Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL)
Common Front is a trifecta of events that support the AFL agenda. They needed a logo and system that would help their people feel united.
Role
Graphic Designer
Agency
Point Blank
Client
Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL)
Date
January 2025
Why be a cog in a machine when you can be a wolf in a pack?
The Common Front trifecta is interpreted in this logo icon as a unit of three angular shapes that imply a wolf’s head. Like wolves, Alberta’s labour organizations are already strong individually but even more so as a pack—a united tactical force.
The client initially wanted me to explore a cog logo to emphasize unity and needing many parts to run well but was happy to see the wolf pack as a better, more bold option.
Primary LogoThe logo is a trio of wolves using tints of an AFL secondary colour. They’re paired with the strong, structural font, Loos Compressed, which I lightly altered to ensure the double “M” is centred, matching the symmetry found in the icons. The narrow and bold nature of this font gives the AFL logo a nod and helps it feel like a sister to the brand.
This trio is used as a primary logo for the Common Front but, when the sub logos are broken out to specific events, we use one wolf and a unique colour to make them distinct.
Labour’s collective power is illustrated in patterns that interlock the bold and minimal shape of the wolf.
System LogoS
Each logo in the system has a unique colour pulled from the AFL’s brand identity palette to tie them in with the mother brand. Each event is paired with one of the yellow shades from the primary Common Front logo. The triangle shapes around the titles are pulled from the wolf ears and expand based on the title’s length.
ApplicationsThere are lots of ways to apply the icon when creating event collateral but it’s important not to lose sight of the stronger-together premise despite the icon’s solo usage on the system logos. To convey the wolf pack storyline, the icon should be part of the larger pack (the pattern) while being coloured to stand out whenever possible. This is attainable in print materials quite easily but it does leave less room for design play in those compositions. This may leave some designers wanting but it will guarantee consistency for the brand throughout their events.
Learning Outcomes
This logo taught me to pitch the long-shots. I thought the wolf pack approach would be too far of a reach for a union company but the creative director encouraged me to explore it further. Luckily he did and I managed to make a not-too-literal iteration that the client loved with almost no revisions at all—A rarity for this client.