Check it out now, and then go buy your camping supplies before it drops on Thursday March 29th.
Images courtesy of Supreme
George Edge (left), Dennis McInnes (right)
So, let's set the scene. You want to establish yourself in a particular industry so you decide that you need a website. You don’t love Wix or Squarespace, but you've never done this before and the platforms are seemingly easy to use. You start creating your brand, because well, it's yours, but then, after a couple of months, nothing comes of it. You are left looking at a digital trail of dead ends, dry designs and dud copy with the only course of action to be to untether your debit card from the subscription. Sure, your website has a Scandi aesthetic, but is minimal still even trending? And your posters and album cover look OK, but why settle for a workshopped project versus a good ol’ design made for you? None of that Dior Sauvage collectivism. Look instead to the prowess of design agencies and small practicez capable of flipping your idea into a story and your story into something that sticks — crafted, pushed out, and lapped up.
The best designs live in the present and evolve into the future and Cave Studio is one such entity that creates visual identities that are marketable but also personable and sustainable. Edge and McInnes provide elevated designs that cultivate ideas and promote action. Together, they enhance the meaning of images to a standard that garners attention much like a Reddit typography thread (at least for me).
Ahluwalia Spring/Summer 2022
Take their collaboration for Ahluwalia Spring/Summer 2022 for instance. Priya Ahluwalia, the Creative Director and Founder of the brand, shared how the creative duo began with "discussing the overall direction of the collection... then exchanged extensive research and storytelling concepts" before developing their graphics and prints for the line.
Edge and McInnes once worked as separate entities, now as a team, they aim to also include their collaborators in the decision-making for their projects. British visual artist Haroon Mirza also worked with the two on the branding for his record label, OUTPUTS, which has grown since. They didn't come in and change his idea. Mirza said that instead, they “built on the initial reference material both visually and conceptually to create something that embodied the core ethos of what OUTPUTS is about."
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Outsourcing is too harsh a word for what design studios do. Cave Studio makes things. They allow artists and creators to tell their stories. They collaborate and work alongside businesses on branding, consulting, and creating websites and logos. They push to expose the heart of a brand then let it interact with and saturate the minds of an audience.
Until, of course, we buy.
Fire Island, which has been known as a gay vacation destination for a century and has been referred to as “America’s first gay and lesbian town,” is located off the coast of Sayville, New York. Tirado had the idea for the event after taking a “magical” trip to the island with her friends last summer. “There’s something about the utopian nature of Fire Island,” she described, “Filling it with people that are not usually making trips there, like lesbians and trans people and people of color, and feeling safe there – it felt like it could be ours.”
She was also struck by the historical richness of the island, which has served as a safe haven for queer people since the 1920s and provided refuge to many during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s. But the island has since become a prohibitively expensive vacation site, overwhelmingly frequented by affluent white cis gay men and strikingly absent of almost anyone else. “It’s disappointing now that it doesn’t really feel as radical as it used to be,” Tirado lamented. “But what if we created that space?”
Tirado assembled a coalition to organize the event, including model Geena Rocero, designer Willie Norris, them EIC Sarah Burke, photographer Hunter Abrams, producer Alyza Enriquez, comedian Honey Pluton, drag artists Chiquitita and Cherry Jaymes, actress and organizer Ianne Fields Stewart, the tattoo artist @faggy_tats, and activist Cecilia Gentili. “It was really a matter of the collective,” Tirado said. “Nobody is the boss. Everybody was activating around the idea and putting in what they could, in real time.”
The inaccessibility of the island still presented an obstacle; the journey typically entails a train ride, shuttle, and ferry, and housing on the island is notoriously expensive to rent. But the organizers were able to provide financial support for trans women to travel to the island to enjoy free food, drinks, weed, and DIY tees by Norris.
When I asked Tirado if she had any personal highlights from the day she wanted to share, she laughed. “None that I can put in print, honestly.” Sounds like my kind of party!
A coalition of activists and LGBTQ organizations have organized a memorial ball for Sibley at the gas station where his killing occurred, to be held tomorrow: Friday, August 4th. At 6pm, community members will congregate at 1935 Coney Island Ave in Brooklyn to dance and vogue together in honor of Sibley and in defiance of the fear and suppression imposed on queer people in public spaces. Organizing groups include Black Trans Liberation, Destination Tomorrow, House Lives Matter, and The NEW Pride Agenda.
Sibley, who was one of 11 siblings, is remembered by his family and friends for his confidence, talent, work ethic, and contagious smile. His 51-year-old neighbor Beckenbaur Hamilton, who is also Black and gay and experienced homophobic violence in his youth, recalled how Sibley resisted his advice to be more careful about expressing his queerness in public.
This past pride month, reports from GLAAD and the Anti-Defamation League showed that there were roughly double the number of recorded instances of anti-LGBTQ harassment and violence than the same period in 2022. Sibley’s death comes just weeks after a trans woman in her 20’s named Fernielle Mary Mora was found dead in her Bronx apartment under suspicious circumstances. Members of Mora’s community and chosen family commemorated their lost friend and demanded the NYPD properly investigate her case at a rally held on July 12.
