Never “industry standard”

Since 2014, Affinity has been the resistance to the status quo. In the restrictive world of pro creative software, this is the platform for craft-obsessed creatives. The ones who know they deserve better than bloated products and sky-high subscriptions.

With a game-changing new version of Affinity ready to launch, it was time to give the industry’s secret weapon a radical new identity, built with its own tools. Sharpen your cursor and tidy your pixels: true creative freedom is here.

Punk at heart

Affinity has always gone against the grain. “For creatives, by creatives” is the ethos, and the new identity doubles down on this uncompromising attitude.

Creative freedom is the promise at the heart of the new Affinity. But it’s not just a buzzword – the platform is completely free to use, for everyone, forever. Pure creativity, without the price tag.

Twist began with tone of voice, crafting an irreverent verbal identity that taps into the shared experiences of pro creatives who put the hours in. Knowing, liberating and a little out-there. In short, fresh.af.

Blood, sweat and Zoom calls

A core creative team drawn from Affinity, Canva and independent design studio Twist led the mission. Guided by the wisdom of Canva’s Design Advisory Board and the Affinity Pro Panel, Twist collaborated with key members of the creative community to bring the brand to life.

Rob Clarke crafted the symbol and logotype, mixing expressive lines and precise angles. Type foundry Ohno added a distinctive, offbeat custom typeface to complement this new symbol of freedom, while James Martin (aka Made by James) turned Affinity’s core philosophies into a suite of playful graphic assets. It all came together in the launch campaign animation, a rallying cry for creative liberation crafted with ManvsMachine. Dream team.

Crafted.af

The goal was to make sure every brand encounter, from the biggest billboard to the smallest app interaction, delivers a sense of creative possibility. Every touchpoint is unapologetically bold, crafted to feel unlike anything else in the industry.

A core palette of neutral tones lets the vibrant work of Affinity users take centre stage, while the lime green brings a punk accent. The studio even added attitude to the file name, unifying three different extensions into the singularly confident .af.

Complete. Creative. Freedom.

Affinity combines three creative studios (vector, photo and layout) in one app for a more fluid, flexible way of working. Twist wanted the brand world to capture how it actually feels to use the product, moving seamlessly from uninhibited expression to pure precision and back again. Creativity without compromise.

Walking the walk

The brand identity was crafted in Affinity, then scaled in Canva. The studio needed to show, not just tell, the creative community what liberation looks like. Now teams around the world can use this super-powered platform to craft their own incredible projects. Long live creative freedom.