A Small Victory

Back in September I noticed that someone at Bridgehead had taped a trans flag to the front door. I thought that was really cool. Someone had gone out of their way to let you know that this was a safe space. In a city with so few of these spaces, that meant something.

That paper flag got progressively worn with time until the day in January that I noticed it was gone. So I decided that I was going to have a durable sticker professionally printed for them.

I looked online for that particular flag and found that it had been created by a local graphic designer. At this stage I was uneasy with making use of it because it was under copyright. Symbols that people rally around should not come with strings attached.

Still the other trans flags didn’t convey its meaning as effectively and this was the one that had been used. I emailed the designer for permission to use it. They said yes. More to the point I found the wording on its use reassuring. They wanted this to be out there.

I downloaded a raster image and set to vectorize it in Inkscape.

After I was happy with the vector image I submitted it to VistaPrint to get it in sticker form. It cost $20 for 20 stickers, with most of the cost being weighted towards shipping. When the results came back, they were pretty disappointing. The quality just wasn’t there. The images were pixelated and the paper quality was on-par with what you could get at Staples.

So I tried again, this time making twenty vinyl-backed individually cut stickers through StickerYou. It was still $20, though the cost was weighted towards the stickers themselves. When they came in, I found the results to be much better! There was a white border around the stickers which wasn’t expected given the healthy bleed margins I had used, but whatever.

I put some stickers in an envelope and went to Bridgehead. I ordered a coffee and asked for the manager. I told her that the flag they had was gone, but that I had made these stickers to replace it. Then a rush hit and the envelope got set aside.

I visited back that night and the sticker had been put up! That felt awesome. I took this photo the very next day.

I realize that this is a very small thing, but I’m really proud of this. 🙂