SARA DUELL, NYC-BASED ARTIST & DESIGNER
I work at the intersection of art and design, researching the possibility of achieving societal transformation through pleasure.* Working within a feminist/queer framework, I use craft and graphic design to toy with the limiting binaries that inform the status quo to create oppositional and analytical cultural/visual spaces.** Currently, I am pushing ideas of what we recognize as good, useful and acceptable in a series called “Over the Rainbow”, where I explore the saturated use of the pride flag. Through the work, I look at color and decoration as historical tools for othering and flags and flagging as historical tools for unification.
Recent collaborative updates include the launch of the fourth issue of WMN, a lesbian art and poetry zine (awarded the 2021 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. In the last year I also had the pleasure of teaching Visual Language and Thesis Research for the Communication Design Graduate students at Pratt Institute. For the next two years I’ll be pursuing a MFA in graphic design at Yale School of Art.
email: info (a) saraduell.com
instagram: @morningslayer
SELECTED WORK
SELECTED WRITING
“How Can Designers Address Power Inequity? Start Small and Focus on the Local: A look at the community-oriented practices of Bastion Agency, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Nat Pyper, and Suzy Chan” AIGA Eye On Design. March 8, 2021
“Black Lesbian Archives: An interview with Krü Maekdo” WMN. Sept 20, 2020
“Design feminista como método, não como estética” Revista Zum (the semi-annual photography magazine by the Moreira Salles Institute in Brazil). Translated by Daniele Queiroz. Sept 18, 2020
“Lesbian Invisibility in Art History: An interview with art historian Ksenia M. Soboleva” WMN. Aug 2, 2020
“Design Spotlight: Feminist Design as a Method, Not Aesthetics” Photobook Review #017, Fall 2019
“Women’s March on Washington: strong in number, but how about design?” Design Observer. March 8, 2017
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
PRESS
i-D—Why zines have always been vital textbooks for counterculture.
Abigail Glasgow. Dec 2021
Futuress—Not 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 Design—Small Budgets, Tight Deadlines, Important Work: Lessons all designers can learn from working with nonprofits
Abigail Glasgow. July 2021
Ms. Magazine—Fighting For the Term “Lesbian”: An Art and Poetry Publication Strives to Uplift Lesbian Writers Ashley Lynn Priore. June 2021
Fontwerk—With Passion for Lesbian Culture June 2021
Fonts in Use—“DYKE” hankies by WMN” Franziska Weitgruber. Dec 2020
Autostraddle—Wmn Zine: What It Means To Be A ‘Rural Lesbian’
Lauren Parker. Dec 2019
Broken Pencil—Pencil Sharpener: Print’s New Home For Rural Lesbians. Stefanie Ucci. Oct 2019
It’s Nice That—New York City tourism agency rebranded with custom typefaces and hundreds of icons. Jenny Brewer. June 2016
Eye Magazine—Love songs for Piano. Steven Heller. no. 90 vol. 23, 2015
ACCOLADES
Estrid Ericson’s Stipend. 2022, 2018, and 2012
Queens Art Fund 2021
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.” bell hooks. Teaching to transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994. p.22.