Zipeng Zhu, based in Bushwick and Crown Heights’ Shanée Benjamin are two of the five artists Skittles asked to design a Pride edition wrapper.
Photos courtesy of Skittles
Brooklyn artists are giving the rainbow a makeover.
To celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, the iconic candy brand Skittles reached out to five artists, including two Brooklyn-based creators, to commission the design of its 2023 Pride edition.
One of the selected artists was Art Director and illustrator Shanée Benjamin from Crown Heights, whose art style is about shining a light on Black queer joy as she portrays real people in her life in her pieces.
The brand also asked Creative Director, entrepreneur and designer Zipeng Zhu based in Bushwick, who describes himself as an artist who wants to make every day a razzle-dazzle musical.
“I’ve been putting out lots of artistic content that reflects my identity, how I identify, and also my journey as a queer person and an immigrant, so I feel like some of those messages resonated with the Skittles team and therefore they reached out,” said Zhu.
The creative was born and raised in China, before moving to New York 14 years ago to attend the School of Visual Arts. He is the co-founder of Dazzle Studio, a multidisciplinary art-developing space in Bushwick that specializes in creating visuals. His soon-to-launch project, Asset, is a butt wellness brand.
Apart from the artists’ compensation, $1 from each candy pack sold —up to $100,000— will go to GLAAD, a non-governmental media and business monitoring organization that safeguard LGBTQ+ rights and the community’s interests and integrity.
Every year, through June, many brands dress their products up with the LGBTQ+ community flag. Some of them use the symbol to indicate part of their proceeds from sales of those products will be used to support queer people or organizations, but others are blamed by their consumers for “rainbow washing” or “rainbow…
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