Ash + Chess : Uplift the Queer Community with Art

When Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham met in 2015 on a dating app in Brooklyn, New York, art was just a shared hobby.

Now, they are a queer and trans power couple who run and own the successful stationary company Ash + Chess, which made its debut at the National Stationery Show in May 2017.

“When we first met, Ash was working in textiles back then, and I was a special ed teacher,” Needham recalls. “So, I was completely not involved in this. When she took me to the National Stationery Show, we walked it, and she kept telling me how she wanted to start a stationery company. I was like, ‘Sure, whatever,’ but we actually ended up starting it. I used all my savings to go to the Stationery Show in 2017, and it kind of took off from there.”

Based in Richmond, Virginia, Ash + Chess creates greeting cards and art prints in bold, retro color palettes, and they often use their artwork to make a political statement and to uplift the queer community. Since the company’s inception, more than 600 retailers throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia sell their art and stationery. 

“We started out selling greeting cards and art prints wholesale to retailers around the country, and we still do that,” Molesso says. “That is around 90 percent of the business. In the years that we’ve been in business, we have also had the opportunities to do books, like we did The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History & Handbook, which came out last year. That was our first publication ever, and we have done cool freelance and collaboration projects with other companies. We recently worked with this California company called NooWorks, and they print bulk fabric of artists’ designs and then make them into a bunch of different clothing items with the same pattern.”

Currently, Molesso and Needham are working on two more publication projects. One is called My Queer Year, which is a guided journal/planner, and the other is a children’s book called ABC-Deconstructing Gender.

The pair also plan to publish their debut tarot deck, Queer Tarot: An Inclusive Deck and Guidebook, in April. Centering and celebrating LGBTQ identity, the classic figures of the Major and Minor Arcana are joyfully reimagined, and each card in the deck is modelled after real LGBTQ people commissioned for this project.

Queer tarot readers will love the nods to queer history and iconography, while beginners will appreciate the deck’s accessibility and illuminating background. 

“We designed all 78 cards ourselves,” Molesso says. “We based the imagery off the Rider Waite tarot deck, which is, like, the classic deck. It has gone up and down in popularity, but it is one you see referenced a lot. We took that imagery and reimagined it. We used real-life queer models for each card, and we even put ourselves in the deck. It’s really cool, and we wanted to do it because queer people tend to move towards tarot.”

“Tarot is all about introspection and exploring yourself and the world around you,” Needham adds. “We were like, ‘OK, this is a thing that a lot of queer people naturally kind of connect with—if not tarot, then at least the feelings that it invokes.’ We noticed that the Rider Waite tarot deck was basically depictions of thin, white, presumably cisgender and heterosexual people. We were like, ‘Let’s make it super queer and diverse.’”

Molesso and Needham are often asked what it has been like to navigate the success of Ash + Chess not only as a brand, but as a couple. There are many people out there who would find it difficult to have a working relationship with their significant other. 

“Every now and then, we’re like, ‘Let’s stop talking about work,’ but it is still really fun for the most part,” Needham says. “We have been doing it for four years, and it is still fun to think of new projects. We are both open to trying new things, and because we are both really different people, I feel like we push and pull each other in a way that is constantly changing. It’s fun.”

Moving forward, Molesso and Needham hope to continue making a positive impact on the LGBTQ community through their work. 

They hope to soon own their own retail space.

“We recently moved the business out of our house, and it’s done wonders,” Molesso says. “Having that separation of home life and work life, I think, has really made us succeed more because we have been able to focus on work while at work, and then relax at home. It doesn’t wear us out as much. I would like to expand our studio space and basically get a place that can act as a storefront.”

To connect and stay up-to-date with Ash + Chess, follow them on Instagram @ashandchess and visit their official website, ashandchess.com. Purchase the products here and here.  

Photos by Ethan Hickerson