OWNER/CREATIVE STRATEGIST A GREAT IDEA, DURHAM, NC
A Great Idea (AGI) is a queer-run, values-led graphic design and brand agency, which I started in 2015 to provide our clients with empathy-fueled creative solutions. My background in award-winning design activism informs and inspires our approach to business. I founded A Great Idea as a vessel to share and grow my creative skillset, responding to a need for design support I saw in some of the organizations with whom I was already working.
AGI’s team of expert creatives works to produce content strategies and designs for organizations, initiatives, and companies that share our unwavering commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity. Our work promotes education, inclusion, and advocacy for our clients across many fields, including healthcare, entertainment, and grassroots organizations. We specialize in partnering with clients to produce original, heartfelt content that centers human connection, intending to spark engagement and awareness.
We are proud and intentional about the fact that many of our clients are minority, women, and LGBTQ+-led businesses and organizations. As a small but mighty team, we work on an individual and attentive basis with our community partners while staying committed to supporting just initiatives throughout Central North Carolina. AGI is a proud member of the National Lesbian and Gay Chamber of Commerce and is public about supporting queer-liberation and Pride initiatives as well as equity-centered work.
Tell us how and why you became involved in socially responsible communications, any thoughts on why design can be an especially effective tool for this goal, and, if you wish, give us an example of a project of which you are proud.
My journey toward socially-responsible communications was a natural fusion of my design skills and lifelong commitment to social justice. I have over 30 years of experience working in queer liberation and harm reduction activism and came to creative strategy as a result of this work. I wanted to combine my two decades’ worth of design experience — for companies like Monster, AirTran Always, drugstore.com, and Verizon Wireless — with my commitment to equity. Design can be a powerful tool for spreading important messages and building deep human connections.
In other words, good design helps us connect with people, and community work relies on people power! Our amazing partners’ work connects with and uplifts people across the spectrum of identities, and it is our honor to work with them. A Great Idea’s design work and creative partnerships help increase the availability of information, resources, and education to our clients’ networks, sparking engagement and awareness.
Given the confluence of events and challenges our society now faces, does this moment in time present any special opportunities, urgencies, obstacles to designing for good?
A Great Idea sees this moment as a call to action! In the face of deepening global crises and political repression, our partner organizations provide folks with needed support and resources. We work tirelessly to boost their reach and impact with exceptional design and creative strategy that is easy, accessible, and human.
Closer to home, we devote our creativity to action-oriented solutions that ignite our communities to create change, like “Every Day, Say ‘Gay’” (everydaysaygay.com) and Out.Vote (out.vote). These initiatives inspire queer communities and allies throughout North Carolina. Great design for good causes sparks engagement, understanding, and inclusion when it is needed most!
