San Francisco Pride
(2023)
Creative Director
Identity, Design, Marketing, Social, Merchandise
San Francisco was one of two of the first cities to hold Pride events commemorating the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, on Saturday, June 27, 1970, with Los Angeles and New York following suit on Sunday, June 28, 1970. It quickly grew to become the largest event in California, surpassing even the Rose Bowl, and is among the top five in the world, top two in the Nation.
It was with this background that I was tasked to help create a rich visual identity for the San Francisco Pride in 2023. At that point the team only had a singular purple color, and nothing else. I began by exploring the city’s rich artistic history and developed an aesthetic to bridge the cultural gap between what the Pride Board viewed as the expanding target demographics, connecting the two communities within the larger community.
2023: San Francisco Pride Theme Work
2023 THEMES:
The SF Pride Board of Directors selected the theme “Looking Back And Moving Forward” to unite a perceived division between the older and younger generations.
To develop the 2023 Theme Design I printed, cut out, and scanned hundreds of photos from the “GLBT Historical Society, est 1985,” creating a vibrant and diverse collage of San Francisco’s queer history.
2023 MAINSTAGE LINEUP
Continuing the theme of “Looking Back And Moving Forward” I examined the rise of 1970’s aesthetics in current popular culture, and San Francisco’s escalating queer culture during the period, developing a brand language we referred to as “modern tie-die aesthetics” for the main stage.
2023: San Francisco Pride Theme Work Sent To Drafts
SENT TO DRAFTS:
For this alternative design identity, I wanted to be less literal. I wanted to channel the boldness of San Francisco Pride’s previously best-selling merch, “Year of the Queer” and the graphic directness of Rupert Garcia’s work. To tie it together with the theme of “Looking Back and Moving Forward,” I wanted to explore the various ways time has been depicted in Bay Area art. Bruce Beasley’s goal "to capture and encompass the spirit of space and light in a free-flowing form" in Apolymon and Victor Moscoso’s poster art for The Doors at the Avalon Ballroom provided great inspiration.
Depicting the passage of time through tactile graphic elements; bringing an aesthetic representation of the past informing San Francisco Pride's present and future goals.
RESEARCH + INSPO
San Francisco Pride’s Best Selling Merch: 1993 “YEAR OF THE QUEER” t-shirt
Rupert Garcia, Attica is Fascismo, 1972
Bruce Beasley, Apolymon, 1970
Victor Moscoso, Poster for Avalon Ballroom Concert, 1967