June is New York City Gay Pride Month and June 26th - 27th was Gay Pride weekend; and what a weekend it was! Once again this year, I was asked by Gabriel "Gabby" Celis the Race Director of the Front Runners New York Pride Run to design the logo, advertising and t-shirt (and program, which I'll discuss in another post) for the Pride Run, a 5 mile race through scenic Central Park.
This year was just as crazy an experience as last, working with the Front Runners New York (FRNY) as I created a dozen different variations of the ad for newspapers, magazines, and the web and was at the whim of the crazy sponsors who couldn't make up their mind if they, in fact, wanted to be sponsors, or not.
Despite all aforementioned craziness, everything turned out great! I heard rave reviews from Front Runners, sponsors, and publishers, alike, on all the ads.
The real standout from the event was the race t-shirt. President of Front Runners, Rob Lennon, pushed the team to support getting a super-slick tech t-shirt for this year's race. It was a risky move, as lots of money can be lost on a high-ticket item by the club if the race isn't well attended, but it really paid off. I was able to create a really nice design to match the quality of the shirt and it was a success. Everyone loved the shirt and for the first time, they actually, completely, ran out of shirts before the race. I was told on numerous occasions racers offered to pay for an additional shirt, because they loved it so much.
Of course, people will always say nice things to the designer, who is also their friend, but the proof was on race day when an unprecedented number of runners showed up, ready to run, in the race t-shirt. It was amazing to see so many people wearing my shirt at the same time. I know this is going to be a shirt I'm going to see for years running through the park.
Imagery for the Pride Run is always difficult. There are a number of contributing factors that make the process a little extra special. The ad almost came as a "free pass" as the club decided to use an existing image I had created (see post on
FRNY Annual Report 2010). The main difficulty is that the club is so darn welcoming! The ad needs to appeal to so many people -- fast, slow, women, men, butch, fem, fabulous, gay, straight, questioning, and everything in between!
The t-shirt is extra difficult, as well, as we want it to represent Front Runners, as well as not scare off anyone who might be a little skittish around the subject of sexuality (not to mention, the shirt was some pretty funky colors to start with -- who wears neon green??). With input from the FRNY Board, a perfect balance was achieved; a larger than life rainbow radiating over New York city and the park. It just so happens that the concentric semi-circles perfectly match the stripes of the adidas shirt. Could things work out more perfectly. I love it when these things just fall into place. With a little splash of FRNY orange here and there to make everything pop, viola!
As far as the race itself, things went pretty well for me, too. It was a hot and humid day for a race in the park with 73° weather and 71% humidity, but I managed to have a decent race. As always, I went out too fast (5:05 first mile) but then was able to (or had to) slow down to finish with a 5:20 average pace and a PR of 26:44. Of course I'm happy with any PR I can get, but I had set a goal of a 5:15 pace for the race. So, I guess I'll just have to try again next year.
In the overall results I placed 11th and finished as the first Front Runner, winning the Steve Gerben Award. You can find the
full results on the New York Road Runners website, as well as some
great pictures.
Overall, it was a great race and a great weekend. After the race (and before the race), I spent lots of time with Front Runners celebrating. Sunday was the Gay Pride March as well as more celebrating. It was truly a great weekend, and I'll remember it every time I see one of those great race t-shirts. :)
For more information on Front Runners New York, visit
their website, and maybe I'll see you at a run!
Special thanks to Da Ping Luo, Ted Paszek, and NYRR for photographs.
Today was a pretty exciting day. I spent the day in the offices of M Booth - A Global Communications Company installing a mural. It was quite the experience. The office was teeming with energy; and I couldn't believe how welcoming the staff was. They brought me in to add a little pizzazz to the new dry-erase board they installed. (Which alone was pretty cool. Did you know there is dry-erase paint???! Just a few coats and ANY wall can become a dry-erase board! Whoa!)
Seems they take a team strategy to all their work. The new board's sole purpose is to help stuck team members find solutions to the challenges their facing. It asks, "What's Your Challenge?" Anyone can leave a post and everyone can reply. It's like a live Facebook wall!
After checking out the Keith Haring Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum (You can read about my trip.), I was excited to work on the wall. What a great way to prep for a project! So much respect to Haring. You can bet that dry-erase markers are so much more forgiving than sumi ink!
Beyond a few little things (a slightly too short step stool, strange metal gratings hanging from the ceiling, and a lack of yellow markers) the installation went really smoothly. It was great to be in the hallway. People were constantly walking through telling me how excited they were about the wall. And by the end of the day, the mural was complete! It came out great. I really hope they get a lot of use out of it. The team approach to work in their office is outstanding.
A big thanks to Lauren and Andrew for bringing me in today to create the mural. They were such great hosts!
As a sidenote, I've signed up for the NYC Half Marathon, again, in March of 2011. I think the half marathon is becoming my favorite distance...
"Harlem United Artists is an outgrowth of Harlem United's Art Therapy Program. The art created expresses the thoughts and feelings of the artists and represents the power of art in the healing process. Proceeds of all sales will directly benefit the Art Therapy Program."
As you may, or may not, know I work full-time for Harlem United Community AIDS Center, a nonprofit that provides housing, healthcare, and prevention for the Homeless living with HIV/AIDS as Coordinator of Special Projects. Recently, I got to work on a very special project that just came to fruition. Now available are Holiday cards featuring art by five talented clients of Harlem United.
I was able to contribute my talents by laying out the front and back of the cards and working with the printer to pull together this first of a kind project at Harlem United. 
EXTRA EXTRA, Read all about it! SneakerDry keeps feet dry!
The product is still evolving as we develop ways that you can customize it for your own particular race and as we get it ready to sell in stores. Please feel free to contact me or Damian, SneakerDry owner/founder, if you're interested in using it at one of your functions at Damian@SneakerDry.com. The website is currently under development, where you'll be able to purchase SneakerDry, as well as, upload your own artwork to make your own custom SneakerDry.
I've contributed all the artwork for SneakerDry. Everything from the logo, info graphics, to the layout for the Pride Run. It's been a super fun project to work on, combining my interests in running and design.
The most fun part for me were the graphics to describe how to use SneakerDry. It was a real challenge to simply the step and come up with images to represent the concepts. The best part was stretching to draw in a style I'm not accustomed to. I love the little runner man at the end of the steps. I'm hoping the project allows me to create some more similar work. I've already gotten to draw a little biker man for the project, as those bikers have to deal with the same problem.
There's definitely more to come on this project. Please contact me if you're a race director and are interested in using SneakerDry at one of your events. 
If you were in New York City three weeks ago you probably had a hard time missing all the rainbow flags. Three weeks ago was Gay Pride in New York. Every year the week is full of events and parties and then concluded with the Pride Run on Saturday and then the Pride Parade on Sunday. 
I'm so happy to have been able to contribute to be able to contribute to a group like the Front Runners on their 30th Anniversary of the club and on the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall.
Photos by DAVID LIN & TED PASZEK
