Purple Pain
One designer’s reckoning in real time
What do you do when an identity you carefully crafted has become, overnight, a face of division?
What do you do when a brand you built from a place of love and connection decides to act in support of fear and disconnection?
I’ve been holding this question loosely ever since Avelo announced they are under contract with homeland security to fly deportation charters for ICE.
I know– this took me by surprise too.
The airline that began operations during Covid to make travel smoother and more accessible, to more easily connect families and friends, to provide good career opportunities allowing crew members to return home to their families each night, is making a calculated choice to stray from the ‘good neighbor’ values upon which this brand was built.
Please understand– I love everyone I worked with on this project. Building this airline with them was the experience of a lifetime. My heart nearly exploded when I finally met (almost) everyone in person. I’m so impressed by their vision and drive and also by their dedication to their own families. They are good, hardworking people.
Just as I am not my work, I recognize neither are they. Still, I’m grappling with the very new fact that something I created is quite publicly representing something my hopeful human naïveté prevents me from accepting.
What a client does with their brand once it’s out of my hands is entirely their prerogative, and one would say that’s just business. But ‘just business’ isn’t just in our current climate. The energetics of influence are real, and our ability to stomach business as usual is proof. I do not conflate who I am with what I do, though now more than ever I am very selective– every cell in my body dictates it so. These unfeeling guts of ours have got to go.
I’m no stranger to making waves– I had a fun fifteen minutes a few election cycles back with a viral t-shirt expressing my displeasure about a certain Alaskan candidate. But this irony exists on a whole new level: The biggest thing I’ve ever done is being used to make the biggest statement my work has ever made– and it’s 180 degrees from my intent. I recognize the choice was not mine and still, I somehow feel responsible.
If I had to guess, I’d bet none of this was on their bingo card– how could it be? I question whether I’d have agreed to the assignment were it handed to me today. I’ve always said “I’m a designer, not a liar,” and after years of practice and reflection, I can now see the projects grounded in some form of micro deception were the ones that challenged me most. In this project I detected none of that. Every color, shape, letterform, image and composition was a decision I made to support the strategy, and in this case, the strategy did not include words like government, politics, immigration or deportation.
Good design is powerful and how we deploy that power is our choice. I wonder what would happen If those of us who excel at our craft accepted projects based on usefulness over coolness. Integrity over money. Might questionably-acting clients be forced to employ lesser talent or AI? Could their reputations suffer as a result? Is there a way to stand firm and remain relevant, interesting, engaged and profitable as a creative? It’s a conundrum.
I’m in the process of exploring how many lenses I can filter this through to reach a level of equanimity. It’s a curious exercise, one I’ve not had the opportunity to wrestle with on this level.
As a business person I acknowledge the need to make money.
As a founder I appreciate the desire to leave a legacy.
As a leader I seek to make an impact.
As a creative I see a vision for how things could be.
As an activist I’m motivated to fight for what’s right.
As a punk I want to burn it all down to the ground.
As a human I feel the need to be of service.
As an American I expect my country to be safe and free.
As a consumer I deserve to feel good about where I spend my money.
As a daughter/sister/aunt/partner I care deeply about the welfare of my family.
As a woman I know there’s a better way.
As a counselor I recognize the complex web of patterns behind every decision.
As an intuitive I see the best in people– and sense where they don’t see the best in themselves.
And as a healer I hold space for the place in us all where we live and work together in harmony.
I’ve been chewing on this question for the bulk of my week and have concluded only this much so far:
This bizarre turn of events doesn’t disqualify my experience.
It doesn’t cancel out the joy I felt bringing this brand to life.
It doesn’t erase the bazillion things I learned doing something completely new.
It doesn’t overwrite my enthusiasm for a concept that moved me.
It doesn’t void the satisfaction of a job well done.
It doesn’t revoke my license to design.
It doesn’t rescind the honors I was awarded.
It doesn’t tarnish my values or ethics.
It doesn’t make me feel any less hopeful about the future.
It doesn’t eradicate the love I feel for the people who took this journey with me.
No matter what happens, nothing can take away the simple fact that I designed an entire airline from scratch, and for a moment, it was beautiful.
I’m contemplating– not comparing– the trajectory of another symbol with a long, rich, sacred life prior to its infamous misappropriation. And I’m sure there are others. Like planes, it seems, sometimes symbols get hijacked too.
Reiterating that this does not tarnish your values or ethics. Thank you for being wholly and uniquely you—a founder, a leader, a creative, an activist, a punk, a human, an American, a consumer, a family member, a woman, a counselor, an intuitive and a healer... and all the other aspects of you not mentioned, too.
Deep admiration fills my heart for you — on an ordinary day. Witnessing your willingness to walk toward equanimity, as you metabolize this news, is pure heart warriorship. Deep bow - as a wise woman said to me recently, “Nothing changes."