If you have picked up a copy of the Fulcrum Journal, admired a poster for a campus event or even spotted a sticker declaring “A Trans Person Was Here” around the Twin Cities, you have likely seen the work created by Bailey Winden, a Hamline senior majoring in Philosophy and Religion with a minor in Digital Media Arts.
Winden has been taking graphic design classes since his first year at Hamline. Curt Lund, Associate Professor in Digital & Studio Arts, was his First-Year Seminar professor and has taught him throughout his four years at the university. Their relationship grew stronger over time, and Lund quickly noticed something special in Winden’s creative work.
“Some of Bailey’s most unique work is in illustration and hand-lettering — artistic practices that we don’t specifically teach in graphic design classes,” Lund said via email. “Bailey’s style brings a warm, human quality and charm to an industry that can often feel too synthetic and slick or corporate. You can always see and feel the human touch behind Bailey’s work.”
As Design Editor for the Fulcrum Journal, which is Hamline’s annual literary and arts journal that showcases students’ work throughout the year, Winden draws inspiration from the submissions themselves to create the journal cover.
“We kind of figure out after we take submissions and choose what’s gonna be in the journal. We do the theme based off of the submissions that we get, so it’s really curated by everyone who submits their stuff. Which is really cool because it’s really shaped by its students and it’s a time capsule of the year,” Winden said. “It’s cool to look back at old additions and really see how it differs year to year.”
Mike Reynolds, faculty advisor for the Fulcrum Journal and chair of the English and Communications department, calls Winden a “world-class listener,” someone who pays close attention not only to what others say but how they feel. Winden’s work embodies the journal’s title, “Adomania,” a word describing both anticipation for the future and nostalgia for the past.
“The Fulcrum, and a lot of the brilliant work being done by artists across this campus in so many modes, is liminal — it hasn’t yet settled into the ruts we get as adults, it hasn’t given up on the openness. I think Bailey picked up on and embodied that sensibility in the lovely drawings for this year’s cover,” Reynolds said via email.
The latest edition of the journal was released on May 2nd and was inspired by Studio Ghibli’s “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.”
Still, Winden acknowledges how intimidating it can feel to step into a creative role without much experience.
“I want people to know that you don’t have to know what you’re doing, you just have to be willing to learn because I did not know what I was doing when I started,” Winden said.
When Winden became design editor at the Fulcrum, there were no instructions on how to use the design software they used to create the journal. Now, as a graduating senior, he has created instructional videos for the other designers who are currently there and for those who join.
In addition to designing Fulcrum’s covers, Winden has created logos for campus groups like Women Boss Up and the Hamline Garden Club, as well as numerous posters for student events, especially those he organized while serving as a residential assistant.
Off campus, Winden has led a personal project that has spread across the Twin Cities. You may have seen his DIY stickers with phrases like “A Trans Person Was Here” or “A Trans Person Peed Here,” posted on light poles, in bathrooms or at bus stops. These stickers are his protest against transphobic policies and actions by the new presidential administration.
“It’s kinda just been a project that I’ve been doing on my own to say like, we’re here still, whether you like it or not. And for solidarity too, so other trans people feel less alone,” Winden said.
Each sticker is completely homemade. He designs them on his iPad, prints them out at Hamline and then laminates each one by hand with packing tape. He even turned the design into a woodcut print for a class project.
After graduation, Winden hopes to freelance, though he knows how challenging that path can be. As a backup for now, he plans to work at a summer camp called Adventures and Cardboard, where kids create their own fantasy worlds out of cardboard. His long-term goal is to to work with non-profit organizations, especially local and queer-focused ones, using his art to support their missions. While he does not have a concrete plan yet, he is more excited than anxious about the future.
As an artist, Winden understands rejection is part of the process, but he urges others not to let it stop them.
“Don’t give up easily, because like in the art world, you are gonna be turned down a lot. I just got an email yesterday denying my art being sold in a local gift shop that I really thought was gonna accept it and it didn’t. And like that sucks. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth being sold in another shop,” Winden said. “You will find your place where your art belongs and people will enjoy it.”
More than anything, Winden does not want to see student publications fade away. The Fulcrum is not just a journal but rather it is a space where students’ art is preserved, shared and celebrated. In a time when print is often overlooked, Winden believes it is still worth fighting for. So please go join the student publications on campus.