Friends of the Joiners Arms: Rebrand

(2022)

Branding design, digital and print editorial design.

I completed the rebrand of the campaign group Friends of the Joiners Arms for their new crowdfunder campaign to open a new community-owned queer venue in London. This project included a new logo, identity and branding guidelines, as well as social media assets, digital publications  (the business plan and share offer) and a print publication (a zine promoting the sale of community shares). The campaign was a successful one, and the venue is currently being built.

This year I was the lead graphic designer on the rebrand of the Friends of the Joiners Arms campaign, which sought to open a community-owned queer bar in London. I developed a fresh identity with a new logo and branding guidelines, within which I designed a variety of digital and print materials, including digital publications, a print promotional zine, social media assets, and supervised the design of the website. The campaign was successful, raising over £120,000 in community shares from 2260 members.

Transome

(2022)

Brand design


I developed the brand identity for a new trans-centered club night, Transome, the proceeds of which fundraise for gender-affirming surgeries for trans people. My hand lettering was inspired by the cursive neon signs of gay venues of London of the 80s and 90s, and the cloud imagery conveys dreaminess, utopia-dreaming, horizon-looking. Inspired by the famous SOPHIE portrait, and by José Esteban Muñoz: “Queerness is not yet here. Queerness is an ideality. Put another way, we are not yet queer, but we can feel it as the warm illumination of a horizon imbued with potentiality”. I then used this brand identity to develop a logo and digital and print assets to promote the night.

I have designed fresh branding for each of the two nights that Transome has so far hosted, with £700 raised at the first night and £750 raised at the second.

Recipes from a Free Artsakh

(2022)


Layout design, editing, illustration, risograph print

Recipes from a Free Artsakh is a collection of vegetarian recipes, contributed by Armenians and our friends, telling our history: of the lands we belong to, have passed through, have made our own; of gatherings, celebrations and mourning.


From a cocktail in the garden, to jingyalov hats dreaming of Artsakh mountain herbs, to envisioning our future over coffee cups: this cookbook is the story of Armenians and our friends, of the lands we have been in, where we have stayed and passed through, where we have called home.


I designed, illustrated and edited this collection of recipes. Printed by risograph in red and blue ink, bound in red wiro, with the help of Hato Press and Spun Press, with paper from G.F Smith and finishing by Radclyffe Printers. It has had two print runs of 400 copies overall. I built an audience through email, social media campaigns and a dinner event attended by 50 people in London. So far I have sold 250 copies and raised £1650 for refugees from the 2020-2022 conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Գիշեր / Gisher

(2020)

Editorial design, illustration, digital print

I designed and illustrated an online and printed zine of the text of a performance, to accompany Giorgia Ohanesian Nardin’s performance Gisher, a performance negotiating themes of about diaspora and memory, the way that memory lives in the body, intergenerational trauma, the struggle to feel present and safe, hypervigilence, the commodification of our stories to ensure our safety and our income, and Armenian ritual.

I was inspired in lay-out by Armenian illuminated manuscripts and the epic David of Sassoun, I imagined the text as a queered Armenian epic quest. I laid out English and Armenian text with my own illustration, themed around  liminal spaces and night-time (a pathway into a forest, a train at night, a door opened slightly, a waning moon, curtains), I designed and laid out a zine of their text. Initially digital only (to ensure safety during COVID), it was printed in physical format in September 2020.
In September 2020, I printed 50 copies of an adapted version of the cover of “Gisher” to sell as prints, with £300 fundraised towards efforts to provide shelter, food and medicine for affected families.