Instagram celebrates the start of Pride Month with new stickers and other creative tools

Illustrators Roza Nozari, Leandro Assis and Ari Liloan discuss the creative process behind designing Instagram’s new set of Pride-themed stickers.

Date
2 June 2021

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With yesterday marking the start of Pride Month, Instagram has introduced a new set of creative tools to help celebrate and support the LGBTQIA+ community. A selection of three Pride-themed stickers that focus on its diversity, including gender non-conforming, asexual, trans and gender fluid-identities, has been illustrated by artists Roza Nozari, Leandro Assis and Ari Liloan. These stickers form part of Instagram’s efforts to “colourfully highlight LGBTQ+ expression” and to “support the next generation of LGBTQ+ changemakers, no matter where they are or how they identify”.

The Jumping and Plant Love stickers were designed by Nazori, a “tender-hearted queer and a Muslim femme with ancestral roots in Iran”. Her work is influenced by her own lived experiences, her communities, and various BIPOC cultural figures and thinkers. For this commission, she chose to focus on the 2SLGBTQ+ people who “are often left out of dominant narratives''. After reflecting on what queerness means to her, and following discussions with her friends and partner, Roza designed stickers that reflect the many aspects of LGBTQIA+ culture, from “plant parenting” to “drag culture and high femme fashion”.

Meanwhile, Brazilian artist Assis’ Pride Rainbow and Trans Flag Rainbow stickers draw on his bold, colourful and playful style to help inspire others, and are influenced by the contributions of the queer Black community that have historically gone unrecognised. “My approach was very simple, creating a sticker that contributed positively to conversations surrounding LGBTQIA+ subjects,” he says. “I would love to know that people felt inspired by seeing the stickers to speak their mind. We need a little inspiration during everything that is happening right now and I think that sharing your thoughts is something that can do you good in the midst of chaos.”

Finally, Filipino\Italian artist Liloan’s glossy Surfer and Cassette stickers take inspiration from the artist's own experiences as a GNC person and the experiences of anyone who feels “discomfort with their gender role”. Liloan says that the nostalgic mixtape sticker is representative of the fact that “nobody is one-dimensionally female or male... you compile feminine and masculine qualities to create something congruent with who you are.” While the surfing sticker is simply a reference to the empowering feeling of seeing “older ladies kick ass on a surfboard”.

Instagram’s new Pride Month features also include: rainbow hashtags and story rings, created in partnership with GLAAD, that appear in a rainbow gradient when used in a feed or story post; a #Pride section on the Shop tab that offers “curated collections of LGBTQIA+-owned Checkout products and brands, as well as a @dragunbeauty exclusive Pride-themed drop”; and publicly displayed pronouns that give people “more control over their identity”.

Gallery(Copyright © Instagram, 2021)

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Illustration by Ari Liloan

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Illustration by Roza Nozari

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Illustration by Roza Nozari

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Illustration by Ari Liloan

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Illustration by Leandro Assis

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Illustration by Leandro Assis

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About the Author

Daniel Milroy Maher

Daniel joined It’s Nice That as an editorial assistant in February 2019 and continues to work with us on a freelance basis. He graduated from Kingston University with a degree in Journalism in 2015. He is also co-founder and editor of SWIM, an annual art and photography publication.

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