The Bodies We Call Homeis a student project created atArtCenter College of Designas part of the Type4 class taught byStephen Serrato. This publication is presented as a hypothetical art catalog, imagined as a curated collection of works exploring queer intimacy, resistance, and care. The catalog’s typography—featuringPlayground,Alegreya Sans,Editorial New, andEiko—balances playfulness, warmth, and editorial refinement. Together, these typefaces move between softness and structure, echoing the emotional vulnerability and resilience at the core of the work. Queerness has long been under attack—from historical criminalization to the government’s neglect during the AIDS crisis, where thousands of lives were lost in silence. Yet in the face of devastation, queer communities turned to intimacy as survival. Acts like the AIDS Quilt became declarations of love, grief, and resistance, proving that queer lives mattered. Today, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and societal pressures echo those painful histories, politicizing queer bodies and threatening the right to exist freely. But intimacy remains a radical force—woven into activism, art, and quiet care shared between chosen families.Queer intimacy exists in the quiet moments of touch, in the unspoken understanding between lovers, and in the collective strength of chosen families. It is spiritual, physical, and emotional—a force that holds, heals, and empowers. Love, in all its forms, is an undeniable human right, yet, it remains under threat. The ability to love and be loved should never be taken away, for it is as essential as the air we breathe.
This typography communicates a vulnerable yet defiant intimacy through its handwritten script qualities and unconventional layouts. The energy feels deeply personal and activist-driven, with typographic choices that mirror the raw authenticity of grassroots movements and personal manifestos. The reversed and rotated type treatments create a sense of disruption that challenges conventional reading patterns, reflecting the project's challenge to societal norms.
The script typeface selection creates an immediate sense of personal testimony and handwritten activism, evoking the intimacy of personal letters and protest signs. The varied text orientations and reversed type treatments function as typographic acts of resistance, forcing readers to engage more actively with the content. These unconventional typographic gestures align perfectly with the project's theme of queer bodies existing outside societal expectations, where the typography itself becomes a form of visibility and defiance.
While specific fonts aren't identified, the system appears to create hierarchy through dramatic shifts in text orientation and color treatment rather than traditional weight variations. The interplay between standard horizontal text and rotated/reversed elements creates visual tension that mirrors the project's exploration of existing outside normative structures. This approach transforms typography from mere text delivery into a performative element that embodies the subject matter's resistance to conformity.