Touché!

IN Toronto magazine spoofs The Grid Toronto's controversial cover and article - brilliant!

The Official Gay Card: NOW magazine

A huge thanks to Ben for posting our interview in NOW Magazine about the Official Gay Card this morning. I feel so honoured (and giddy!)

And thanks to everyone for continuing the momentum over the weekend. I will post a numbers update later this week.

xoxo,

CR

Weekend book find

Cock-a-doodle-doo

The Rooster Coffeehouse

479 Broadview Avenue, Toronto

(This was probably the best espresso I've had in months, and the baristas were wonderful. Can't wait to go back!)

TTCSI Case #4 - Clash of the titans

Case #4

The accused: Tek Saavy (I would hyperlink for them, but I don't want to generate any traffic for them)

The crime: *cringe* Using Arial and Helvetica...together.

When you pass these posters plastered around the TTC, you might not think much. They are pretty no-frills, with white text on black background. Overall, kind of sombre, unoriginal, and not very attention-grabbing. But wait... it gets worse.

If we look closer, the designer has committed one of the worst typographic crimes possible.

Either through carelessness or ignorance, they have use Arial for the majority of the text, and Helvetica for the website. This is made obvious by the terminals on the upper case "C"s and "S"s. (For a slightly better comparison on Arial vs. Helvetica, click here)

Ruling: Arial and Helvetica are like two unruly children that don't play well together. I have my own preference between these fonts (read: I really dislike Arial), but I am willing to let Arial pass under certain circumstances (ie. availability to the designer, irony, etc.). But please, for the love of typography, do not use Arial and Helvetica together. Ever. Please.

Ultimate font fun

I really really love all 22 faces of Fun City by Roman Gornitsky/ABSTRKT

Filed under Awesome, along with History font

Available on MyFonts

(via Fonts in Use)

Type around T.O: Coca-Cola type

Coca-Cola type

Great article on the making of the 1954 Coca-Cola Piccadily Circus neon sign

(via Creative Review)

I fall to pieces

I absolutely adore this letterpress poster by Laura Tait, along with the rest of her typographic work.

(via designworklife)

Who do you want to be today?

How great are these new kids notepads by Knock Knock?

(Previous love for Knock Knock here)

Blog housekeeping

This week has been a little busy... here come all the entries that got postponed this week...

I ♥ NY

Forty-two years after the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, NYC, New York State becomes the sixth — and largest — state to allow same-sex marriages. Congratulations New Yorkers, and happy Pride weekend!

Happy Pride

Pride kicks off in Toronto today, and runs all of next week, culminating in the three major gatherings:

The Trans March - Friday, July 1st at 7pm

The Dyke March - Saturday, July 2nd at 2pm

The Pride Parade - Sunday, July 3rd at 2pm

And a brief Official Gay Card update: last night, we surpassed 50,000 page views, with hits from 122 countries, and almost 2000 PDF downloads and 1200+ iPhone downloads. A huge, huge thank you to everyone has shared the website (insert internet group hug).

Not coincidentally, I've chosen to post above photo that I took at Istanbul Pride last year. Amidst all the fun and frivolity this year, we must not forget the reason we celebrate Pride, not just in our city or country, but around the world. Together, we can create open dialogue, build diverse communities, and generate positive change.

Happy Pride. Be proud.

You are fabulous.

xoxo,

CR

The Official Gay Card: The day we went viral

I am flabbergasted.

Thank you to everyone who has spread the word about The Official Gay Card, and *special thanks* to Andy Towle for the plug on Towleroad yesterday. I have been inundated with Google Alerts about bloggers reposting on their site - I can barely keep up! A sincere thanks to each and every one of you who has brought this project to life.

The internet is a magical thing.

p.s. If Lady Gaga tweets about this, my life will be complete.

The Official Gay Card: The power of Savage

I was planning to do a post tomorrow to give a 3-week update, but there has been a significant development. After Dan Savage's post on the Slog yesterday (thanks Dan!), The Official Gay Card has exploded onto the internets! Less than twenty-four hours ago (right before his post), the analytics were hovering around 850 total views. Moments ago, we surpassed 10,000 page views (and no, that's not an extra zero you're seeing).

I want to thank everyone for their support - this is a dream come true.

(I feel like Sally Field accepting her Oscar...)

I also wanted to take a moment to address some of the questions and concerns that are coming through the blog comments on various sites.

1) "There are sooo many spelling errors."

Yes. Designer-fail. "Mykonos" and "Provincetown" have been fixed. Thanks for bringing them to my attention. Nobody's perfect. :)

2) "The questions are sooo stereotypical."

Yes, yes they are. That was the whole idea.

3) "This is only for gay men."

Correct. This version should be considered the beta version for bigger and gayer Gay Cards to come. With more time, I'll gladly develop a lesbian version, as well as variations of the Gay Card for more specific types of gays (club queens, bears, fashionistas, etc.) Stay tuned for Gay Card 2.0... coming Pride 2012!

4) "There are no questions about sex."

That's right. I wanted to keep this version PG-13 (read: my Mom also reads this blog).

5) "This is stupid and lame."

Thanks for sharing. Haters gonna hate.

The Official Gay Card: Big update!

Thanks to Dan Savage (yes, the Dan Savage) for posting about The Official Gay Card on the Slog!

(I am hyperventilating...)

Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away...

What a perfect weekend in Toronto. Summer is here!

Mystery man

Several years ago, I bought a blank photo album at a yard sale. Turned out the album had this one sheet of proofs tucked inside. Who is this man? When were they taken? And why? I've always wondered...

Weekend recharge

A lovely, relaxing time at Lovesick Lake this weekend

(Thanks H & T!)

Get better

Claire:

God I feel like I'm trapped underwater […] I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to do with my life.

Ted:

Don't you still want to be an artist?

Claire:

Yeah. I'm scared that maybe I'm not good enough.

Ted:

Is that true?

Claire:

It might be.

Ted:

So get better.

Claire:

I really don't want to go back to school. Even though it's art, I still feel like I'm being programmed.

Ted:

Just take pictures. If you're good enough, you'll find out. And if you're not, you'll get good enough or you'll find out you can't.

But I bet you are though.

-one of my favourite scenes from my favourite show ever, Six Feet Under (season 5, episode 12)

The Queens

If you're Calgary, be sure to check out The Shakespeare Company's production of The Queens. Tickets available through their site.

AB EX comes to T.O

Yesterday, my friend David took me to see the Abstract Expressionist exhibit at the AGO. While I appreciated the Rothkos and the Pollocks for studying them at art school, the one piece that really jumped out was the painting (above) by Lee Krasner, the wife of Pollock. Based loosely on a system of "hieroglyphs", I loved the grid-based composition, and how it felt like letters were revealing themselves to you, almost like a code, waiting to be decrypted.

Thanks David - this was a great treat for the eyes.

The Official Gay Card: Week One update

Thanks to everyone who has been sharing the link to the Official Gay Card. We're up to 652 hits in the first week!

Special thanks to Tanya for the card announcement in her post, and to Chelsey for this touching post on 32blades, and also sharing the love on this forum.

p.s. Another "colourful" project in the works... stay tuned!

Type around T.O: Flashbulb edition

This picture perfect moment

Taken down at the harbourfront

The Official Gay Card: Takin' it to the streets

This was originally scheduled for tomorrow, but the weatherman says 40% chance of showers.

I have written the URL, getyourgaycard.com, on the 8 main street corners of Church & Wellesley Village in bright rainbow-coloured chalk.

Thanks to everyone who has spread the word so far - we've had almost 500 hits since the launch on Wednesday morning. Let's see how much more buzz we can generate this weekend!

Two in T.O

Yesterday marked 2 years in Toronto - and I love it more every day.

The Official Gay Card

Just in time for Pride 2011 is the Official Gay Card!

This is a project that has been in my mind for months (years!), and has come to life in the last few weeks.

I have always liked the idea of a gay card - a smart, sassy badge of pride for gay men to pull out in the case of a gay-mergency (tragic displays of public fashion, uninspired interior design choices, relationship interventions, etc. ) But I have been consistently disappointed with the offerings on the web (see examples below). Something had to be done about this.

This project started out as a simple 2-sided card with a few basic tenets. But as the card evolved, I decided that it was not enough to just make the cards available; you should have to earn your card. (as the wise RuPaul says, "You better work").

A series of questions emerged, and a full quiz was formed. If you pass the quiz, the card is yours. If you fail, no card for you.

I designed a one-page quiz + card, and threw the idea at my web developer friend, Chris Roberts. He said it would be super easy to transform into a website. And with his masterful (and speedy!) HTMLing and CSSing, getyourgaycard.com found its rainbow-adorned home on the interwebs. 100% free. 100% fun. 100% gay.

This project is a first for me, and in many ways, I just wanted to see if it could actually happen. And it did! If I see one person showing off their Official Gay Card during Toronto Pride 2011, this will have been a success for me.

So, now it's up to you. Take the quiz. Get the card. Spread the love. Enjoy and be proud.

Take the quiz here.

Happy Pride!