbooks for counterculture.
Abigail Glasgow. Dec 2021

FuturessNot a Matter of the Past: How lesbian feminist tactics and strategies can help us overcome struggles of today. Anja Neidhardt. Oct 15, 2021

AIGA Eye on DesignSmall Budgets, Tight Deadlines, Important Work: Lessons all designers can learn from working with nonprofits
Abigail Glasgow. July 2021

Ms. MagazineFighting For the Term “Lesbian”: An Art and Poetry Publication Strives to Uplift Lesbian Writers Ashley Lynn Priore. June 2021

FontwerkWith Passion for Lesbian Culture June 2021

Fonts in Use“DYKE” hankies by WMN” Franziska Weitgruber. Dec 2020 

AutostraddleWmn Zine: What It Means To Be A ‘Rural Lesbian’
Lauren Parker. Dec 2019

Broken PencilPencil Sharpener: Print’s New Home For Rural Lesbians. Stefanie Ucci. Oct 2019

It’s Nice ThatNew York City tourism agency rebranded with custom typefaces and hundreds of icons. Jenny Brewer. June 2016

Eye MagazineLove songs for Piano. Steven Heller. no. 90 vol. 23, 2015

ACCOLADES

Queens Art Fund 2023, 2021

Estrid Ericson’s Stipend. 2022, 2018, and 2012

Helge Ax:son Johnson’s Stipend 2020

Lucie Photo Book Prize finalist for Matthew Porter: The Heights. 2019

Vermont Studio Center artist grant. 2018

Webby Award in the Travel Category, and Honorable Mention in the Mobile Design category for nycgo.com. 2017

HOW Design in-house awards for the NYC&Company Rebrand. 2016

PDN Photo Annual winner Photo Book Category for Larry Towell’s Afghanistan. 2015

Design Observer’s 50 Covers
50 books
 for Martin Parr’s Life’s a Beach. 2013

CREDITS

Typefaces
Messer by Inga Plönnigs

*“It has expanded for me over the years as I have come to believe that facts, guilt and shame are limited motivations for creating change, even though those are the primary forces we use in our organizing work. I suspect that to really transform our society, we will need to make justice one of the most pleasurable experiences we can have” adrienne maree brown. Emergent Strategy. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2017. p. 33.

**“Resistance lies in self-conscious engagements with dominant, normative discourses and representations and the active creation of oppositional, analytic and cultural spaces.” Chandra Mohanty cited from her essay ”on race and voice” in bell hooks Teaching to transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994. p.22.