TruffleShuffle Pride 2024: Meet Our Exclusive Pride Sticker Designer Emily Sneesbee
Summer is here, and you know what that means... it's time to break out your favourite t-shirts and soak up some glorious sunshine (fingers crossed)! But that's not all. It's also the perfect season to wave our rainbow flags with extra flair because Pride 2024 is here, bringing with it a whirlwind of amazing Pride events worldwide.
To celebrate Pride 2024 in true TruffleShuffle fashion, we've been hard at work crafting an exclusive collection of charity Pride T-shirts featuring your beloved retro icons Care Bears, Moomins, and Elmer!
That's not all though, we've teamed up with the incredible designer Emily Sneesbee, who has whipped up a fabulous sticker design that you'll get for FREE with every order from this year's Pride collection.
Curious about the magic behind the scenes or looking to know a little more about Emily? You're in the right place. We sat down with Emily to get the scoop on her creative process and the inspiration behind her stunning designs.
Here's what she had to say...
First off, tell us a bit about yourself and your art!
Hello!!! I'm Emily Sneesbee, an aspiring comic artist and Illustration student at UWE Bristol!
My entire life revolves around art and design, from my work and studies to my hobbies and interests. I've always been a huge fan of visual storytelling and media, becoming obsessed with a constant stream of different films, shows, cartoons, comics and games throughout my life; I love to get lost in worlds of queer fantasy stories and I hope to add my own work to that media sphere someday.
My artwork is colourful and vibrant (naturally so, as I don't seem to be able to tone it down!) and often multi-media as I canât get enough of all the possibilities of different art supplies.
What does Pride mean to you and how do you like to celebrate it?
My business actually began because of pride! Back in the summer of 2022 I was planning on attending my local Pride march with my friends and I wanted to make something we could give out to people at the event, just for fun! So I turned some of my bear artwork (which I have a lot of, could you guess what my favourite animal is?) into hundreds of stickers with them all holding different pride flags.
I had so much fun getting the chance to talk to so many other queer people as we handed them out all day, and some asked if I sold my work anywhere which proved to be motivation for me to finally start my business so that I could share my art with even more people around the world!
I hope to go to a Pride event again this year, as it will be my first one in Bristol, and hopefully, I could have some new designs to give out again this time!
What are the ways you think allies can most meaningfully show their support to LGBTQIA+ people?
If you stand for what is right and advocate for those more vulnerable than you, you will be an ally the community is grateful to have. Always be willing to listen and adapt your perspective, but my way of thinking is most clearly put in a line from Princess Bubblegum: "People get built different. We donât need to figure it out. We just need to accept it."
Are there any specific ways you love to express your identity? (Fashion, makeup, social media, art etc!)
My identity is most obviously expressed in my work and the characters I create, they all just end up queer like me. I've been told I also dress slightly strangely but unique haha, often very brightly coloured with lots of pink!
Who are your favourite LGBTQIA+ public figures? (Celebrities / Influencers / Musicians / Authors / Artists etc.)
ND Stevenson is a comic artist and showrunner for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (one of my all-time favourite shows) as well as the creator of Nimona; an incredible queer comic turned movie, so heâs been a huge inspiration for me.
I'm also a huge fan of music from queer cartoons like Steven Universe and Adventure Time, Rebecca Sugar's musical work on both being some of my favourite songs!
Are there any inspiring words you would like to say to other LGBTQIA+ individuals out there currently celebrating Pride?
Pride is a great way to find people who will accept you as you are! There is an immediate fundamental understanding between all of us. We all know the struggle of realising we're queer, you'll never be alone in that.
Last but not least, what's your favourite TruffleShuffle piece and why?
Trying to pick between all the Care Bears designs actually took me aeons, but it's got to be the blue rainbow dress! It's so soft and colourful and it's no doubt going to be a comfortable staple for sitting and drawing at my desk all day (given that's how I spend most days!)
A big TruffleShuffle thank you to the amazing Emily for hanging out with us and designing our super special bespoke Pride sticker! She answered all our questions and made this project so much fun. We're beyond excited to roll out our exclusive charity Pride designs this week!
Want to snag this awesome sticker and check out our Pride 2024 designs? Head over to our Pride collection and grab yours as soon as they're live. Don't miss out!