Automic Gold: Building a World Through Phygital Design
The premier global LGTBQ+ engagement ring designer, Automic Gold, has expanded into a digital thought leader in politics prioritizing love. This year, the FBI reported that hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community are on the rise, up 8.6% from the prior year. Coinciding with 530+ anti-LGTBTQ+ bills filed this year, many in the community must prioritize the preservation of queer culture, joy, and history.
Al Sandimirova, the founder of Automic Gold, is a queer jewelry designer who immigrated to the United States as a refugee due to the dangers they faced as an LGBTQ+ individual in their home country. They moved to the U.S.A. in 2009, reworking and reselling gold jewelry. Their ring designs went viral, selling instantly on eBay, and Automic Gold was born. “I feel like I have thousands of ideas I want to release,” they told ARCHIV3.
“I usually ask clients to send me pictures of what they like… They might ask me to make it more masculine or feminine, and I always say, ‘of course.’”
Stanford Graduate School of Business professors Matt Abraham and Scott Doorley explore the idea of why we design in the podcast Creative Communication. “People get excited about what it can do,” says Prof. Doorley, “but what should it do? What do we want? What’s the desirable outcome that we want in the world?”
Automic Gold runs two interrelated design projects, one physical and one digital. From providing information on inclusive design to cross-posting with other queer brands, Automic Gold is as well-known as a digital voice as it is a jewelry brand. The Automic Gold account openly posts about the brand’s origins in LGBTQ+ survival, encouraging advocacy for Trans Day of Visibility and movements for a ceasefire in Palestine.
Though the jewelry itself is relatively unbranded, supporting Automic Gold also means supporting the production and dissemination of their online publishing arm.
While not every follower will agree with every post, Sandimirova’s choice to cultivate an ideologically and aesthetically aligned community is reflective of their knowledge of their key audience, allowing the brand to remain a space for representation despite external turbulence. With private (purchase) and public (following/commenting) modes of engagement, Automic Gold is able to provide multiple avenues to participation, contributing to the visibility and celebration of LGBTQ+ culture through beautiful engagement shoots as designer, documentarian, and distributor. Automic Gold’s custom engagement rings, in particular, embody a private commitment between partners alongside a commitment to a broader cultural and social mission.
Sandimirova, after running Automic Gold for well over a decade, is well on the way to creating the world they would love to see, both digitally and physically. From ideation to creation to post, they make another proof point that love is love.
Affirming community comments in engagement photos on the Instagram page include:
“💗 real people. congratulations to them all” (@bidajuice)
“It makes me happy to see people finding their partners and celebrating their love” (@angelina.coscuna.styling)
“Beautiful couples! I wish everyone a lifetime of happiness ❤️” (@deliciouscatdonut)
Sandimirova has expanded a skill in jewelry-making into a force for social change using the free digital tools available today to drive that ‘desirable outcome’ in the world with only passion, commitment, and time.
What’s stopping you from doing the same?