In 2019, the Los Angeles LGBT Center celebrated its 50th anniversary. To commemorate this momentous occasion, the Center worked with RPA to create a striking new logo that celebrates the relentless efforts of the community in the fight for equality by using images from multiple protest signs to create a singular symbol.

To both pay tribute to the movement’s past and convey the momentum that is being carried into the future, RPA created a logo out of 292 images from collections at ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries. We spent weeks sifting through crates of photos in the archive, finding those that would best serve our work and then researching and finding the photographers and negotiating terms of use. All the images were taken from protests from the past 50 years from several different mobilizations around the US, mainly in Los Angeles.

A video, narrated by Patricia Arquette, tells the story of how the innovative logo was crafted. Electric Theatre Collective volunteered their time to create this piece for us and Lime Studios did the same to bring the audio to life.

More than 125 letters or symbols were chosen from different protest signs to make up the logo. The new 'Forward for 50' logo directly speaks to the Center’s 50-year commitment to moving in just one direction — toward progress, by honoring the decades of struggle that have paved the way to freedoms and acceptance.

The font will be available for download on the Center’s website. Additionally, stencils created out of the font easily enable people to create present day signage of their own in celebration of the progress made over the past 50 years.