RACHEL FAZIO

Rachel is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Los Angeles who specializes in branding, publication, and music packaging design. They graduated with their Bachelor of Design from University of Washington and are currently completing their MFA in Graphic Design at CalArts.

Rachel is currently working as the Social Media Manager for Organic Control, Inc. (2024–present) and creating merchandise for various local musicians like Janna Jamison and Underexposed (Garrett Rahn). They worked as a Content Creator for Forem, DEV, and Codenewbie (2022–2024) and as an Art and English Teacher at Fusion Academy (2021–2022). Rachel has been working as a professional graphic designer, mostly centered around brand design in collaboration with local brands and artists since 2018.

SELECTED WORKTYPEYR
9
I WAS SEDUCED BY GAY TYPE!
Publication
2026
8
THE UNKNOWN
Publication
2026
7
ROOTED TERRITORIES
Branding
2025
6
ADDING SOIL AMENDMENTS
Publication
2026
5
JANNA JAMISON
Branding
2024–2026
4
DEV
Branding
2022–2024
3
LA CHIMERA
Title Sequence
2026
2
I FOUND THE F
Music Video
2025
1
MUSIC BOX SANS
Type Design
2025

9    I WAS SEDUCED BY GAY TYPE!
TYPE: PUBLICATION
2026


Do we know what legacy other queer typographers have left in print design? “I Was Seduced By Gay Type!” is a zine for a speculative exhibition on explicitly queer print design and type design made by designers in America. This work references queer archives throughout the country, specifically the Lesbian Herstory Archives, Houston LGBT History, Gay Rodeo History, Digital Transgender Archive, St. Louis Queer History Portal, Queer Archive Work Library, Arizona Queer Archives, and Queer Music Heritage. 

This project works to fill in gaps that are left in the design archive where queer people should be recognized, especially in a discipline that has a large population of LGBTQIA+ people.

Queer type,  by my definition, can include:
  1. Type that works against existing systems of homophobia and transphobia, gendered norms, and capitalist patriarchy, but is normally intrinsicly also tied to all liberatory work fighting against racism, sexism, violence/war, exploitation, ableism, one-right-way-isms, oppression, control, or binary-thinking, especially for queer people.
  2. Type that has worked as literal or metaphorical codes for queer people to communicate publicly.
  3. Hand-drawn type or type designs made by queer people.
  4. Type that teaches us new things about the fluidity of gender, the experiences of queer people, and our history as LGBTQIA+ individuals. 
  5. Type made by queer people explicitly for queer education/communities, sometimes including educating people on the gendered nature of language (ex: La typothèque Bye Bye Binary), our history in LGBTQIA+ activism (ex: GenderFail), etc.
  6. Type that is really, at the end of the day, gay, queer, trans, LGBTQIA+, etc. (obviously).
8    THE UNKNOWN
TYPE: PUBLICATION
2026


The Unknown is an experimental publication of interviews with my cohort about what they think happens when we die, if they believe in ghosts, and what mysteries they want the answers to. The goal of this publication was to explore what existentialism feels like visually and typographically. I chose the format of this publication to be reminiscent of a collection of maps and allow for an element of discovery while reading so that the form of the work mirrored the content and function. Inside each little zine you can read my own personal thoughts around each topic, why I chose these questions, and quotes from my classmates.
7    ROOTED TERRITORIES
TYPE: BRANDING
2025

What if governments grew like ecosystems? The Rooted Territories is a speculative nation premised on the idea that humans are half plant, and that society should be structured accordingly. Their central goal is to build reciprocal, regenerative governmental systems designed to restore the earth's natural systems. This project expands upon other fictional nations like in “The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians” by Annebella Pollen and Angus McBean, inventing a new nation that lives simultaneously in escapism and idealism.

While creating this speculative nation, I was deeply intrigued by how much our current politics and social behaviors in the colonized United States demand for a separation between humans and nature. I wanted for the visuals of The Rooted Territories to feel very modern, though mixed with a logomark and illustrative elements inspired by both modern tattoo designs and knitting patterns that have been passed through generations to denote a specific geography. The very experimental typeface that I used for the Remembrance Holiday poster and Rooted Territories logomark were forms pulled from the brand’s illustrations that I built out into a caps and lowercase typeface called The Rooted. 
6    ADDING SOIL AMENDMENTS
TYPE: PUBLICATION
2026


Adding Soil Amendments is a design manifesto that I wrote in the form of a zine, arguing for a more non-humanocentric design discipline. This book chronicles my apartment complex’s work to make a regenerative agriculture project out of the eroded land in the front of our building, which I use as a metaphor to discuss the importance of radical optimism in resistance spaces. I discuss the many trials and tribulations of building a garden in an urban space, especially one with soil almost exclusively composed of decomposed granite. The writing in this work is also deeply joyful, explaining how creating social and regenerative community spaces within something like an apartment complex can inspire our ability to create better world systems.

As we know it, our ability to change the world for the better is dependent on our imagination to do so, and for me the site of change I have chosen is broadening our scope of what is possible within graphic design as a discipline. To expand the discipline to keep it for further generations, we must queer our entire notions of how to create more joyful and equitable communities within graphic design and the larger design atmosphere. 
5    JANNA JAMISON
TYPE: BRANDING
2024–2026


Janna Jamison and I have collaborated on seven single covers and two EP covers over the past two years for her EP’s “Forgetting in the Middle of It” (2026) and “Lovesuite” (2024). For the most recent EP, we worked to create a series of images that felt like a childhood fairytale, both dark, romantic, and cool-toned.
4    DEV
TYPE: BRANDING
2022–2024

I operated as the sole graphic designer for three open-source communities for over two million software developers: DEV, Forem, and CodeNewbie. 

During my time,  I was responsible for:
  • Leading brand redesigns and building brand systems for DEV and CodeNewbie
  • Managing and creating content for eight total social media profiles
  • Redesigning shop website
  • Creating visual and written assets for email campaigns to our 300,000+ subscriber newsletter
  • Designing marketing campaigns for hackathons with GitHub, Cloudflare, Supabase, Refine, Netlify, AWS Amplify, + more
  • Coordinating marketing and producing all visual assets for CodeNewbie Podcast for three seasons
  • Art directing internal campaigns for yearly community events including we_coded, Pride, and Hacktoberfest
  • Managed Facebook and Instagram, including content creation, content calendar, and social media strategy
  • Responsible for: managing Trello boards, setting KPIs, coordinating influencer marketing, organizing paid social, formatting newsletter, and maintaining website via WordPress
  • Instagrams managed: @thepracticaldev @codenewbies
3    LA CHIMERA
TYPE: TITLE SEQUENCE
2026


For the 2023 film La Chimera, I created a title sequence that centered a whimsical hand-written type to mimic the soft qualities of the film, paired with soft, aged-feeling colors, and abstract calligraphic illustrations. This project was completed during a course in Type in Motion, taught by Benjamin Woodlock at CalArts.
6    ADDING SOIL AMENDMENTS
TYPE: PUBLICATION
2026


This music video for "I Found the F" by Broadcast (2005) was made in collaboration with Diego Apolito, filmed at the Los Angeles River. Diego danced improvisationally to the song in full, six times across different spots along the river. The edit uses an extremely restrained palette, and every cut falls exactly where it does in real time, no clips were rearranged.
1    MUSIC BOX SANS
TYPE: TYPE DESIGN 
2025

Music Box Sans was drawn to feel semi-modular and similar to a proportional typewriter-style semi-serif. Each letterform is created using the same pieces, drafted to achieve a music box sort of effect that has notch-like serifs and a space-like feel. This was advised by Gregory Lindy during a workshop in Winter 2025 at CalArts.

CONTACT

EMAIL: rachelfazio2@gmail.com
INSTAGRAM: @rchlfazio
LINKEDIN: @rachelfazio





SELECTED CLIENTS

Adobe Creative Cloud
Kellogg Garden Products
Organic Control, Inc. 
Gardener’s Brand
Forem
DEV
Codenewbie
Saron Yitbarek
This Next Thing
Art At The Airport
Period.org



RECOGNITIONS

University Côte D’Azur, Designer and Artist Collaborator and Scholarship Recipient for Hubert Crabieres

Mary Gates Endowment Scholarship Recipient for speculative research project, "Fungal Revenge in the Post-Anthropocene."


SERVICES

Brand Identity
Visual Strategy
Social Media Management
Merchandise
Album Artwork
Book/Publication Production
Typography
Web
Poster



EXHIBITIONS

(2026) CalArts MFA Design Showcase, The Train Never Arrives, D300 Gallery, CalArts, Valencia, CA

(2025) Yesterday + Today + Tomorrow, The Reef, Los Angeles, CA

(2025) Amoebic Muck: Rachel Fazio,  Solo Painting Show, Junior High, Los Angeles, CA

UPDATED: June, 2026