This year’s Gay Star News Pride bag design is unicorn inspired (Photo: Dan Beeson)
Gay Star News today unveils the designs for its annual Pride bags.
Launched in 2012, the media outlet’s annual Pride tote bags are given away at Pride festivals around the UK each summer. They have become a much sought-after collectors item, and each year feature a different design.
The bags initially featured designs from LGBTI celebrities and allies, including Sir Ian McKellen and Sharon Osbourne.
In 2017, the bag design was by an LGBT illustrator, Daniel Arzola who had escaped persecution in his home country of Venezuela.
Sadi Guran designs Pride bags
This year, Gay Star News has decided to again showcase the work of an LGBTI artist. Sadi Guran is a gay artist and illustrator based in Istanbul, Turkey.
(Illustration: Sadi Guran for Gay Star News)
His exclusive unicorn-based design will feature on 20,000 bags to be given out at Manchester Pride, Pride in London, Glasgow Pride, Leeds Pride, Birmingham Pride and Bristol Pride.
‘We asked Sadi to create a design that showed the unity of LGBTI people around the world. And his final artwork exceeded all our expectations. It’s beautiful,’ says Tris Reid-Smith, co-founder and editor of Gay Star News.
‘We are delighted that a Turkish LGBTI artist’s work will now be seen by hundreds of thousands of people at Pride events around the UK.
‘It’s a small but important part of our ongoing efforts to show solidarity with LGBTI people in countries where it’s tough to be yourself. And we think that’s a great message for this Pride season.’
Creating magic
Sadi Guran says, ‘The current situation and oppression here pushes me even more to create homoerotic art to raise visibility. When I was asked to make art for Pride, it meant the world to me. The idea behind my design comes from my belief in that the core beauty of human kind is in its diversity. And when we get together despite all our differences, we create magic.’
The bags are sponsored by Skittles, Staples Solutions, Age UK, Manchester United, Clarins, Pink Lady, Hoseasons, Cottages.com, npower and Jet2Holidays.
This year’s Pride bags will make their debut at Birmingham Pride on Saturday 26 May 2018, followed by Pride in London, Bristol Pride, Glasgow Pride, Leeds Pride and Manchester Pride. Follow Gay Star News on Facebook and Twitter to find out where the bags are being distributed at each Pride.
Look out for the exclusive tote bags at several UK Pride festivals this summer (Photo: Dan Beeson)
See also
When is Pride? Check out our international Pride calendar 2018
