Celebrating Toronto's Queer History.
Pride Toronto is a non-profit organization with a mission to bring people together to celebrate the history, courage, and diversity of the LGBTQ2S+ community. Uniting and empowering people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions, the annual Pride Toronto festival has become a major Canadian arts and culture event and the largest Pride celebration in North America. Pride showcases Toronto on the world stage.
For the 2018 Pride Toronto Festival, BMD was tasked with creating a visual identity system that evolved beyond the slogan-driven approach of previous years. The Festival aimed to celebrate 35 years of AIDS Activism and to honour the communities who battle the stigma surrounding AIDS. We explored the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives for photographs from decades past to celebrate people from the community. The identity system pairs archival imagery with newer photography and features jagged rips referencing activism. The colour palette is “post-rainbow,” representing all identities within the LGBTQ2S+ community.
Carefully balancing vibrancy and vigour, the visual identity is rooted in the history of queerness and looks forward to a future celebrating inclusiveness. Contemporary yet nostalgic typography builds on this juxtaposition. The system embodies freedom and fluidity, both in a literal, visual sense and as a symbolic testament to the evolving LGBTQ2S+ community.
