How One Woman Is Using Her Art To Amplify Black Women’s Voices

As Black women, we know the feeling of not being represented positively or accurately in the media. From television, to music and even art, it sometimes feels as if the entire world is tone deaf when depicting us. In a time where people around the world are chanting “Say Her Name”, you would hope that the same ones would put some respect on it. While some people have completely missed the mark on “telling our stories” one woman has made it her mission to not only give us proper representation in art, but give us some inspiration to stand in our power.

Meet Destiny Butler, a graphic artist who is making her way through the art world by creating beautiful images of women that look like her. You may have seen her work on your timeline a time or two, or her collaborations with major brands. The 24-year-old got her start back in 2020, while pursuing a master’s degree in User Experience. Like many people across the globe, Butler was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The young designer found it difficult to focus given the uncertainty in the world, and decided to use her graphic design skills to make artwork.

While she was finding her way in the creative community, Black people across the United States were not only trying to survive the pandemic, but also survive systemic racism. During this time, protests were breaking out across the United States in support of Black lives, and against racial injustices. Butler says she believes this is what helped her gain support. Her Instagram page @DestinyDarcel depicted black women, black people, and black struggle. Nearly a year later, she has 57.6k followers on Instagram. She’s also worked with brands like Fenty Beauty, BET, and more! In an exclusive interview with The GoodLook, Destiny tells us all about her journey.

The GoodLook: Who do you make art for?

Destiny Butler: My community, my audience is black women. I think most of my illustrations look like me. I feel like I keep drawing myself, and different versions of myself as I reinvent myself. I draw inspiration from how I'm feeling personally. I recently did a post about practicing love languages on yourself, and a lot of people liked that because you know, we all are trying to love ourselves. We're all trying to figure it out. It’s really easy for me to speak to this community because I’m a part of it.

What artists inspire you?

Reyna Noriega, she's literally my favorite artist ever. She’s Latina and Black, so she speaks from both perspectives and I always like watching her stories and stuff like that. She just really speaks to the experiences of black women, and she also speaks to the experiences of Cuban women. It's just like really opening. I love that and about her, and I love how abstract her art is.

What brands have you worked with and what type of art do you make?

Some brands I’ve worked with are Nair and Fenty Beauty. For Fenty, I did their background art for Juneteenth. I'm going to be in TJ Maxx this coming year, around Graduation time, Mother's day and Father’s day as well. I also have some other projects in the works that I can’t talk about yet.

As you gained more popularity, how did you get connected to some of these brands and how has that experience been?

Actually the brands all reach out to me. At first, when I was growing, I was attempting to reach out to brands and tell them what I was about, and try to like, get my art in whatever they were doing, but I had no luck. I had no luck, never got any traction. So, I reached out to a lot of brands, and they never gave any traction. I've had no luck actually reaching out to any brands myself.

How does it feel to be recognized for your work and have brands and companies reaching out to you now?

It feels really good to be sought after. It takes a lot off of my plate, but I don't really have to worry about it. Now, I can just be my authentic self. It feels really good to be sought after and it gives me a lot of autonomy, and it gives me freedom of choices. It doesn’t feel good when you’re reaching out to people and they’re not replying or not interested.

What advice do you have for people that are artists trying to put themselves out there?

I encourage artists to definitely put themselves out there and definitely reach out to companies if you see fit. But I feel like the best way to go is to just be authentically you, and consistently authentically you. Also, know that the people that are meant to be working with you, and are made to be in your corner are going to, and the people who have the money are going to spend the money. It’s obviously a growing process, but it's something you have to grow through to learn.

Where do you see yourself and your brand five years from now? Where do you want to go with it?

I am aiming to be sort of like Lisa Frank. She had the folders and the pencils, notebooks, and the binders. I'm getting to the point where I can’t accept all the commissions because there are so many. Now, I have to cherry pick, I have to raise my prices to weed people out. So, I would like to get to the point where I’m doing maybe one commission for a big company per month, and the rest is stationary and cutesy stuff.

If you’re excited about Destiny’s art and can’t wait for some of her upcoming collaborations, don’t worry! She currently has open commissions and her latest collection Black Girling With My Friends is available on her website destinydarcel.com.