Sixto-Juan Zavala is a designer, illustrator, & story-teller. He helps deliver memorable immersive experiences.
Photo by Rosa Pascual
PROFILE
Zavala (he/they) works in experiential design, identity design, publications, and illustration. Narrative is at the heart of his practice. He enjoys working in various media, including print, digital, and environmental graphics. To deliver multimedia experiences, interdisciplinary teamwork with curators, installers, suppliers, other designers, and stakeholders is key to his process. He is practiced in designing campaigns with attention to detail as well as an overall vision.
It’s important to him to learn, grow, and share knowledge through research, experimentation, and collaborating with peers and educators. He has worked on complex and delicate subject-matter with sensitivity and empathy. Zavala is a proponent for diversity, inclusion, and centring the under-represented. There is an influential role in design to empower underserved communities and help give them voice and agency. In the wake of the climate emergency Zavala uses his work to encourage discussions around ecology and biodiversity. This often results in a focus on plant life and site-specific research. Zavala is based in London and works with international clients.
Design, illustration, research, art direction, exhibition graphics, environmental graphics, publication design, talks, consultation, workshops
SELECT CLIENTS
BA High Life Shop Magazine (GBR), Big Medium (USA), Chelsea Physic Garden (GBR), LG (KOR), Little Joe Magazine (GBR), Metropolitan State University of Denver (USA), Mexic-Arte Museum (USA), National Trust (GBR), Paris Croissant (KOR), Puig (ESP), Raze Collective (GBR), Ritzenhoff (DEU), Stanley Arts (GBR)
EDUCATION
MA in Narrative Environments
UAL: Central Saint Martins
with distinction
BFA in Communication Design
Texas State University
summa cum laude
SELECT RECOGNITION
Spatial Practices Program Prizes, London, UK / 2021
Spatial Cultural Equity Award Winner
Spatial Cultural Equity Award Winner
MullenLowe NOVA Awards, London, UK / 2021
Nominee
Nominee
Graphis, New York, USA / 2019
Gold Winner in the Poster Annual in collaboration with Shawn Meek
Communication Arts, CA, USA / 2015
Award of Excellence for Oddwood Ales Packaging in collaboration with Thuy Pham
PUBLICATIONS
Sarah Elsie Baker
‘Interview: Sixto-Juan Zavala, Designer and Illustrator, Texas/London’
Designing Gender: A Feminist Toolkit
London, UK: Bloomsbury / 2024
‘Interview: Sixto-Juan Zavala, Designer and Illustrator, Texas/London’
Designing Gender: A Feminist Toolkit
London, UK: Bloomsbury / 2024
Sixto-Juan Zavala, Katy Parry
A Dash of Lavender 2023 Guide
London, UK: Chelsea Physic Garden / 2023
A Dash of Lavender 2023 Guide
London, UK: Chelsea Physic Garden / 2023
SELECT PRESS
'Queer Ecology and the Arts', Fukt Magazine #22, The Nature Issue / 2024
An article on queer ecology featuring the Queer Botany at Walthamstow Marshes project by Faye Campbell
An article on queer ecology featuring the Queer Botany at Walthamstow Marshes project by Faye Campbell
'Queer Botany at Walthamstow Marshes', Queer Out Here, Issue 09 / 6 October 2024
Edited by Jonathan and Allysse
by Essentials Creative (Collaborative work with Essentials Creative Collective)
'‘Nature embraces queer people’: inside the Kew show about the LGBTQ+ side of plants', The Guardian / 29 September 2023
Featuring interviews with artist Jeffrey Gibson and writer Irene Reti by Ella Braidwood
'The Queer Side Of Botany', Botany.One / 28 June 2023
by Michela Osnato
'The best London gardeners, activists and creators to follow on Instagram and TikTok right now', Evening Standard / 6 May 2022
by George Hudson
Graphis Poster Annual / 2019
Gold Winner in collaboration with Shawn Meek
Gold Winner in collaboration with Shawn Meek
Communication Arts Design Annual 56 / 2015
The Oddwood Ales packaging with illustrations by Zavala and art direction by Thuy Pham
The Oddwood Ales packaging with illustrations by Zavala and art direction by Thuy Pham
Plant Kingdom: Design with Plant Aesthetics / 2015
Five digital collages Floral Alchemy were included in this publication by Endpoints
Five digital collages Floral Alchemy were included in this publication by Endpoints
WORK IN COLLECTIONS
Mexic-Arte Museum
The Interspecies Library
Metropolitan State University Denver
Online / 26 Mar 2024
Communication Design Professional Practices
Online / 26 Mar 2024
Communication Design Professional Practices
Nonbinary Botany
Alice Austen House, Staten Island, New York, USA / 1 October 2023
Nonbinary Botany Round Table
Victoria & Albert Museum
Online, UK / 17 July 2023
Anthropocene Reading Group
Online, UK / 17 July 2023
Anthropocene Reading Group
Victoria & Albert Museum
V&A South Kensington, Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, London, UK / 1 Mar 2023
Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures Symposium, Session 6: Reaching out
V&A South Kensington, Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, London, UK / 1 Mar 2023
Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures Symposium, Session 6: Reaching out
Chelsea Physic Garden
Chelsea Physic Garden Gallery, London, UK / 3 Feb 2023
Evening Botanist panel
Chelsea Physic Garden Gallery, London, UK / 3 Feb 2023
Evening Botanist panel
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, UK / 24 Jan 2023
Queer Nature Think In
Cultivate: A TECHNE Student-Led Conference
Hybrid event: online & Cambridge Cottage, Kew, London, UK / 10 Nov 2022
Session 3: Cultivating Growth: Movement and Space
Institute for Postnatural Studies & The Institute of Queer Ecology
Online, USA / 25 Oct 2022
Mutability and Mutualism, Vol. II
Sutton House, London, UK / 25 May 2022
Rainbow Growers Social: Platinum Garden
Wellcome Collection
Wellcome Collection, London, UK / 25 Aug 2022
Rooted Beings: Perspective Tour
The Royal Parks
The LookOut, Hyde Park, London, UK / 16 July 2022
Queer Botany Cyanotype Workshop for Beginners
Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre / 9 July 2022
Queer Botany: Guided Tour of the Barbican estate
Fierce (Birmingham)
Selfridges, Birmingham, UK / 2 July 2022
Healing Gardens of Bab: Queer Botanical Drawing
Kings College
London, UK / 17 June 2022
Queer@Kings: Queer Theory and the Environment
Walworth Garden
Walworth Garden, London, UK / 21 April 2022
Walworth Garden, London, UK / 21 April 2022
Queer Botany at Walworth Garden: Mapping Stories
Chelsea Physic Garden
Chelsea Physic Garden Gallery, London, UK / 11 Feb 2022
Evening Botanist
National Endowment for the Arts
Online, USA / Autumn 2021
Panelist for American Rescue Plan applications
Fringe! Queer Film Festival (London)
Online, UK / 10 Nov 2021
Queer Botanical Drawing Session
LGBT Health and Wellbeing (Glasgow)
Online, UK / 6 Sept 2021
Green is for Nature: Queerness and Climate Justice
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Denver, CO, USA / 8 Nov 2017
Visiting Artist, Scholar, and Designer Program
Photo by Fikayo Adebajo
QUEER BOTANY
Zavala founded Queer Botany in 2020. Inspired by the theoretical lens of queer ecology, the project studies connections between queerness and plants through story-telling, design, and events. Queer Botany has worked with Chelsea Physic Garden, The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Wellcome Collection, Barbican Centre, The Royal Parks, and other organisations. Zavala was interviewed by Ella Braidwood at The Guardian about queering botany along with artist Jeffrey Gibson and writer Irene Reti.
Photo by Fabian Villa & Steven Casanova
ESSENTIALS CREATIVE
Zavala is a member of Essentials Creative collective, as an Art Director. Essentials Creative is a collaborative group of applied artists who come together to work on art installations and special projects. They produce multi-media experiences, which often incorporate photography, fashion, graphic design, video, lighting design, and projection.