Greeting cards and other merch for Lippyhippy.com
Feminist Missives
While exploring personal statements back in 2016, my professor for core design had us each distil a message representative of our core values.
I would often use these one-off projects to learn new software and creative techniques, but this time was different. I had written numerous corporate mission statements, elevator pitches, investor proposals… but I had never really considered how I might express my personal values through the medium of design, as I had previously always approached design as a service.
The title of my presentation was “Feminist as F*ck”. I enjoyed the alliteration, the play of the term “feminist” with the word “f*ck”, particularly in a post-secondary context, and that it was decidedly unladylike.
The semester continued, and the phrase stuck in my mind.
Seven years previous I had been introduced to the hand lettering of Alison Carmichael; I continue to admire the brave nature of her work. I found myself longing for the normalization of intersectional feminism, and I decided to bring the beauty of ink gradients to the task. By bringing traditional beauty to messaging that is critical of patriarchal structures, I hoped to create a humorous moment that normalized positive intersectional feminist messages, while also nodding to Carmichael’s sense of humour.
The outcome was eventually the Feminist Missives line.
These short slogans started off as hand detailed greeting cards, and became the eventual inspiration for the Lippy Hippy website. When we launched, I had no inkling that feminist topics could be so abhorrent to advertising platforms. Honestly, after years of being served bullshit weight loss and plastic surgery ads and dating apps, I am surprised to find that they have any restrictions. (At this point, we can only guess that that is the case.)
