I’m a queer, non-binary, neurodivergent artist and creative communications partner, born of Corean (Korean) descent, based in the west end of t'karonto (Toronto). My practice spans textile, woodworking, body art, digital illustration, storytelling, and campaign design—braiding traditional craft with community-rooted communications. Some days I co-design zines. Some days I embroider thrifted clothes. Some days I write copy that helps people feel seen. But everything I create is fuelled by radical imagination.

_MY STORY

Like many closeted queers, I started out in fashion.

Drawn in by the glitz and glamour, I worked my way up to a Creative Director role—developing campaigns for Canadian retailers, then invited to teach retail design and merchandising at Seneca College, where I led classrooms full of visual artists and communicators. For a long time, my work centred around colour, composition, and KPI’s. And in some ways, it still does.

I hustled hard to make a name for myself. But under the surface, a quiet story was playing out. As a queer, non-binary, East Asian creative in a white-led, cis-normative industry, I learned early how to perform confidence while constantly being misread, underestimated, or boxed in—the “model minority”, the “tech whiz”, or "tiger mom". I sat through meetings where my identity was edited out of the brand story. I navigated workplaces where queerness was welcome—so long as it looked a certain way.

Those years drained me. But it also taught me to listen for what isn’t said. To notice what gets erased. To call in fragility, privilege, and toxicity. To name spectacles and the politics of visibility. It’s what taught me to design stories that make space for contradiction, nuance, and truth.

Eventually, the stories I was being asked to tell—polished, sanitized, mass-market—started to feel hollow. I wanted to work on stories that cracked things open. That made people feel less alone. That didn’t flatten complexity in the name of “branding.” I wanted to bring creative work back to community.

That pull brought me to OCAD University, where I completed my MDes in Inclusive Design. There, I studied what happens when people are allowed to design with their own voices and values. My research explored co-creation and the possibilities of storytelling as a social justice-based design practice.

Since then, I’ve worked with nonprofits, schools, and grassroots organizations—supporting campaigns, content, and communications that feel more like collaboration than control. I’ve helped shape messaging for equity-seeking advocacy, designed tool kits with parents and educators, and created visuals that don’t just tell a story, but hold one.

Today, I've also reclaimed the title of "artist". I've returned to art-making to practice joy as an act of resistance. My practice spans textile, woodworking, body art, and digital illustration. Through mixed media, I explore themes of queerness, social constructs, parenthood, and self-determination—always fuelled by radical imagination.

I’m still a visual storyteller and writer. But this time, I’ve traded in my black-on-black ensembles and borrowed confidence for a practice rooted in care, collaboration, and alignment. The stories I help shape today are designed with, and not for, community.

If you’re building something that doesn’t fit inside convention—something a little messy, and dusted in magic—I’d love to be part of it.

_HOW I WORK

My practice is grounded in care, curiosity, and accountability. I partner with organizations and creatives who are building a more just world — and I bring a collaborative, equity-informed lens to every project. That means naming power dynamics, honouring lived experience, and creating communications that reflect the communities they speak to.

My work is:

• Hands-on and collaborative
• Rooted in design justice and community accountability
• Often playful, sometimes gutsy, and always honest

Whether I’m supporting a grassroots campaign, helping shape your story, or writing copy that needs to land just right — I listen deeply, hold complexity, and never trade clarity for polish

_MY VIBE

My work is often playful by design. It leans into colour, softness, and lightness—not to dilute the message, but to invite people in. Playfulness creates space for discovery, contradiction, and emotional safety. For me, it’s a way of reclaiming the freedom I didn’t always have growing up—a space where it’s okay to try things, to get it wrong, to feel joy while doing work that’s also deeply political. This approach lets me say bold things in a way that doesn’t shut people down. Because we don’t always need to shout to be heard. Sometimes softness is what makes people listen.

_NOT MY LAND

I am grateful to live and work in the west end of t'karonto (Toronto), the ancestral lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.

I acknowledge that this land has been a site of storytelling, resistance, and care long before I arrived. I recognize the privilege of doing this work here and strive to be a respectful steward of the land and of the communities whose histories and futures are tied to it. May my work reflect the responsibility that comes with being on unceded and continually contested Indigenous territory.

_SUSTAINABILITY

I believe sustainability isn’t just about carbon footprints — it’s about care. Care for the planet, for each other, and for the systems we build (or choose not to build).

This website is intentionally minimal. It runs on a lightweight theme hosted with green energy, using fewer resources to load and navigate. I avoid third-party trackers, surveillance-based platforms, and extractive digital infrastructure whenever I can — not just for privacy, but because slower, smaller, and simpler tech is often more sustainable.

In my work, I also value sustainability in pace and process. I aim to work in ways that honour time, energy, and capacity — mine, and yours.

Sustainability isn’t a checkbox for me. It’s a question I carry into every project: What kind of future are we making, and who gets to rest there?

_ACCESSIBILITY

This space was built using a theme for Ghost.org — a minimal, content-forward platform that helps keep the focus on words, not noise.

I care about how people move through the world — and that includes how they move through this site. While the theme offers a clean layout with generally accessible navigation, I know that accessibility isn’t just about design — it’s about dignity, choice, and feeling like you belong here.

I’m trained in AODA and WCAG standards, and I work to make all public-facing content meet (and usually exceed) those guidelines. If you hit a wall — whether it’s visual, structural, or just something that doesn’t feel right — please let me know. I want this space to be usable, but more than that, I want it to feel welcoming.

You can reach me at lucymsong@tuta.com or through the contact form.