So get inspired, and support these incredible LGBTQ+ designers making waves in the creative industry. 

7 LGBTQ Designers You Should Know About

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4 Visual Accessibility Resources for Designers

Designs are only as successful as your user makes them out to be.

Jinkx Monsoon "The Ginger Snapped" // Tour Intro Animation

Daniel Quasar - transmit (Official Music Video)

7 Non-Binary Designers You Should Know About

7 Nonbinary Designers You Should Know About

Brands have gone to court over color trademark battles for years - check out some of the biggest color wins.

Can you own a color?

Two chocolate companies walk into a courtroom to battle over... the color purple. 

7 Female Designers You Should Know About

Houston Landing is a local nonprofit newsroom with no paywalls to provide essential journalism that empowers our communities.

Meet Houston Landing: designing the next frontier of local news

A new, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet for local voices.

Seven Black Designers You Should Know About

When we look at design history books, we see Eurocentric covered pages with names, photos, and pieces of work. These books ultimately set the standard in student’s minds on what “good design” looks like. The books that influence our outlook on the design world lack representation and voices from influential designers of color who played crucial parts in shaping that said design world.  It’s no secret that black designers are overlooked and under-applauded. It’s time to change that reality by learning their names, recognizing their work and teaching the new generation of designers that ‘good design’ is more expansive than what a design history textbook can hold.

7 Black Designers You Should Know

7 Native American Designers You Should Know About

Support Indigenous designers in the creative industry.

7 Asian + Asian-American Designers You Should Know About

This AAPI Heritage Month we wanted to highlight these Asian + Asian American designers. Maybe you'll find a new favorite designer.

Expand your design horizons this AAPI Heritage Month.

Movistar: Love Story

H&M Conscious: Bring it on

Propaganda Bandwagon - Old Navy Commercial

Always #LikeAGirl

Things Go Better With Coke

Full Pepsi Commercial Starring Kendal Jenner

Beats By Dre | Powerbeats Pro | Unleashed

Febreze Commercial-Josh's room

Samsung Note 9 Dongle (DEX) Commercial

He Said Cigarettes To Women Are "Torches Of Freedom"

FLEX  TAPE® Commercial

The word propaganda carries a lot of negative weight compared to the word advertising. Propaganda is associated with evil, manipulation and a dystopian society. Whereas advertising is associated with an annoying, unavoidable but scrollable, part of our day-to-day life.
One feels harmful, the other feels harmless. 

Propaganda is limited to a specific agenda or mission. Advertising builds upon that by adding in goods, services, and ideas. Many, if not all of the day-to-day ads we scroll past or walk by incorporate some level of propaganda to pursued you into buying that said good, service, or switching up how you view something.

Propaganda in Advertising

Red means stop and green means go, but what happens when you are red-green color blind?

The Traffic Light Flaw

A deep and semi-unscientific look into how designers simplify in order to create.

Why Do Designers Wear Black?

Color runs through our veins as designers but we don’t wear it on our sleeves. 

A deep-dive into the history, complexities and clarity that comes with logos.

Why Are Logos A Thing?

Let's throw it back to the very beginning of logo design.

Bill and Jo discuss inclusivity, diversity and the importance of civic action while taking a look at the League of Women Voters of Houston brand.

Offset Path: The League of Women Voters of Houston

“Offset path” is a function in design program Adobe Illustrator. It’s also the name of our design discussion series that looks at how Black Sheep rebellious brands and campaigns for social impact that are different from, well, the usual “path.” To know when Offset Path episodes are announced or to watch us live on Instagram, follow @shearcreativity. Hosts are Black Sheep’s Creative Director Jo Skillman and Senior Designer/Illustrator Bill Ferenc.

Bill and Jo talk through the process of building Houston and Harris County’s “YES! to the Census” campaign to prevent an undercount for Census 2020.

YES! to the Census

Transforming healthcare for children and their families: Doug Dietz at TEDxSanJoseCA 2012

A greater understanding of empathy in design.

The Power of Empathy in Design

Why your brand needs a purpose, a personality and a point of view to live in the real world

Branding Like You Mean It

We believe in the power of great design to build creative concepts that push nonprofit communities to the brink of action.

How to use design to activate people for good

For years I’ve been designing logos, brands, and engagement campaigns for a brand strategy and creative agency called Black Sheep. We’re called Black Sheep for all the reasons you might guess: We do things differently. We’re ahead of the curve. We break the rules. Blah, blah, blah, insert predictable design agency phrase here. 

Donating Your Work: Don’t Get Taken for a Ride

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been hit up for free (or deeply discounted) work.

Keep your hand up if you said yes to doing the free (or deeply discounted) work because it was “for a good cause.”

Drop that hand onto your face if you ended up hating everything about the experience of the free (or deeply discounted) work you ended up doing. That’s a facepalm, and it’s the correct response to a whole lot of the donated work designers and marketers end up doing.

Condensed

Did you let Valentine’s creep up on you? Were you bummed with the lack of creativity in this year’s crop of cards?

Valentine’s Printables

No matter your impact space, the last few years have taught us that our causes are interconnected. Researchers are now dealing with what the White House calls “converging crises” across industries. As a purpose-driven organization, we’ve spent years discussing everything from environmental racism and climate change to education and housing. But until recently, we hadn’t yet looked into an issue that’s affected by all of the above: food insecurity.

Food insecurity affects millions of all ages and backgrounds across America, particularly impacting the BIPOC community and hitting kids especially hard after millions have lost access to free school lunches. 

The pandemic has only exacerbated the fragility of the inequitable American food system. In 2022, the Census Bureau reported a 41% increase in households saying they did not have enough to eat after Congress stopped pandemic relief programs. 

That's over 40 million people who are experiencing hunger—or the fear of hunger—on a regular basis. With rising food and housing costs, that number is only expected to grow. 

Food insecurity is the lack of consistent access to enough nutritious food to maintain an active and healthy life. This can include not having enough money to buy food, living in an area without access to healthy food options or experiencing disruptions in food supply due to natural disasters or other crises.

According to Feeding America, the causes of food insecurity are complex and include:

Systemic racism and racial discrimination

The devastating effects of food insecurity

Access to fresh, healthy food is a basic human need and a social determinant of health and wellness. Without equitable access, we see an impact on:

Health: Without nutritious foods, people are at an increased risk for chronic health conditions like diabetes, heart disease and mental health disorders—particularly as many turn to cheap, caloric-rich foods in lieu of fresh, prepared meals.

Education: Children who experience food insecurity are more likely to have lower academic achievement, be suspended or expelled and suffer from behavioral and emotional problems. 

Financial wellness: Food-insecure households often spend over 25% of their income on food, making it challenging to budget other expenses like housing, healthcare, education and utilities. This is more harrowing given that food-insecure households also spend more on healthcare due to their poor diet.

Words matter. Food deserts and food apartheid are related terms you have probably heard but are distinct concepts.

Food deserts refer to geographic areas where residents lack access to affordable, healthy and fresh food, often due to a lack of grocery stores or other food retailers. These food deserts can occur in both urban and rural areas and affect people of all races and income levels.

Food apartheid, on the other hand, refers to a systemic and intentional form of discrimination in the food system that leads to unequal access to healthy food based on race and income. This terminology recognizes that food access is not simply a matter of geography but a result of historical and ongoing inequities in the food system, including racism, poverty, and systemic inequality. 

There are organizations across most major cities to fight these issues, namely urban farms and dedicated neighborhood markets. However, given the multiple converging crises, issues like food insecurity are often overlooked in favor of more hot-button issues. That’s where all of us can step in.

What can social justice-minded people do to help solve food insecurity?

While food insecurity offers no easy solutions, there are many ways to get involved.

Poverty USA offers some smart systemic change recommendations:

Reduce food waste - we throw away 30% of the food we produce

Here are a few ideas you can engage with at the individual level:

Find your nearest co-op (like Plant It Forward) and volunteer and shop there

Call your representative to advocate for policies that support access to healthy, affordable food.

Support local farmers and community gardens

Educate yourself and others about the causes and consequences of food insecurity

Donate to organizations that are working to address food insecurity, such as Feeding America or the World Food Programme

Food insecurity is incredibly complex, but it’s one area we can actually make great progress on as individuals. Supporting these local, fresh food sources improves the entire community’s health—AND it means more delicious, interesting meals on your plate. That’s a win for everyone. 

What is food insecurity and what can we do about it?

Food insecurity is a complex issue affecting millions of Americans, with systemic factors like poverty, racism, and geography playing a major role, but there are steps we can take to combat it.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

We like to type as much as we like to listen.

We're not shy.

The Politics of Food Access

7 LGBTQ+ Designers You Should Know About