Aquarius Season : Branded
This is an ongoing series where I create a moodboard for the current sun season, combining my knowledge of astrology with graphic design as a creative exploration. If you have a lot of Aquarius placements, feel free to use elements that resonate as a form of inspiration for your own brand. My end goal is to create moodboards for each sign as an artistic reference point.
Kitchen by Super Kitina, Comedy in the Park by Design by Allysa, Pop! Studio branding by Rowan Made, Kid in cool clothes by Green Hearts Pink, Matty Matheson tour poster, Rad poster by Not Real, Linked hands by Anna Schvets, Cafe de la Semaine poster by Luke Edward Hall, Rebel poster by Ink & Drop.
A handful of years ago, I told a few people within a larger group setting about astrocartography (specific places in the world that are astrologically significant to you). I was a new student of astrology at the time and eager to share what I was learning with those I deemed safe.
These two people then peeled off to look at their maps, when another person I know walked in and asked what we were talking about. Someone halfway across the circle said "geography and astrology," to which the new person quietly muttered:
"Who would believe in that crap?"
While I doubt they remember that moment, it's one that I think about a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Astrology has a long history. Since pretty much the very beginning, humans looked up and wondered how the beauty of above affected us down below. In certain points of history, the practice was revered. Other times, not so much. And while astrology has once again been having more of a revival, not everyone is onboard.
I understand this. And yet, when something I treasure is so quickly shot down, it's easy for me to tuck myself away. To stop speaking. To melt back into that which is accepted.
That last sentence is key in understanding Aquarius. As the sign of individuation, Aquarians are here to strip away familial and / or cultural expectations and values that don't feel right and stand absolutely firm in the truth of who they are.
This is not an easy task. Let's say you're the queer kid born into a family of conservatives. Or you're the quiet bookworm born into a family of athletes. That feeling of being other, big or small, can cause a lot of understandable fear.
One of the most misunderstood labels of Aquarius is that they are unfeeling. Coldhearted. Distant.
But when we consider that little kid who is afraid to be who they are. That teenager. That adult. It's easy to see why they may tuck parts of themselves away or hold people at arms length. It's self protection, not lack of emotion.
We all just want to belong and even the most well intentioned family members can cause harm by telling us that "they love us no matter what, but are afraid that the world won't be so kind."
Despite this, the Aquarian path is to consistently make choices that follow their true north, every step of the way. The more they do, the more their confidence builds. The more their confidence builds, the less self protection they need.
Individuation is freedom. So is not caring what other people think.
As a human being born on the cusp (I'll explain this in the footnotes) of Aquarius, I'm still working on this.
While I have some prominent "other" karma in my chart, it’s manifested itself more internally. My belief and practice in astrology, however, is becoming more outward. Sharing here feels safe. But in person? That’s still a bit shaky. The echoes of the past lodge themselves into my throat, quite literally, afraid to put my heart on the line. It gets easier the more I speak up, but in many situations, I simply keep quiet. “I’m a graphic designer,” I say, negating the part that makes it worthwhile.
Someday, I know and trust this will be different. That I’ll stand tall and proud in the truth of who I am, inside and out. For now, it’s the little steps that get me that much closer, each and every day.
SO LET’S MAKE AQUARIUS VISUAL
First and foremost, I want to mention how impossible it is to make just one moodboard for Aquarius. Individuation does not mean overt eccentricity for all who carry this energy. As I said earlier, it’s more obvious in some than in others. I’m thinking of the punk rock pink streak in their hair person versus a highly introverted individual in a family of extroverts.
Those are two very different visual representations of the same underlying drive towards authenticity.
And yet, my moodboard skews standout, simply because I had to make a choice. And at the end of the day, Aquarius is “I don’t care what you think” self expression full stop. And so I wanted these visuals to express themselves confidently. Just know that in practice, as always, I look at the entire chart of a client to assess how their unique energy translates into visuals.
The idea of color, though, plagued me from the very beginning of this process. While I typically think blue or lilac as main airy colors for Aquarius, that’s obviously not what I did here (although there are pops of the two). Instead, I chose to be different, which is still very Aquarius. ;) Bright pinks and chartreuse and greens were the colors I intuitively gravitated towards, so here they are. While some signs are more straightforward with color, Aquarius is not one of them. You really gotta do you here. Other supporting energies within your birth chart may give a clearer starting point in this case.
For typography, I leaned into anything that wasn’t classic, with a heavy nod towards handwritten type. We’ve got bubbly. Goth. Cursive. All caps. Bold. A little bit of everything that lives outside of the box. Again, you do you.
For imagery, you’ll see hand drawn illustrations, stars, hippie flowers, abstract backgrounds, pictures of people wearing unique clothing, and collage. My favorite, though, is the kitchen at the top left. Have you ever seen someone just leave a cabinet unpainted in the corner like that? It’s so Aquarian cool I could cry. Other Aquarian things not pictured could be AI generated imagery, things that feel futuristic, or even anything that feels community centered and inclusive.
All of this was, to my surprise, was packaged into a neat and tidy grid. While I assumed I would place these images into more of a collage format like Sagittarius season, it occurred to me that staying within a grid was another metaphorical way of being unexpected. Plus, the traditional ruler of Aquarius is Saturn, which loves discipline, so it fits in that respect, too.
And that’s it for this season! For those of you with strong Aquarian placements within your own chart, I would love to hear about your experience in individuating, big or small, and what that looks like for you. :)