PALLAS ATHENA

Pallas Athena is the visual communication research and design practice of Sara Duell.

I explore feminist theory, visual literacy, and norm-creative strategies through design and writing. 

Myth is a Logic too is an ongoing series of satirical posters exploring western society’s aversion to color,
decoration and the female body. November 2018.

In the last year I’ve, among other things, designed a series of satirical metal posters, made a feminist anthology of break-ups, and produced a series of zines teaching home-medicine making. I also published an op-ed in Design Observer about the racial and gendered implications of the Women’s March Logo and the future of progressive design.


The Heights is  Matthew Porter’s portfolio of images of vintage muscle cars captured in mid-aid, which I designed with a focus on the landscape and poetic elements of the photographs rather than on the novelty of the flying cars . December 2018.





Ett Steg Närmare (One Step Closer) is Ulla Duell’s photographic reflection on aging May 2019.





It Was Over When You Said What is an anthology of break-up stories that was
published both as a risograph printed chapbook, and as a website. May 2017.

My goal for my work is inspired by bell hooks’ definition of resistance in Teaching to transgress*, and Adrienne Marie Brown’s call for social justice work to be transformative and pleasurable, as she describes in her book Emergent Strategy.** I want to investigate how I can use graphic design to create transformational, analytic and pleasurable spaces that address and engage with dominant, normative discourses and representations.

A series of zines titled Urban Medicine Making with Aurora Prelević: informational guides for
how to make herbal remedies at home. August 2017



Power Plant Herbals is a ‘clinical herbalism company focused on
plant pharmacology and holistic nutrition’. December 2017

* “Resistance lies in self-conscious engagements with dominant, normative discourses and representations and the active creation of oppositional, analytic and cultural spaces.” bell hooks. Teaching to transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994. p.22.

** “It has expanded for me over the years as I have come to believe that facts, guilt and shame are limited motivations for creating change, even though those are the primary forces we use in our organizing work. I suspect that to really transform our society, we will need to make justice one of the most pleasurable experiences we can have” Adrienne Marie Brown. Emergent Strategy. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2017. p. 33.


© Sara Duell, Pallas Athena LLC, 2019

sara@pallasathenastudio.com    twitter.com/pallasathenallc    instagram.com/pallasathenallc