CREATIVE DIRECTOR, THE WING, NEW YORK NY
My name is Deva Pardue and I’m the Creative Director at The Wing, a network of work and community spaces for women. I’m originally from Ireland and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2011. From 2012 to 2016, I worked at Pentagram in New York under the direction of Emily Oberman and in 2016, shortly after the presidential election, I founded For All Womankind, a design initiative for fempowerment, through which I’ve donated $25,000 to non-profit organizations fighting for women’s rights and empowerment.
I started work at The Wing in September 2017 as the Design Director — with no designers — and have since built a design team of seven. I was recently promoted to Creative Director and I now oversee inhouse design, brand, magazine, and retail teams. The Wing is a fast growing company with many branches and the creative team is needed for all them; we work on design and copy for events, retail, marketing, environmental signage, food and beverage, and editorial projects to name a few!
HOW AND WHY DID YOU COME TO USE DESIGN TO ADVANCE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE AND/OR SUSTAINABLE PROJECTS, CLIENTS AND CAUSES?
As designers, we have the tools to communicate in the most immediate and effective ways. We have the opportunity to not only do good, but to mobilize others to do good. That’s an opportunity that should be taken advantage of.
Social responsibility has always been at the core of my design work — starting with school projects on nuclear disarmament to my majority non-profit clients at Pentagram, starting For All Womankind, all the way through to my current work at the Wing. The Wing’s mission is the professional, civic, social, and economic advancement of women through community, which is something I really believe in and get to contribute to every day.
One of the many reasons I joined The Wing full-time was to make advocating for women my full-time job. I’m hiring and mentoring young female designers in an environment that empowers them. I want to create space for more female designers to grow into leadership roles. There are so many female designers but so few in executive level positions.
ARE THERE ANY SPECIAL CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES, URGENCIES IN 2018?
Yes! The Midterms present a huge challenge and opportunity. More than ever before we need to get people to the polls for this election, a lot depends on it. There are also more women running in this election than in any other in American history so this is a real opportunity to get more equal representation in our government. I believe the Trump presidency is a threat to our country, the environment, our children, and to world diplomacy — taking back the House and the Senate this year is crucial.
PICTURED: THE WING DESIGN TEAM, LEFT TO RIGHT: ROSIE NABEREZNY, ABBY CARLSON, NINA LILLIEBJERG-HEDER, MICHELLE SHEKARI, CHELSEA WILLIAMS, MAYHA SOLTANI, DEVA PARDUE, KIRSTIN HUBER, ADRIANA GALLO
