OPEN FOR WORK!
D Wang is a queer Chinese-Michigander illustrator and designer in Brooklyn. They’re also helping to run DICE, the Ditmas Indie Comics Extravaganza!
Their non-profit work includes the Center for Urban Pedagogy, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Understood (coming soon).
Their branding work includes Ritesh Gupta, the founder of Useful School and Forest Fire, a women-led production company.
Their passion projects include comics and zines and Insatiable, an ongoing project about Reddit hookups.
Resume | LinkedIn | dwangzhao@gmail.com
Your Truth, Your Rights: A Guide for the Rights of TGNICNB People in Jails and Prisons
created in partnership with the Center for Urban Pedagogy, Deb Lolai of Bronx Defenders, Dori Lewis of Legal Aid Society, and fellow designer Chloe Chang.
Background:
As a Public Access Design fellow with the Center for Urban Pedagogy, my project collaborator Chloe Chang (designer) and I (illustrator) were chosen to create Your Truth Your Rights, a booklet explaining TGNCINB folks’ rights in NYC jails and NYS prisons in collaboration with Bronx Defenders’ LGBTQ Defense Project and Prisoners’ Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society.
We were one of the few designer-illustrator teams who had applied for the fellowship.
Our project kick-off meeting, where Chloe and D Wang (the two people on the right side) are showing their work to the Dori and Deb, the advocacy org partners (the two people on the left side).
The challenge:
In jails and prisons, transgender, gender nonconforming, intersex, and nonbinary individuals often face harassment and are particularly vulnerable. Despite available housing options aimed at ensuring safety, awareness about these choices and their rights to gender-affirming treatment remains low, even among legal professionals working with trans clients.
Concept #1: “YOU CAN DO IT!”
Bold display text with large blocks of color.
Concept #2: “KEEP CALM”
Gentle pastel colors with a focus on organic shapes.
Concept #3: “POSITIVE VIBES”
Bright colors with a focus on shadows and detail.
Early spreads where we explored how illustrations can feel central to a project that is copy-heavy.
This was one of my favorite spreads to work on. I’ve drawn so many different people and bodies for this spread and it was like meeting new friends.
The opportunity:
Going into the project as a trans person, my goal was to center the people within my community who are most impacted by state violence. To reflect that, Chloe and I integrated the illustrations into the copy layout. Figures wrap their arms or lean against or become the focal point of a page. In these spreads, trans people take up space and are seen as their full selves.
Front and Back cover | This is what took the longest to figure out illustration-wise. But I’m so happy at how it looks now.
The impact:
To date, over we’ve printed 9500 copies have been printed and distributed to organizations like the Audre Lorde Project, Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Legal Aid Society, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, and the NY County Defender Services.
In March of 2023, my team and I participated in How We Made This, a lecture series with different collaborative projects created with CUP. You can watch the full talk here.
March 2023, my collaborators and I at the talk we gave with the Center for Urban Pedagogy. Watch it here!