Brave New World Designs Backstory

Some of you know that I'm a self-taught designer. One of the first businesses I launched after leaving academia was a paper design company called Posh Peacock. Though I had a great run with it, I ended up closing it after a few years to move on to other ventures, and also because I did not have the fancy tech to compete with the likes of Minted and Tiny Prints when they arrived on the scene.

My love of design and typesetting means I can be a bit insufferable. As in, I have decided to leave restaurants if the menu font choice is bad.  Just me?

Anyway, 4 years ago I started making one off t-shirts for myself because #fontsnob but wasn't selling them, even when people were asking me to sell. Because I really didn't need another project to work on.

And then the 2016 election happened. I was devastated and angry and beside myself with anxiety. And my husband and I figured since people responded to my designs, we could try channeling our rage into action via creativity. So 3 weeks after the election we started Brave New World Designs, where we donate a portion of each sale to an organization related to the message of the shirt.

Over the last 4 years we have donated thousands of dollars to 20+ organizations. We decided to do a round of donations now instead of at the end of the year so the GOTV related orgs could do their thing. I am just full of feelings.

Most importantly, mega thanks to everyone who has supported us over the years. We have operated entirely word of mouth and crazy shit has happened (like being worn by Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssa Milano + being featured in InStyle, ELLE, and The Boston Globe) and that doesn't happen in a silo.