Meet the queer illustrator behind this joyfully inclusive Red Nose Day 2022 t-shirt

LGBT illustrator creates Red Nose Day T-shirt supporting Comic Relief

For this year’s Red Nose Day t-shirts, Comic Relief has turned to 11 artists from different disciplines, communities and backgrounds.

One of them is Lizzie Knott, an illustrator and designer for a children’s book publisher. Her Red Nose Day 22 t-shirt is an explosion of colourful figures with the slogan: “Love is all around”.

Knott, a Cambridge School of Art graduate, told PinkNews that her design is “focused on diversity [and] people coming together”.

“I kind of just wanted to encapsulate, especially during the pandemic, people from all over the country, all walks of life coming together and supporting each other regardless of their differences,” she added.

In her freelance work, Knott creates artwork that “centres around Pride events, or being part of the community”.

She graduated from her illustration degree in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced her to take a different route into her artistic career.

She said: “I wasn’t going to go freelance, but I had to move home and then it kind of just worked out that way.

“I did some work centred around mental health in the pandemic. I illustrated and was interviewed for an article in the BBC about depression during the during lockdown in 2020.

“I guess I was just given the room and the breathing space to just create work that I knew represented what I wanted to put forward the most.

“I was able to develop my art style, and channel how I was feeling, and help people have a bit of an escape through artwork in the pandemic.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Lizzie Knott (@lizzieillustrates)

Designing a Red Nose Day 2022 t-shirt has been an “amazing” experience, Knott said.

“I’ve gotten messages saying that I’ve represented people that really wanted to be represented,” she said. It just feels really heartwarming.”

“I’m really proud to be a part of such an amazing project and showcase such wonderful work that goes towards a great cause, especially as someone from the community, I feel really proud to be represented on such a big scale.”

Red Nose Day 2022 will take place on Friday 18 March. T-shirts are available to buy now at TK Maxx.

This article contains affiliate links, PinkNews may earn revenue if you click through and purchase products through the links.