Queers vs. the Code was a 5' x 8' wall installation created for exhibition, examining the evolution of queer representation in film through the visual language of movie poster design.
The project references Hollywood’s Production Code — a regulatory framework that governed morality and censored artistic expression in American cinema from the 1930s through the 1960s. Under these restrictions, overt LGBTQIA representation was prohibited, forcing filmmakers and designers to rely on coded imagery, typography, color, and composition to suggest queerness indirectly.
The installation analyzed these visual strategies, positioning graphic design as both a cultural artifact and a site of negotiation between censorship and self-expression. A companion publication expanded on this research, documenting specific examples of coded design and tracing the gradual transition from subtext to explicit representation as social attitudes evolved.
Through this work, design is framed not merely as promotional material, but as a historically situated medium capable of reflecting — and subtly challenging — dominant cultural norms.
Design and Restriction delves deeper into the Production Code. In the 1930s -- the height of the code -- homosexuality in films, identified by Hollywood's bigwigs as "sex perversion," was outlawed. Work by filmmakers who challenged heteronormativity didn't start hitting screens again until the 1960s. In addition to relaying a clearer picture of the decades in which these films were made, through the book, I sought to explain how coded imagery used to portray taboo matter produced interesting design.