It’s here! Download PDFs of the redesigned Xtra papers below, or pick up a copy at a box near you.

***

OUTSIDE, INSIDE AND BEYOND

Your guide to the new Xtra

A cleaner and updated cover design allows Xtra to present rich illustration and photography without the limitations of standing elements. Retired is the familiar Xtra logo, formerly in the top left corner of each cover. This allows for cover illustrations and photography unmarred by the logo position.

Formerly, each of the Xtra publications and Xtra.ca bore a separate, distinct logo. The new, simplified and iconic logo will mark all of Xtra’s work, in your neighbourhood, across Canada and around the world. Also, look for Xtra’s mark on promotional material for sponsored community events and organizations nationwide.

Roundup is Xtra’s front foyer. It’s your guide to all things Xtra, inside the publication and beyond. Roundup not only outlines the selection of news, analysis and arts coverage waiting in the pages of your print edition, it also directs you to great video, audio, photographic and additional print features online at Xtra.ca.

Comment is home to hard-hitting analysis by Xtra staff writers and editors. It’s also your place to have your say. Whether you leave a comment on Xtra.ca, email your ideas directly to an Xtra editor or write your thoughts out longhand for delivery by snail mail, your comments are critically important. You’re not just a consumer of information; you’re an active participant in the storyline.

Xcetera is Xtra’s new showcase of compact news-and-culture imagery and pop-cultural tidbits. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words, and Xcetera offers a way to tell stories more visually. Each installment of Xcetera will look and read differently. Get to know your neighbours and neighbourhood, enter an Xtra contest, learn about your history; Xcetera will guide you there.

Upfront is your gateway to the same hard-hitting news and analysis you’ve come to expect from Xtra. Here you’ll find more numerous and more concise news pieces than you’ve been used to. And look for a tighter relationship between Xtra in print and online.

Out in the City is your source for arts and culture coverage. You’ll read the same great arts and culture stories, reviews and commentary that you’ve come to expect from Xtra. Listings feature hot happenings next to relevant stories. Choose the party that’s right for you in Xtra’s Nightclub Listings. Find yourself, your friends and your future exes in Xposed, the scene in pictures.

Xtra’s new body font, Chronicle Text, designed by Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, is far more space efficient than Xtra’s previous font. This improvement allows us to pack more news and analysis into smaller packages. But just because the new font is a touch smaller doesn’t mean you’ll need a jeweller’s loupe to read it. Chronicle Text is easy to read and appropriate to virtually any application, on any paper stock, in the new Xtra. Also, body copy in the new Xtra is fully justified and presented on a more sophisticated column grid. This gives an orderly and contemporary look to every page.

The display copy is set in Prelo and Prelo Slab, companion typefaces that provide a wide variety of weights, designed by Dino dos Santos.

You’ll also notice more and larger photos and illustrations, which make the new Xtra not only easy to read but easy on the eyes, too.

DESIGNED BY
The new look of Xtra was designed and art directed by Lucinda Wallace of Wallace Creative (lucindawallace.com)

***

THE EVOLUTION OF XTRA

1984: A star is born >

Xtra got its start in January 1984 as a spinoff form the late, great institution of sexual liberation, The Body Politic. Xtra was conceived as a marketable and free back-pocket entertainment guide, distributed mainly through Toronto’s bar scene.

1987: A sister falls >

In February 1987, The Body Politic suspended publication. Xtra changed considerably in a short period of time. It remained true to its roots as a light bar-and-culture read, but began also to fill the news and analysis vacuum left by its predecessor.

1993: Then there were three >
By 1993, Pink Triangle Press, Xtra‘s publisher, was flourishing, and Xtra prospered along with it. Inaugural issues of Xtra West hit the streets in Vancouver that year, and a few months later, Capital Xtra premiered in Ottawa.

1999: Into cyberspace >
By 1999, Xtra had already made its first furtive steps online. Evolving steadily over most of the next decade, Xtra.ca roared to life in 2008 as an integral component of Xtra‘s work.

2010: A new look for a bright future >
The next step in Xtra‘s evolution represents a more contemporary look and reader experience in print, greater integration with Xtra‘s online incarnation, and a clear commitment to readers that Xtra will maintain the highest standard in gay and lesbian news, analysis, arts and culture coverage for many years to come.