By: Sahra Denner
Pronouns (They/Them)
New York City, NY, USA
“I would rather be my own audience.”
Sahra Denner did not go to design school. They took film theory and Shakespeare, interned ten times, and looked up the rest online.
They are now a working graphic designer and illustrator in New York. Three months into freelancing after a two-minute phone call ended the job they had spent three years clinging to.
The Long Way In
“I am completely self-taught, which I’m both proud of and insecure about. Most of the professionals I encounter in my field went to art or design school, so a little part of me wonders what trade secrets were whispered into their chosen ears in the halls of their institutions while elsewhere I was taking film theory and Shakespeare classes that have no practical application to my current career. I don’t regret my path because I think it taught me how to learn the ugly way, by being an intern 10 times, by looking shit up online, by having a portfolio that was cobbled together from work and spec instead of the shiny assignment-based ones a lot of other designers had when we graduated. I was so scared I wouldn’t be able to compete with them but nowadays I am confident that even if there is stuff they know that I don’t, I can just find it out on the Internet.”
The Phone Call
The moment Sahra started taking themselves seriously was not a decision. It was a layoff.
“I had my last job for three years. It was an in-house senior designer role at a media company that I’d been clinging to, terrified of the uncertainty and inconvenience of freelancing in this dogshit economy, even though I knew that I wasn’t meant to be toiling away at someone else’s brand forever. But all the little perks—easier taxes, easier apartment applications, unlimited PTO—kept me complacent and ripe for getting picked off. I don’t think I applied to a single outside job no matter how chaotic things got at work. I just smiled bigger and told myself to appreciate what I had. And I wish I could say I made the decision to set myself free on my own, but the truth is that like along with seemingly everyone else in Gen Z, I got laid off at the end of Q1 in a two-minute phone call that started with the word “sorry.”
I had never not worked in-house before so was like a baby bird shoved out of the nest. Like, there goes the nest! There go the W2s and the OOOs and my work laptop whose hands looked like this so my personal computer’s hands could look like this! Who was going to be my boss? I shuddered to imagine myself. But now it’s been three months, and I have two clients that keep me busier than I was at my old job but to tell the truth I never miss it. This experience has shown me that when it comes down to it I know how to show up for myself, I don’t always have to take the easy road, and that I have a legitimate, desirable offering even in a market that would prefer for people with my skillset to think we’re outdated and replaceable.”
Breaking Assumptions
The question they get first, every time, is the one they least want.
“Everyone always sees my art style and assumes I want to write children’s books. That’s literally the first question I usually get asked. No shade at all to children’s book illustrators, it’s a high high art form in my opinion, it’s just not my bag because I take inspiration from my real adult life and I don’t want to have to ever kidproof the stuff I make. It’s a cartoon mouse, sure, but she’s on her couch ripping bong, and she’s not concerned about being a role model and neither am I. I’m not saying I’ll never ever make something that children would ever like or that I’m like so alt and vulgar or whatever, I just would rather be my own audience than trying to discern what’s “appropriate” for an audience I’m unfortunately no longer a part of.”
Looking Forward
Asked what they want more of in media, Sahra needed two words.
“More Blasians!”
Beyond the Work
“I want to make art that makes people think differently about their world :)”
Connect
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