Based in Los Angeles, CA, Cuties began as a coffee shop and safe space focused on providing queer community with a place to gather that wasn’t centered around alcohol. I riffed off of the Cuties' logo to create characters across the gender-spectrum to represent the queer, trans, and gender non-comforming audience that they service. Cheerful and fun, this illustration let patrons know that all are welcome. Due to the pressures of the pandemic, the coffee shop no longer exists but Cuties lives on as a community space that provides resources, joy, and healing.
This was created in Adobe Illustrator. I kept the characters in a mostly geometric style, taking cues from the logo (see below).
Cuties' Magic Head logo, designed by Dana Steffe, was the springboard for creating various characters. It is femme yet butch, playful yet mysterious, deco yet modern. The ambiguous image pushes the idea that a single mark can be representative of a beautifully complex range of people, simultaneously.