NO COMPELLED SPEECH:

I create through intuition. Creative communication begins with a feeling. Trust your eye, trust your gut. That's where great art comes from.

But all of that requires freedom. The freedom to fail and to experiment. And the freedom to create consistent with your own personal beliefs and artistic choices. If you can't put your own heart and soul into your work, there's no reason to do it.

That's why I was fascinated by the recent U.S. Supreme Court case 303 Creative v. Elenis. The case involves Lorie Smith, another graphic designer and the owner of 303 Creative in Colorado.

She challenged a state law that would force her to create custom designs that celebrate views on marriage she disagrees with. On June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in her favor and concluded that the government cannot force artists to create art promoting ideas they don't believe.

I filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Lorie's case. Not because I agree with her stance on marriage. Far from it. Let me be crystal clear: I support marriage equality.

Instead, I filed the brief because I believe so strongly in the underlying free-speech principles. And I understood that if Colorado could force one artist to create something inconsistent with her beliefs, it's not hard to imagine other governments in this country doing the same.

That's a scary place to be in as a country if the government can start telling us what we must say and what we can't say.

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