Every Butterfly is Trans is the synthesis and blurring of boundaries between art/craft/design by graphic design student Rudi Szilvásy. Using screen printing, crocheting, illustration, photography, and, of course, traditional editorial design, they looked into undoing and demystifying ideas of gendering and ungendering clothing in both a personal wardrobe as well as from community outreach. The title and graphic imagery take their inspiration from both cultural and personal ques as well: we think of butterflies as a very literal symbol of transformation, often from the perspective of an awkward little caterpillar to the objectively more beautiful butterfly. If anything, this project looks at the in-between: the chrysalis and its place of healing and more perpetual transformation, as opposed to a clear cut start to finish. To do this, Rudi recalls the internet as the protected garden in which ideas and questions about gender identity are able to be seeded and grown safely, in the often private way that is necessary. We see the internet then used as a gathering space for trans communities, and a vehicle for gathering much of the imagery for this project via social media and Google Forms. Taking collected original illustrations from trans people all over the world, Rudi then looks more intrapersonally to solve problems of gendered clothing manufacturing and consumption that leave little space for outliers in bodies or identity. To do this, the unlikely miracle of crocheting falls into his lap, and carries him down a drastically new path of fiber art that doesn’t feel too far off from the caterpillar building its chrysalis. Finally, all the garments are documented and adorned by trans friends from Rudi’s own community, before going off to their contributors after this thesis show. The lookbook takes all of the semester’s work and preserves it in a lasting and thoughtfully designed printed medium that can be reproduced time and time again, to preserve and spread the joy and significance of this place in time for long after the defense’s end