OVERVIEW

Redesign the iconic football club’s crest

ROLES

Design, Art direction

DETAIL

Chelsea FC is an English football club based in west London and is considered among England's most successful clubs, having won over thirty competitive honours, including six league titles and seven European trophies.

In July 2003, Chelsea football club was sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich by the then current owner Ken Bates. The new owner was a relative unknown to football and the club’s purchase was initially treated with scepticism by the fans who were uncertain as to the fate of the club in the hands of the new owner.

To mark the new era for the club, Bluedog design was commissioned to create a new badge for the club and I was responsible for the creative design process.

History

Prior to the mid 1980’s the club crest was inspired by the civic coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea and featuring the "lion rampant regardant" lion holding the Abbot of Westminster’s staff. The use of the lion on the crest came from the Arms of Earl Cadogan, president of the club who also held the title of Viscount Chelsea. Prior to the 1960s, Chelsea FC did not wear badges on their shirts making this Chelsea crest the first badge to be used on the club jerseys and to be considered by many fans as the definitive club crest.

The purchase of the football club by then-owner Ken Bates ushered in a new minimalist crest with a lion standing over the letters 'CFC'. Many variations of this crest were used depending on the colour of the jersey. The crest was viewed as unpopular among the fans as it closely resembled the Millwall FC crest and bore little resemblance to past iterations.

Design

After researching the rich history of the football club, having discussions with lifelong fans and visiting the stadium it became apparent that there was the potential to bring the fans onside with the new owner by being mindful of the crest’s history. By reinstating and modernizing the 1953 crest it would help to show the new owners commitment to the club and fans by honouring its history - this ultimately formed the initial creative recommendation and direction for the graphical redesign.

To succeed the new crest would need to recall/resemblance the 1953 version yet be simple enough to work across various media and sizes. The design process involved iterating over two distinct elements - the overall crest and the lion illustration within. For the lion illustration, I worked with experienced illustrator Malcolm English to refine and simplify the 1953 lion while retaining its classic form and structure. Various versions of the lion, redrawn icons and typographic treatments were combined in different layouts to form the overall crest.

Finished crest

The finished crest presents a simplified version of the lion, rendered in two tones to give greater depth to the illustration, inside a series of rings that replace the original heraldic scrolls. The icons representing England and football move to the side of the lion allowing the clubs name to take top-centre place within the crest. As per the 1953 crest, red accents are present in the icons and lions tongue and golden yellow edging frames the text and rings.

The new crest was officially adopted by the club for the 2005 season, with a special version marking the clubs centenary being used for 1 year.

Summary

This was the last and by far the biggest identity project I worked on before taking a career leap into working for digital agencies. The experience was incredibly enjoyable and gave me a strong appreciation of how design is ingrained into peoples lives and creative solutions should run much more deeply than simply looking good.

Seeing something you have designed tattooed onto someone’s body and carried with them for the rest of their life is both humbling and provides me with an immense sense of pride.