Alter Acadie
Client
Sectors
2SLGBTQI+
Services
Brand design
Collateral design
Founded in 2023, Alter Acadie is the only nonprofit advocating for queer and trans Acadians across New Brunswick.
The Alter Acadie team approached us for support in brand design after their first year of operations. While Alter Acadie’s first year was successful and marked with triumphant highs, their community also faced a major blow when New Brunswick's provincial government rolled back the rights of trans youth in schools across the province. But despite – or perhaps because of – these challenges, Alter Acadie has mobilized the queer Acadian community more than ever before, and they are only just getting started.
Alter Acadie gave us the best brief ever – they asked for their brand to be punk, uniquely queer and Acadian, and capable of showing who they are as a “truth-telling” advocacy organization.
Created by LeBlanc (& co.) Communications, Alter Acadie’s new brand is a fusion of Acadian culture and queer culture. The brand draws inspiration spanning both Acadian elements (including the flag, the star, and lobster) and unapologetically queer elements (such as drag, bright colours, and beautiful photography that shows queer Acadians living as their true and authentic selves). Combining unique cultural references, the new brand captures the essence of the Alter Acadie team, who are bold, truth-telling queer and Acadian advocates.
For some background context for anyone unfamiliar: Acadians are the French Canadian community that arrived as settlers on Canada’s east coast; were deported by the British government; and are a community with a complex but resilient story. Alter Acadie was founded to be the provincial voice for queer Acadians in New Brunswick, which, until the organization’s founding in 2023, did not previously have a body to represent them and advocate for their needs.
Our challenge was to create an Acadian brand that also embodied their request for a queer and punk vibe. To do this, we started with the traditional blue, white, red, and yellow of the Acadian flag – and introduced bright colours that felt more queer and "punk". We created a method of “punking up” the Acadian cultural references by including the traditional colours while introducing something to punk them up: a gradient, scribbles, or a dash of a bright colour like green or pink. Alter Acadie was created to advocate for a group that had been under-represented – queer and trans Acadians across New Brunswick – and this modern, queer-centred brand helps Alter Acadie visually communicate their story.
Knowing that authentic photography can be an important tool in social impact communications, we supported the art direction of a photoshoot with a visionary New Brunswick-based photographer, Annie-France Noël. Annie’s photos are poignant for Alter Acadie's target audiences, and provide a curated 'image bank' for their ongoing communications.
