Centering around the tagline “Claim Your Space”, the campaign is dedicated to the amplification and elevation of queer voices and stories. For this year’s Pride, we focused on harnessing the full power of our platform to highlight iconic as well as more emerging queer artists and podcasters, asserting this community’s rightful place within the canon and within the culture.
Because the fact of the matter is, in order for the LGBTQQIA+ community to claim space, allies must make space — an undertaking that we truly took to heart. We’ve instrumentalized every part of the Spotify network to uplift queer creators. Which included a push to finally integrate a space for artist pronouns on platform. Special emphasis was placed on creating space for queer people of color as well as trans, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary creators, acknowledging these voices’ historic exclusion from mainstream Pride celebrations as well as the larger movement.
The design direction was evolved to literally depict the idea of claiming space. The words, names and images of the community take up as much space as possible. In animation, each element pushes, pulls and makes way for each other to fluidly and holistically exist together.
Agency: Spotify
Role: Design, Art Direction
Created Alongside:
Colette McIntyre, ACD
Derek Wright, ACD
Dominique Wynn, ACD
Marie Roenn, GCD
Kenzie Tankersley, Producer
Jenna Allchin, Producer
Melanie Eisen, Brand Manager
Partners:
Estudi Image
UNSCTND
Allie Cuerdo, Director
Mohammed Fayaz, muralist
Mia Saine, muralist
ggggrimes, muralist
A dedicated hub on platform featuring playlists curated by LGBTQQIA+ artists and beloved queer bars around the world.
Participatory social cards that allow listeners to share their unique Pride soundtracks.
OOH that confronts and corrects assumptions about what queer music and audio sounds like. To represent all types of creators on the Spotify platform, we aimed to feature musicians, writers and podcasters.
The centerpiece of the campaign is a series of murals that claim literal space as well as cultural space for LGBTQQIA+ creators and activists. We set out to create a permanent testament to the power of queer voices within three U.S. cities that are not often thought of during the Pride season but have been indelibly impacted by their local LGBTQQIA+ communities: Detroit, Nashville, and New Orleans. Each original artwork, created by a queer illustrator, focuses on a unique music genre that has deep roots within the given city and was shaped by LGBTQQIA+ creators, highlighting a small selection of artists who’ve made an impact on that city’s sound. Through this work, we aim to give these innovative musicians their long overdue flowers for pushing audio forward. The murals also center and celebrate local LGBTQIA+ activists, as determined in collaboration with the community itself.
By sharing these captivating stories of creativity and courage, we hope to empower LGBTQQIA+ listeners to safely and confidently claim space in the ways that they can — whether within a cultural tradition, a community, a dance floor, on Spotify itself — and create opportunities for affirmation, inspiration, and reflection.
Art by Mohammed Fayaz
