Desk Lunch is a weekly newsletter for women and non-binary people in the creative industry.
Desk Lunch started when a friend and I wanted to create a project that supports women and non-binary people in the creative industry. While doing research, we realized there are not many platforms that share what it’s like to be a woman or non-binary in the creative industry. We wanted to create something that celebrated, supported, and shared projects and stories that often go unheard.
A key priority of our mission is to be inclusive. We welcome all who identify as non-binary, queer, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, intersex, transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, or gender nonconforming. This also includes people of color and people of all ages and abilities.
View the project here
We wanted our group to be as open and accessible as possible, and we see digital cultural as instrumental to disruption and change, so we chose to make Desk Lunch a newsletter that's available every week to whoever signs up online.
Currently Desk Lunch releases a new issue every Wednesday morning. We have had contributors such as, Jinjin Sun, Milan Moffat, Carly Ayres, the three women of the Borrowed Interest Podcast, Carinda Roestorf, and Carolyn Zhang. Issues have ranged from being non-binary in the workplace, to commodifying your own culture, and supporting other women at work.
Design Challenges
As the Design Director of this project, I wanted to create a system that stood out from the millennial pink that runs common in this space. I wanted to avoid light, typically feminine pastels and airy typography.
Another aspect I had to keep in mind during this phase was how would this system work with a variety of articles and topics. I knew we needed to have an expansive color palette and imagery that would be flexible and easily replicable on a weekly basis.
Design Solutions
I created a palette using bold, warm colors and with a dark blue for balance. To add more flexibility in the palette, I added secondary colors that are less saturated versions of the primary palette.
For the word mark, I wanted a gender neutral typeface that lets readers know that this newsletter is all-inclusive. I used Univers because of how versatile it is. I wanted the type to accompany the stories and imagery rather than take away from it and distract the user.
