The culmination of my communication design education, passion for craft, and experience overcoming domestic violence has manifested into a project to address Portland’s domestic violence epidemic.

I’ve made a set of quilts that are also infographics. They are about the realities of domestic violence in Portland.

I’ve investigated how identities intersect to exacerbate domestic violence for certain people. And in this line of inquiry I found some information that fed my soul. It is information that I think other people should know.

The main sources I used, Street Roots, Oregon Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence, the Women’s foundation, and the Welcome Home coalition, are all working in ways that help alleviate domestic violence, whether it be moving towards affordable housing, equal pay, or providing culturally specific services.

I created infographics for this project because I feel as a communication designer I want to use my education to better people’s lives. Information can change people’s behavior and influence their beliefs when skillfully given.

These infographic quilts apply the emotional resonance of cloth to the
unpleasant data about Portland’s domestic violence epidemic: it becomes
personal and intimate in this way. With bold shapes and bright colors,they
invite and entice viewers to the the work. Their softness and seemliness
reach folk in ways that other mediums may not.

Domestic violence is a tool for domination inherited from colonization and
sexism. It is this same system of oppression that marginalizes the work of
women, including their quilts.

Quilts tell the stories of the oppressed. And they have also been a tool
for advocacy and political organization. I chose to use quilts because of
this, but also because my audience is white affluent Portland, who likely
accepts quilts as a domestic object without question, and will feel the
emotional resonance that I want them to convey.