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The Fraternal Order of Design: A Selection of U.S. Labor Union Logos, 1880s to Now

September 4, 2023 | Art & Design

While we here at the Department of Information have successfully stamped out many attempts over the decades at unionization from within our own ranks—sometimes through illegal, quasi-legal, and morally dubious methods—we still know how to appreciate good branding when we see it.

So, instead of giving our staff Labor Day off to spend time with their families, we asked our officers, unpaid interns, and anyone hanging out in the lobby over the holiday weekend to compile some of their favorite labor union logos from over the years. Here are a few of them in no real particular order.

American Federation of Labor (AFL), 1886–1955

American Federation of Labor union label, circa 1894 via Wikimedia Commons via *American Federation of Labor: History, Encyclopedia, Reference Book*

The handshake heard around the world, the AFL was one of the first substantial labor union collectives in the United States. Founded by a cigar maker named Samuel Gompers, the AFL featured a pretty serious logo complete with secretive latin messages and woodcut-style illustration.

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, 1962–present

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association logo would look great slightly faded on a vintage t-shirt

They wouldn’t even listen to us… I’m not saying we’re elitist; doctors and lawyers are elitist. But mechanics have been shortchanged.
O.V. Delle-Femine, co-founder of AMFA

We used A.I. and Computer Vision to simulate what a modern passenger jet might look like wrapped up with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association logo like a birthday present.

The original AMFA logo was much weirder and was almost certainly hand-designed by the union co-founder (seen here) after an overnight drunk at the local airport bar.

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association logo is pretty whimsical and fun. We’re ranking this a 9 out of 10.

American Federation of Teachers (AFT), 1916–present

While this is a negligent, missed opportunity to do some fun stuff with pencil iconography and apples we are still going to give this logo high marks since it is very solid as far as traditional logo design goes—it is clear an actual graphic designer was involved. A+ for sticking to the assignment.

International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers (IBB), 1880-present

The Boilermakers union logo has some great typesetting, storytelling, and a large cast of characters but what is the plot?

The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers logo is a pretty wild ride. The tightly kerned circular text is almost like an abstracted extension of the interior illustrations, radiating outward like sparks flying off a welder’s torch as he patches a hole in a sinking ship.

Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), 1945–present

The Association of Flight Attendants was founded in 1945. Did you know that we had airplanes in 1945? The logo is flying high with weirdness, makes little to no sense, but is really great and just kind of works for some reason. Staring at it for too long makes you feel like you are 30,000 feet up in the clouds and deprived of oxygen.

United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agriculture Implement Workers of America (UAW), 1935–present

United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agriculture Implement Workers of America (UAW) logo is a real master lesson in symmetry and symbolism. We’ve got gears, people unified by a common cause, and together it all forms a a kind of suggested wheel shape—very appropriate and cool.

Coalition of Labor Union Women, 1974–present

Coalition of Labor Union Women logo, inverse on black

Here again we have harnessed the power of Computer Vision and A.I.—this time to imagine what the abstract, alien-language-looking CLUW logo might look like if applied to some swag.

The CLUW logo is one of the better ones out there. It looks like an unknown, ancient language (no matter what language you actually speak) and has a nice subversive, mysterious, forgotten desert-cult vibe about it.

National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), 1889–present

The NALC logo in full color on a wrinkled piece of paper

The National Association of Letter Carriers logo is just super pleasant and straightforward. It really “delivers”. 10 out of 10.

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), 1979–present

The UFCW apparently represents “retail; meatpacking, food processing and manufacturing; hospitality; agriculture; cannabis; chemical trades; security; textile, and health care”. The logo is pretty generic and could use some refinement but is still fine for what it is.

United Farm Workers of America (UFW)

The UFW logo was allegedly designed by Richard, the younger brother of labor leader César Chávez, in 1962.

The original UFW logo (inverse on black) proudly suggests “Si Se Puede” or as we now know it from Barack Obama’s successful socialist presidential campaign “Yes, we can!”. Cool.

Left: *UFW Boycott Grapes*. National Museum of American History. Right: *UFW Boycott lettuce.* between 1965 and 1980. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

We’re not entirely sure where the eagle motif came from but it looks really nice in a symmetrical, geometric, and minimalist way (and is also quite intimidating).

Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), 1940–present

The Utility Workers Union of America logo—which represents electric, gas, steam, water, and nuclear industry workers—is a technicolor, experiential journey through the rolling hills of the American mind—both physically and geo-spiritually. It’s really fun.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), 1891–present

The IBEW, which represents workers in the electrical industry (as well as some in the computer, telecommunications, and broadcasting industries) has one of the better and more recognizable union logos out there. The clenched fist clutching the god particles of electricity, defiantly raised towards the heavens, reminds non-electric-industry-working peasants that they are mere mortals and should fear the wrath and power of those with electrical knowledge.

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), 1888–present

The IAM logo imagined on a casual t-shirt.

The IAM logo is a lot of fun and gives off after-school-math-club vibes. 7 out of 10.

International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), 1896–present

The IUOE logo on Operating Engineers Blue

The International Union of Operating Engineers is ahead of the pack with their logo. It is both adorned with ambiguous latin phrases and features some subversive hidden symbolism (all of the pressure gauge hands inexplicably point towards “420”) all while maintaining an allegiance to circular symmetry and ornate minimalism. Bravo.

Special shout out to the custom Canadian version of the logo, which also has a gauge mysteriously fixed on the number 420.

American Postal Workers Union (APWU), 1971–present

The APWU logo, stamped on a crinkled mailer envelope

The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) logo deviates from it’s brethren’s allegiance to the circular seal shape, instead opting for a 1980’s-corporate-tech-style fadeaway mark. There is a seal version out there but it just doesn’t look as slick as this fax-machine-company-from-1983-looking-one.

Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA!), 1903–present

This is by far the most classic, well-rounded, and Department-of-Information-approved logo of the collection. These should be on soft vintage t-shirts in thrift stores across America. Look how visually pleasing that wireframe globe is!

This has been a brief but purposeful look at some of the more visually interesting labor union logos out there. If you’d like to learn more about labor union logos feel free to spend your Labor Day researching them on your own.

Sensorium

July 27, 2023 | The Word Index

senˈsôrēəm

noun

The sensory apparatus as a whole through which someone or something experiences the environment around them—feeling, seeing, smelling, hearing, sensing, etc—and use of physical and remote faculties of the mind, phenomenal and psychological perception, cognition, intelligence, and intuition. The seat of sensation.

via Google Ngram

A small bacteria can sense, crudely, in a small shape around itself—we can call this “sight” if it can respond to a light source, or “smell” if it can detect an unwanted chemical toxin nearby—and the total of its sensory range, the full addition of all its input, stretching through and combined across all its senses, is called its sensorium.
Patrick House, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness

Peripheral Resources

Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness by Patrick House

Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader by David Howes

Select Examples

Just at the end of the nineteenth century Bernard Berenson had begun a crusade ‘to endow the retinal impression with tactile values.’ There was wide awareness that photography and other technological change had abstracted the retinal impression, as it were, from the rest of the sensorium. Thus, in 1893 Adolf Hildebrand the sculptor published a small book called The Problem of Form. He insisted that true vision must be much imbued with tangibility, and that creative, aesthetic awareness was touching and making.
Marshall McLuhan, Inside the Five Sense Sensorium

The seat of consciousness – what’s known as ‘sensorium’ – exists partly as an expression of particle entanglement in higher physical dimensions. The human brain is merely a conduit
Daniel Suarez

Geographical Interest

Country-level searches for “Sensorium” over the past 5 years via GoogleTrends data

The plain white cover of the scientific pamphlet titled Colorado Legal Psychedelics: Psilocybin, Psilocin, DMT, Mescaline and Ibogaine. Observations on Personal Treatment Possibilities

Colorado Legal Psychedelics: Observations on Personal Treatment Possibilities

July 6, 2023 | Consumer Reports

During a recent official Department research expedition that took place deep in the mountains of Colorado our team uncovered a peculiar artifact. The object appeared to be a self-published journal of observations from a respected and storied career medical professional. The subject of which focused on the personal treatment possibilities of legal (state-level in Colorado, not federal) psychedelics such as psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, Mescaline, and Ibogaine.

The stark white, deliberately non-designed, perfect-bound, 50-page book was discovered by an unpaid intern in the basement of an unremarkable and quite frankly disheveled and unorganized Boulder, Colorado book shop—whose name we are redacting.

As a design artifact—this is an art book review, after all—the pamphlet leaves a lot to be desired. It is completely printed in black and white with what we will assume is Helvetica (or Arial) on the covers and (very likely) Times New Roman for the interior body copy and data. These are tried and true fonts and set at a comfortably large size. The alignment on the cover is offset slightly, a little too close to the perfect-bound spine, which gives the whole thing a really nice DIY self-published feel.

The author takes kind measures to administrate the way one could potentially “acquire, produce, and use” psychedelics in the chapter titled Acquisition, Production, and Use of Psychedelics. This is probably the chapter that most Colorado residents would be most interested in.

Other areas of the book like Chapter 9: Case for Low and Moderate Dose Treatment explore ways the drug can enhance peoples lives while limiting the extreme effects. The book is very detailed and if you want to know about high dose trips there are paragraphs to greet you.

Overall this is a great book about how and why Colorado-legal psychedelics are so important in the spectrum of mental health, depression, and addiction. I think if you live in Colorado you should buy this book. But even if you don’t live in Colorado you should buy this book.

Apparently the author is selling it on Amazon of all places (along with an even cooler book which we will not mention here) which is conveniently linked to below:

Colorado Legal Psychedelics: Psilocybin, Psilocin, DMT, Mescaline and Ibogaine.: Observations on Personal Treatment Possibilities.

Objects from Civil Air Transport, a CIA front airline company from the 1950's

CIA Front Airline from the 1950s, Design Objects of Civil Air Transport (CAT)

January 15, 2023 | Art & Design, Article

In August 1950, the CIA secretly purchased the assets of Civil Air Transport (CAT), an airline that started in China. CAT would continue to fly commercial routes throughout Asia, acting as a privately owned commercial airline. Under the guise of CAT Incorporated, it provided airplanes and crews for secret intelligence operations. Naturally, with any substantial covert gaslighting operation, graphic designers were needed to really seal the deal. Seemingly an entire brand identity was developed (at least the typeface, dragon logo, and colors seem consistent) specifically for this fake CIA airline and these are some of the artifacts that were produced.

“This is one of the famous Oriental symbols of CAT (Civil Air Transport) – the five-toed dragon. In olden days only the emperor could wear this symbol; those of lesser rank wore dragons with fewer toes. We like to think that all of our passengers on CAT’s colorful Mandarin Jet – truly a flying Oriental Palace – receive hospitality and cordiality befitting an emperor and his lady.” — Photo and caption source: ciagov Flickr account

During the Chinese Civil War, under contract with the Chinese government and later the CIA, CAT flew supplies and ammunition into China to assist Kuomintang forces on the Chinese mainland.

“Given as a souvenir to guests on CAT’s Mandarin Jet, this notepad includes a calendar from 1967.” — Photo source: ciagov Flickr account

At the time the families of the pilots were told, in order to keep the CIA’s covert actions in China secret, that they had crashed into the Sea of Japan on a routine flight to Tokyo.

CAT travelers allegedly received flight bags as complementary gifts — Photo and caption source: ciagov Flickr account

Air America happened later on (after I suppose things with CAT went downhill or became no longer useful). Running after or parallel to the original operation, it is not to be confused with Radio Americas, another CIA front operation in the form of a tropical radio station that would materialize years later and a few thousand miles away.

“This Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly bottle contained medicinal wine (intended for a strong and healthy heart) that was served on some CAT flights.” — Photo and caption source: ciagov Flickr account

The artifacts and designed objects are pretty well-rounded as far as applications and branding goes. The wicker basket for instance is a pretty odd material design choice but it is quite elegant in execution and doesn’t really seem that unbelievable.

Limited edition Civil Air Transport (CAT) baskets were promotional handouts for CAT travelers, each likely packed with schedule 1 substances, as a privileged inside joke. — Photo source: ciagov Flickr account

This Civil Air Transport (CAT) lighter is from the Hong Kong-to-Bangkok inaugural flight of Civil Air Transport on July 20, 1957.

A very cool CIA lighter — Photo source: ciagov Flickr account

One of the cooler and more useful/practical items might be the CAT-branded zippo lighter, steel-pressed and engraved from some likely-very-real company called Penguin.

Check out the whole series of photographs here.

Biodegradable

November 22, 2022 | The Word Index

bi·o·de·grad·a·ble

adjective