Pope Joan Design Studio is run by Founder and Creative Joan Simpson. Serving clients globally, Pope Joan concentrates on brand alignment and refined identities for entrepreneurs with minimal, sustainable and purposeful design focused on people and planet.

In Pope Joan’s work, the studio seeks to launch and refine brands with a positive mission and impact, applying this process to a wide range of industries and business types—as a result, this keeps me learning and allows me to be a better collaborator and partner, thinker and creator.

With a holistic approach, Pope Joan Design Studio guides you through a fine-tuned process that uncovers your why, identifies your goals, and leverages this information to craft a story that aligns with your mission. By harnessing your unique qualities, Pope Joan creates the framework for an identity that feels uniquely you and successfully sets you apart from your competitors.

Pope Joan carries client projects from inception to completion and hopes to cultivate lasting relationships. Upon completing your brand alignment process, Pope Joan delivers a package that equips you with the tools to launch or refine your brand successfully.

Hi! I’m Joan, the Founder and Creative behind Pope Joan. I am also an active member of the Creatives for Climate. Creatives for Climate is a nonprofit global network of creative professionals dedicated to climate justice.

In this past year, I have also been working at an art museum on programming around artists and their exhibits like Yayoi Kusama and Clementine Hunter.

When the studio is closed, I love spending time with my family and supporting my daughters in their endeavors. I also love to cook & bake with ingredients from my local CSA, while perpetually rehabbing my mid-century house in a tiny village that my husband, Peter, our daughters, and rescued Yorkie from Puerto Rico named Nigel call home.

It doesn’t matter where you are in the world. I work with clients locally, nationally and globally.

Please fill out the Inquiry Form. I can’t wait to hear what you are up to.

Why Pope Joan? I get asked this question a lot. There are generally two things people know about the Pope without question. First, the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and second, he is a man.

While not the topic of conversation within the Roman Catholic church, the historical legend shows a female named Joan was Pope in 855 CE. Yep, that Pope.

In the 13th century, printed chronicles of her life spread throughout Europe, recounting her story, shocking Christians throughout the world, and gaining her worldwide fame.

It all started when Vikings brutally killed Joan's older brother in an attack. As a result, Joan took up his identity and entered a monastery in Fulda, Germany, where she joined the brotherhood in his place even though it was forbidden for women to learn under medieval law.

Not only did she rebel, she learned how to disguise herself carefully as a man. She was said to have been known as Brother "Johannes Anglicus," working her way up within the church hierarchy, distinguishing herself as a great scholar and healer.

Eventually, Joan headed to Rome to follow her secret love, where she attained the highest throne in Christendom and the world. She was elected Pope and wielded a power greater than any woman before or since.

As legend shows, she held the position for two years before her dramatic unveiling. During a large religious procession to Saint Peter's Basilica, while Pope Joan was leading on horseback, the crowds cornered and startled her horse, causing it to buck. Joan's sudden fall caused her to go into labor.

She had hidden her pregnant belly under her papal garb for some time, thus unveiling her secret and exposing that "Johannes" was Joan.

The public and the Catholic church itself were outraged–there are stories that they tied her to her horse and had her dragged around the city to shame her before finally executing her. Some believe it was during childbirth.

While historians can't seem to agree on whether the story of Pope Joan is true, the church insists that it is a mere legend. It is a tale proven too compelling to be forgotten.

We say the future is female, which is undeniably true, but let us not forget the innumerable powerful females from our past silenced, erased, and forgotten.

Pope Joan, let her story be known.