First exercise : illustrating quotes with the first shapes that come to mind

First Brainstorm

In our first brainstorm with the group (Ellie, Max and Barbora) we talked a lot about sexuality in queer experiences for example in sex ed but also how queer sexuality is presented in media, porn and popculture. For us a lot of the representation felt fetishizing. We wanted to document a real queer experience.

We decided quite fast that we wanted to make a calendar. While talking about sexuality one of our big focus points was about what was considered sexy (which behaviour for men and women and the beauty standard). The cishet standard we felt was really limiting so we decided that in the calendar we want to showcase 12 queer people and how they personally feel the most sexy and comfortable.
We also wanted to make their opinions heard so we interviewed them about their sexiness and queer experience.

We made a open role call for queer babes with an instagram and a poster for school.

@queerbabesrolecall on instagram & trashy inspo

We made a mood board to show interested models:

I was really inspired by the series: Lesbian Beds by Tammy Rae Carland (https://kadist.org/work/lesbian-beds/ ) .
Its is a very intimate and none fetishizing way to portray lesbianism and queerness.

VISUAL LANGUAGE

When talking about the Visual Language we decided that we would like to make the design of the calendar very intimate. We asked the models to fill in some letters on a font sheet. I then turned it into a font on calligraphr. It looks very mitmatched but I think it adds charm and make the calendar look like a journal or a diary - a very comfortable and private item, which fits with the location of the shoots - the models livingrooms and bedrooms.
We also collaged and addedglitter and stickers like one would do in a scarp book or diary. This all creates a visual language away from graphic design rules.

mockup pages for the calendar and collaging process

PHOTOSHOOT AND INTERVIEWS:

Callistos Quotes:

- i don’t think there is a way to behave feminine or masculine. i don’t really see it that way but i guess most people would say i behave feminine. i don’t see my behavior as either feminine or masculine because its difficult to classify a behavior and i think its reductive. its not really necessary

- im like a magpie. i think shiny things are really pretty.

- there is something with looking more feminine which is just like - wow this feels so much better

- i feel more sexy when im tucked. {…} my genitalia is not part of sexual appeal. i don’t do it that often because it’s also painful and what if you need to pee. i would tuck for a hookup but not for a stranger. for someone i know and actually like. im not putting in all that effort for a stranger.

- my biggest turnoff is when im having sex with someone and they refer to my butt as a pussy. {…} i hate it when people do that. that’s not what it is. like shut up. it feels like im being fetishized when they do that.

- If you are nice to someone and you have positive attractions you raise their confidence and in turn that can make them feel sexier in other interactions and raise their self esteem.

- In a way the thing that makes me feel most sexy is feeling like a piece of human art, which I can do either through the use of dance, I did ballet, lots of contemporary, lyrical and jazz. This in some senses makes me feel sexy because you are not just being seen as a person anymore, there is more of an artistic value to who you are. That's the same with fashion, I sew a lot at home, when you blur the line between being a person and a piece of art that's best for me.

- I find people who are unafraid to be themselves, when people are really fascinated by their hobbies or something I think that’s hot. I really like that attitude, even if you come off as weird you
are not afraid to be interested in what you’re interested in. I also find warmth and compassion sexy, sometimes just seeing people be nice to each other turns me on.



Daniels Quotes:

- i express myself via or through other people. {…} and i guess its the same with feeling sexy, sort of feeling my own body, its always in relation.

- physical affection for me also comes with sort of giving in to a person and someone giving into myself.

- how to i express myself and how is my body like in this moment. {…} i was expressing myself in a more feminine way, through dancing

- is there a way to express myself where i feel more natural also in a feminine way? or is it just sort of like to cover the feeling that i actually want a feminine body. but its also so fluid one month i feel a lot more feminine. sometimes i feel more masculine. or nothing. or both.


Aris Quotes:


- I’m not going to put on a costume to fuck someone

- I can’t feel sexy if I don’t feel safe and held,

- I think that we need to super normalise just having conversations about sex, because sex can be so many things, it can be super serious and intimate but it can also be goofy and light hearted,
like I have super goofy sex its not sexy sex its fun.

- If the other person is worth getting intimate with (they) will want to communicate what feels good to them, so it’s never just you wanting to know or wanting to say. The other person is always
wanting to receive this information and if they don’t you shouldn’t be having sex with them.

- A normal part of sex is the way you communicate, its part of the foreplay. I love my bum and I love my bum being touched.
I like people who are able to fully indulge in themselves, and indulge in me, people who are able to be in their skin and share that with me. The ability to laugh at themselves and at me.

- Comfort in yourself is sexy.

- We were never taught about other forms of sexual intimacy, like giving or reciveing oral is also sex. You need to be ready for that as well.

- All the imagery you see is the hetero white guy getting a blowjob from a tiny little white girl and its really aggressive with headpushing.

- Bed sheets are replaceable, orgasms are not

- There’s no one queer representation that fits everyone


Ziads Quotes:


- Now I mostly talk to my friends, my chosen family back home in Egypt and my new dear friends in general and im trying to make sense of it /identity/, dealing with my own shit but also talking to other
queer people, trans people as well, and I try to understand how they feel, how they felt because for me now there is not really a clear direction.

- All of our life we are told what our identity is and we are supposed to fit in all these standards, you know, from at least back home in Egypt,and not only you have to break through those
there but now I also have to break through all these other things that also do not make sense to me anymore and now I have to create my own book for myself to live by but also for people around me.

- Where I stand now, I feel like all of that I have learned and the binary we have been taught is just complete bullshit.

- I do not necessarily want to settle somewhere (with my identity), or arrive at a conclusion, I just want to understand a bit more of what I'm going through.

- I'm not fully myself when I am back home - I have to hide a lot of things, but there are many things that I stopped hiding kind of, the way I dress at least, I have to tone it down in
Egypt for safety reasons but still, we go out however we want to go out, we get shit for it at home in the streets but we still do it anyway.

- But with my parents it's very difficult. ...I am not myself with them, you know, I have to compromise myself around them , so they’re fine. And so I am fine.

- For the first 18 years of my life, I did not see myself as attractive, or pretty, or hot or whatever, and now I am going through undoing that, because it is through the people who I
surrounded myself with, who’d push you down. Through finding my chosen family, they also put still in me self confidence, seeing myself for who I am and what can I bring forward, which comes with
also feeling attractive. Now I do understand and I could see myself as attractive, but I do not see it as much as other people do... I think it will also come with time, when I fully believe that and
embrace it.

- What i find sexy is confidence, definitely, honesty and directness, what you want and what you want from other people, because I also really appreciate that myself and I do it as much as I can
and I look for people like that as well because that's the way to live for me and that's how I want the people around me to be as wel

- I think safety needs to be stressed, you can still be fun and sexy and intimate while still taking care of yourself, your body and the person you are with.

The audios of the interviews were super interesting, especially for me who was not at the shoots. We chose that only two people would go to the shoots so that the models wont feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable. It was fun to do a quote selection from them since the models were so open.

calendar pages: