An artistic bent

Recently I designed a logo for the Nottinghamshire Gay and Lesbian Switchboard to appear on leaflets around the universities and colleges. The consensus amongst LGBT youth was that the logo should not contain usual LGBT identifiers - pink triangles and rainbow flags - but instead be "urban and funky". I could probably come up with something urban but thought I was bit long in the tooth to be funky! But these restricting criteria made me jump at the chance.

I think I've come up with a logo that can be used by anyone of any sexuality. What's more, it doesn't matter which way up it goes. I've designed several logos in the past, including that of the NRH. My idea for that (which you can see on the main blog page) was to come up with something connected to Robin Hood that was non-gender-specific. The result was an arrow with rainbow ribbons.

Logos are verywhere these days. They shape the way we visualise our age. Imagine the 60s, 70s or 80s and it will be the visual aspect that often springs to the memory. The LGBT community has been identified with the rainbow flag for 30 years now, and its 6 colours have appeared everywhere. There are a few logos which go against this trend (my own urban logo and that of Nottingham Ball Bois, for example).

As part of NRH we hope to collect visual material as well as photographs and pictures. Perhaps you can help. Do you have any badges, leaflets, etc. that have logos or designs of an LGBT nature that sums up the age in which it was produced? I have a few London Pride t-shirts which I will loan to the project. They sum up my life before moving to Nottingham, when the only time I met more than one other gay man in one place was at London Pride.

We have a large collection of LGBT badges, but you may have one that we haven't.On the subject of logos and designs the project is DESPERATE to get hold of a good, clear, hi-res image of the poster that appeared on the side of the Methodist Central Mission in Nottingham for Nottingham Pride. You couldn't have missed it - it was shocking pink. So far, our photos do not do it justice, and the Methodist church don't seem to have kept the original design. Can you help?

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/