ethan hawes

portfolio
CONTENTS
CURRICULUM VITAE
COLLATERAL
RANT and rebellion
illumination derby ball
river city drum corps
fairness over louisville
OTHER PRINT WORK
business cards
american civil liberties union
aletha fields
personal work
GENDER - PHOTOESSAY

ethan hawes
EDUCATION
Parsons the New School for Design (August 2010) - New York, NY
Major: Communications Design (BFA) / Culture & Media (BA); Minor: Gender Studies
duPont Manual Magnet High School - Louisville, KY
Communications/Media Arts Magnet Program
3.4 GPA; 2000 SAT; 29 ACT
Editor-in-Chief of nationally award-winning Crimson yearbook (2007-2010)
- Gold Crown award from Columbia University’s Scholastic Press Association
- Pacemaker Finalist award from the National Scholastic Press Association
Captain/President of regionally award-winning Policy Debate team (2008-2010)
- Top Speaker award at Jefferson County Debate League tournament
WORK
Freelance Graphic Designer (November 2007 – present)
I’ve worked as a graphic designer for several years. My work includes print, web and identity.
Server, Skyline Chili (May – July 2010) – Louisville, KY
Pay: $2.13/hr
General server duties in a high-volume diner-style restaurant chain
Cashier, Premier Cleaners (July 2008 – April 2009) – Louisville, KY
Starting pay: $7.00/hr; Ending pay: $8.00/hr
Emphasis on customer service
Food production worker, Subway Salads & Sandwiches (July 2006 – July 2008) – Louisville, KY
Starting pay: $5.15/hr; Ending pay: $7.00/hr
Some night manager/shift leader duties, including handling closing register work
ethan.hawes1@gmail.com
mobile: 502 235 0844
884 Flushing Ave., Brooklyn NY 11206
ACTIVISM
Co-Chair, Outreach Activist Committee, Statewide Fairness Coalition (January – July 2010)
I was the co-chair of a committee dedicated to a rethinking of queer activism with an
emphasis on youth and rural communities.
Youth Team Leader, National Equality March (August – October 2009)
As a youth team leader for October’s marriage equality march on Washington, D.C., I
managed the National Equality March’s Facebook page. Duties included internet marketing to
queer students and youth with the intention of interesting them in attending the march.
Volunteer Graphic Designer, Fairness Campaign (May 2008 – present) – Louisville, KY
In the early days of my work as a volunteer designer for Louisville’s decades-old Fairness
Campaign, I did some basic work on fundraising appeals, print materials, etc. As my
involvement in the Campaign deepened, I became their main graphic designer and worked
on several branding/ad campaigns.
SKILLS
Well-versed in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign CS5, etc
Proficient knowledge of all Microsoft Office programs
Great with most point-of-sale systems
I can operate most dSLR cameras and have experience with lighting
REFERENCES
Chris Hartman, Director of Fairness Campaign – 502 640 1095
Carol Hammerbeck, Family friend, Psychiatrist – 502 264 1369
Ellen Sites, Family friend, Teacher assistant – 502 724 0740
COLLATERAL

Tabloid-size poster for local open-mic night.

September 2009
COLLATERAL

Tabloid-size poster for a Kentucky Derby event.

All branding for the Illumination Derby Ball was
done by me. April 2009

Tabloid-size poster for a River City Drum Corps

Derby event. April 2009
COLLATERAL

Postcard mailer for Fairness Campaign

fundraiser. July 2009
OTHER PRINT

Three samples of business cards made for

freelance customers over the years.
OTHER PRINT

Front fold of an inviation to an American Civil

Liberties Union of Kentucky event. July 2009

Postcard mailer invitation to poetry slam/birth-

day party.
OTHER PRINT

Cover to personal design project. March 2008

GENDER AND
SEXUAL Louisville Kentucky is an enigma of a city.
EXPRESSION During the ten years I resided there I saw most
of what it has to offer. Louisville has been called
both the southernmost Northern city
IN A and the northernmost Southern city in
America. Both its location and culture
MULTIREGIONAL transcend stereotypes of either region,
and this is one of the things I have
COMMUNITY recently discovered to be appealing
about my hometown. Southern:
indulgence is essential, and indulge we do—soul
food, cowboy boots, and Derby festivities will
always have a place in my heart. Northern: a city,
defiant of the country’s pigeonholing of the state
it’s located in, with citizens just as eager to flaunt
their city’s Southern charm as they are to defend
its subtle Northernness and booming urban
development.
Much of my concentration over the past
few years has been on gender issues—I have
volunteered for many a related organization
and amateurishly studied the subject—but only
very recently did I think to seriously consider
the unique ways gender is expressed in my own
community. I’d generally taken it for granted—like
the foreigners to Louisville so justly lamented
by our citizens for the pigeonholing of our
city—that my hometown conformed to society’s
traditionalist standards, particularly those
regarding sexuality and gender. I was wrong. I’ve
chosen to explore the prejudices I once had of
my own city through a display of my community’s
tolerance regarding gender expression and
identity. This exploration is done via a series
of three portraits, each representing a different
aspect of the spectrum of beliefs, ideals, and
expectations I have recently discovered to be
true or untrue of my community.
The photographs progress from
archaic philosophies to modern ones, each
representative of the subject of each portrait.
Each piece is overlayed by a gradient, a running
symbol referencing the fluidity of gender and its
pertinence in our lives. Not highlighted are the
qualities or actions the subject embodies that
escape traditional gender expectations and roles.
PORTRAIT ONE - KATIE
1963: Betty Friedan hypothesizes that women
are victims of societal expectations requiring
them to find identity and purpose through their
husbands and children.
Misconception: that Southern society
subscribes to the view of femininity mirrored
by Friedan in “The Feminine Mystique.” Upon
examination of the reality and state of gender
expectations in Louisville, a city influenced by
both Northern and Southern tradition, I found
that this was not the case.
The subject is a counterexample to my
expectations regarding Louisville’s attitude toward
women. Katie dropped out of traditional high
school at 17, works 9-5, lives in a single-parent
household—one in much disarray—and smokes
religiously. When I took her portrait in early
January she was unknowingly three months
pregnant; she has decided to give the baby up
for adoption. Katie is in no way the stereotypical
view of femininity, yet receives no reactions
denouncing her lifestyle, even in a city I thought
enveloped in traditional views of gender. In
considering the beliefs in my community, I
had inadvertently stereotyped it. The text
superimposed on Katie’s portrait is the dedication
from Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication on
the Rights of Women,” a philosophy, however
primitive, representative of Katie’s circumstance.
PORTRAIT TWO - SEAN
Transphobia is becoming the last queer discrimination problem:
in a country where five states have legalized same-sex marriage
and the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy
is planned within the year, there are many battles yet to be
fought, but transphobia is one of the most monumental ones.
While the subject, a Louisville high school student, is neither
transgendered nor transsexual, he is still affected by transphobia
due to misunderstandings of gender issues. Sean crossdresses,
with varying degrees of seriousness—both for midnight
showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and for casual
days at school. The surprise? The struggle between tradition
and acceptance of queerness is ending; even in a community
where both Northern and Southern culture have been patently
transphobic, the subject received little to no criticism for his
clothing choices during any point in the school day. While Sean
did receive some reactions to his attire, the majority of opinions
suggested a sea change toward a society more accepting of
untraditional gender expression.
The table superimposed on Sean’s portrait is the Bem Sex
Role Inventory, a 1971 test created to explain how individuals
have come to use gender as an organizing category for many
aspects of their lives.
PORTRAIT THREE - MARY AMANDA
The third and last portrait in this series is a hopeful one,
and one that brings this series full circle (suggested by
the blue of the gradient that matches the hue in the first
piece). The subject of the portrait is queer; she does not
pin down her sexuality, but has only been romantically
involved with women. Amanda has been a Louisvillian
for all of her life, and, unknowingly, has been protected
by some of the most comprehensive anti-discrimination
legislation in the country.
In October of 1999, Louisville, led by local human
rights group Fairness Campaign, became one of the
first Southern cities—and one of the first cities in the
country—to enact legislation prohibiting employment,
housing, and public accommodations discrimination
based on sexual orientation and gender identity: a fact
that many queer Louisvillians, including myself, are or
were once unaware of. This legislation is unique for
two reasons: the first, that it included protections for
transsexual and transgendered people so early in the
battle for queer rights; the second, that it happened in
a community so many people consider to be extremely
conservative.
CONCLUSION
Throughout the process of creating this photoessay
I’ve both confronted several stereotypes I have long
known in my community and delighted in its many, many
redeeming qualities. Louisville, I’ve found, is a community
that cannot be easily labeled as conservative or liberal,
accepting or intolerant. Reflected in my hometown is
not an ideal acceptance of everyone as they are; nor is
there evidence of a city predisposed to discrimination
and hatred. Reflected in my community is, however, a
collection of beliefs, ideals, actions, and thoughts which
parallel a country diverse in opinion, yet responsive to
change first instigated by Wollstonecraft in the 1800s,
now reinforced by contemporaries as varied as queercore
band Le Tigre (whose song “F.Y.R.” is superimposed over
Amanda’s portrait) and queer theorist / no-futurist Lee
Edelman. The burden of progression toward a necessarily
tolerant, and even embracing society, is not to be placed
on any one group of activists or hopefuls, but on every
individual in a society soon to recognize that—despite
differences in opinions of gender expression, roles,
and identity—its fundamental beliefs are inspired by
acceptance, equality, and love.