Restaurant Merch: Celebrating Pride in Our Cities
Happy Pride Month everyone! To celebrate Pride, our team wanted to explore opportunities to create Pride merch for restaurants. We landed on designing logos for each of our cities that can be placed on glassware throughout bars and restaurants. Pride Month in the U.S. is celebrated in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots from June 1969. The riots were a response to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City. This sparked the gay rights movement in the U.S. and around the world. America’s first gay pride parade was a year later when people marched from Stonewall Inn to Central Park, but pride month wasn’t officially declared in the U.S. until 1999, 30 years after the riots. These days, many businesses release Pride-themed merchandise during June to celebrate.
Portland, Oregon
Hi! My name is Lindsey, and I’m based in Portland, Oregon. Pride Northwest is a long-standing organization in this area that generally organizes the Pride celebrations here in the Pacific Northwest. While Pride Northwest was established in 1994, the first pride celebration here was actually in 1975 when a group of about 200 organizers ran a pride fair near Portland State University. While Pride month is technically in June, Portland celebrates in mid-July.
The people of Portland (and surrounding areas) have a deep appreciation and love for the several mountains visible in the area, the most prominent being Mt.Hood. Being all together under this colossal beauty gives us a sense of togetherness which is why I have chosen its silhouette as the focus of my logo. I wanted the type to be bold, just like the city, but I love the minimal look of “PDX” (which is the common shorthand for the Portland metro area) instead of the full name of the city.
Written By: Lindsey Robinson
Nashville, Tennessee
Leanna here, and I’m located in Nashville, Tennessee. The first pride parade began in Nashville in June 1988. I was inspired by all the merchandise already provided by Nashville Pride, and decided to use some of the same elements like the Progress Pride Flag colors. When thinking about Music City, using a guitar for a logo is a popular choice, I thought using a guitar pick shape instead was a little more unexpected. I couldn’t leave out our iconic skyline highlighting the Batman building front and center. I chose a thick slab serif font to mimic the fonts used a lot by the legendary Hatch Show Print shop posters. The star accents are an ode to the stars on the Tennessee flag. Overall this logo is uniquely Nashville, and I would love to see it used throughout the city!
Written By: Leanna Myers
Dallas, Texas
Dallas’ first unofficial gay pride parade was three years after the Stonewall Riots, in 1972. A few hundred people marched through downtown, growing to a few thousand on the way. In celebration of Texas law changes, the Dallas Tavern Guild moved the parade to September in 1983, and only moved the celebration back to June in 2019. With 40 years of pride in the books, Dallas Pride deserves some extra branding! I used a thick, serif typeface for the text in my logo to reference characteristics of Western-style typography but with more geometric lines to show Dallas’ growth as a city. I swapped one of the “A”s for a star due to Texas’ nickname as the Lone Star State. The star icon is used throughout Dallas-based businesses and sports teams. Cacti are a common Western-style graphic, so I included one to indicate the southwestern position of the state and the hotter climate!
Written By: Chelsea Davis
While Pride Month is nationally acknowledged throughout the month of June, Pride is more than just a month. As a movement, Pride celebrates diversity and promotes acceptance and support of the LGBTQ+ community. Members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies can show support for Pride throughout the whole year!
