A new CCFC club badge (4 Viewers)

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kapowaz

kapowaz

Well-Known Member
A couple of years ago I was preparing for my wedding, and lucky enough to be getting a tailored suit made. I had this crazy idea of the jacket lining be an authentic reproduction print of the 1987 FA Cup winning CCFC home kit, and I thought it’d be fun to have the club badge embroidered on the inside, maybe above the inside pocket. I’ve always been slightly dissatisfied with the club crest though, which I felt was overdue for a bit of a tidy up. Not a completely new take like the disastrous Mike McGinnity one from 2005, but an ‘evolution’ of the existing crest, with a more modern feel.

I decided to hire a graphic designer, and worked with him to create this new logo. It didn’t really work out though, and whilst what we came up with together (after many rounds of revisions and feedback) was clearly a cousin of the current logo, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the outcome, so I shelved the idea, and forgot all about the illustration files he’d come up with.

A year or so later I decided to have another play at creating something out of the previous design, and finally came up with something I liked. I’ve been sitting on the design for a while, uncertain exactly what to do with it. I thought maybe it was good enough to share with the club? But maybe that’s crazy talk. What would other actual fans think of it?

A few months back I saw a preview of Nike’s Teamwear range for 2018/19, which includes a sky blue and white striped shirt that I can easily see us using as our kit next season, so I stuck the badge on it. I ended up tweeting this mockup on Friday night as part of a conversation about our Puma shirt history, and then popped the new badge on Twitter itself for good measure.

So I thought, why not share it with a bunch of Sky Blues fans, and get some feedback?

eT3w5IQ.jpg


Anyway, let me know what you think?
 
MatthewWallis

MatthewWallis

Well-Known Member
It’s a better effort than that crap from 2005, but it’s not as good as our current one and also looks like the Man City badge
 
S

skybluerors

Member
Well I like it, has a nice retro look to it. Are u going to post the one for the green and black away kit which was on twitter?
 
kapowaz

kapowaz

Well-Known Member
Otis said:
for a cartoon version of Coventry City, if they ever make one.
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I can see where you’re coming from with this, but it’s actually kind of intentional to use something that almost looks a bit ‘cartoonish’. You’re seeing it as a huge image above, but a good design has to work well (and be recognisable) at all manner of sizes. Shrink it down to a small size and the key elements ought to still be recognisable:

PVgz1h5.png


At least that was the idea!
 
kapowaz

kapowaz

Well-Known Member
RocketSkates said:
This looks too much like the man city badge for my liking
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Yeah, they’re also using Gotham as the typeface which really makes the comparison unavoidable. Sadly I love Gotham too much, and nothing else I tried worked nearly as well, so I just had to accept that it would bear some similarity. Still, circular badges with the text in an arc around the outside pre-date Man City’s new logo by a long shot, so they don’t have the monopoly on that!

zgnhFAy.jpg
 
Corrado

Corrado

Well-Known Member
i don't understand, why the need for all these clubs to change their badge? I really like our badge and would be mightily pissed off if the club tried to do a Juve or Leeds
 
Fergusons_Beard

Fergusons_Beard

Well-Known Member
@kapowaz You got a link to the twitter convo about kits?

Would be nice to see the badge on kits.

Badge-nice effort. Not too dissimilar to 60’s version.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Rusty Trombone

Rusty Trombone

Well-Known Member
I'd buy a pin badge of it, as long as you sort the elephants front leg. Although the bent knee adds a bit of sexiness, surely It would also mean the leg wouldn't reach the ground, whereas it looks longer than the leg nearest to us.

If the elephant has a physical impairment, or the long leg was as a result of practicing Leigh Jenkinson stepovers then please carry on.
 
D_Boult

D_Boult

Well-Known Member
I'm an actual graphic designer if that adds any validity to my comments? Probably not. I've been thinking about redrawing the club crest for years, it's what I do as a day job so getting the drive to do in my spare time is hard but I've done many a crest in my time and I think it just needs a redraw / tidy up. I like what you've done but I think it's just a bit 'of the moment' especially the font choice/ Gotham is blumming everywhere these days, albiet a beautiful font. I think the current crest is unique and that shouldn't be lost to what's 'in vogue' at the moment but some of it is drawn REALLY badly. Well done though! I like it a lot and you've managed far more than me! Great conversation.... There are also various other reasons I haven't put the time in, but I'll stay away from those subjects at the moment!
 
kapowaz

kapowaz

Well-Known Member
Rusty Trombone said:
If the elephant has a physical impairment, or the long leg was as a result of practicing Leigh Jenkinson stepovers then please carry on.
Click to expand...

Ha, I know what you mean! Unfortunately taking liberties is a little bit necessary to give the pose any kind of interest. Just look at the poor elephant on the current logo. It’s not easy to tell if those are skinny legs behind, or if it’s meant to be an outline for contrast (I assume the latter but it still looks kind of weird).

You’re the second person to mention badges though. I had already thought I might look into that; it’s kind of expensive unless you have a decent order size though. Would anyone else be interested if I did make a limited run of them?
 
kapowaz

kapowaz

Well-Known Member
D_Boult said:
I like what you've done but I think it's just a bit 'of the moment' especially the font choice/ Gotham is blumming everywhere these days, albiet a beautiful font. I think the current crest is unique and that shouldn't be lost to what's 'in vogue' at the moment
Click to expand...

Cheers for the feedback! I can hear where you’re coming from re: tidying up the current logo. That really was my original intention but it just didn’t work out. As far as doing something in line with the current trend for redone logos goes, I think simplicity is the way forwards. Looking at all the mostly-unchanged club logos in England (and abroad too), the best examples have the simplest designs. Forest, Derby, Milan, Inter just to name a few. The best redesigns done in recent years have followed the same thinking: Brentford’s stands out for me too. As I say, tidying up what we have today was my first intention, but I think all it’d do is make the logo feel less amateurish; it wouldn’t necessarily make it look timeless, which I think some of the others I’ve mentioned do.

The same thinking goes for Gotham; I tried so many other fonts but none of them has the timeless classic quality it has. You either end up looking too ‘modern’ (any grotesk or Swiss sans like Helvetica or Univers) or too futuristic with anything fussy (which will almost certain make the logo look dated quickly - Derby County have a version of their ram logo with a futuristic typeface around it and I guarantee it’ll look rubbish 10 years from now).

The other options which I didn’t completely hate were Albertus (seen on City of London signage) and Friz Quadrata (Aer Lingus uses it) which are subtle semi-serifs. But again my worry was they’d potentially look dated quickly. Just look at Wigan’s logo - they use Optima and it really screams mid-noughties design to me.

Anyway if you’re at all interested in this I’d say you should definitely give some thought to having a go yourself!
 
D_Boult

D_Boult

Well-Known Member
kapowaz said:
Cheers for the feedback! I can hear where you’re coming from re: tidying up the current logo. That really was my original intention but it just didn’t work out. As far as doing something in line with the current trend for redone logos goes, I think simplicity is the way forwards. Looking at all the mostly-unchanged club logos in England (and abroad too), the best examples have the simplest designs. Forest, Derby, Milan, Inter just to name a few. The best redesigns done in recent years have followed the same thinking: Brentford’s stands out for me too. As I say, tidying up what we have today was my first intention, but I think all it’d do is make the logo feel less amateurish; it wouldn’t necessarily make it look timeless, which I think some of the others I’ve mentioned do.

The same thinking goes for Gotham; I tried so many other fonts but none of them has the timeless classic quality it has. You either end up looking too ‘modern’ (any grotesk or Swiss sans like Helvetica or Univers) or too futuristic with anything fussy (which will almost certain make the logo look dated quickly - Derby County have a version of their ram logo with a futuristic typeface around it and I guarantee it’ll look rubbish 10 years from now).

The other options which I didn’t completely hate were Albertus (seen on City of London signage) and Friz Quadrata (Aer Lingus uses it) which are subtle semi-serifs. But again my worry was they’d potentially look dated quickly. Just look at Wigan’s logo - they use Optima and it really screams mid-noughties design to me.

Anyway if you’re at all interested in this I’d say you should definitely give some thought to having a go yourself!
Click to expand...

Indeed, I should... time is always against me! I run my own studio and this would be a good months work minimum.... and that is rarely possible. As far as fonts go, you're right about Gotham, I've used several times when I need a quick 'can't fail' solution but I'd probably draw one based on something else, that way you get something unique, it's what I normally do if the time and budget are available. This would be a proper labour of love with the potential of massive backlash (I've worked with football clubs before) and I'm not sure I'd trust anyone at the club to get any of it right or invest the time and effort, but thats straying off the subject!

Anyway, again amazing that you've taken it as far as you have. The re-drawn solution will always be harder, especially seeing the elements involved but I think the current content is so unique that it deserves to be kept. It's pretty bonkers and I kind of like that. I just don't like the fact that is executed really poorly.
 
kapowaz

kapowaz

Well-Known Member
D_Boult said:
This would be a proper labour of love with the potential of massive backlash (I've worked with football clubs before) and I'm not sure I'd trust anyone at the club to get any of it right or invest the time and effort
Click to expand...

That’s a big part of why I thought just make something myself and then if other fans like it, push it in front of the nose of the club. Football club management often seem incapable of running their primary going concern, let alone having the right skills (and good taste) to do stuff like this right. Whenever clubs do manage it you have to wonder how!

You should share some stories about clubs (names redacted to spare the guilty!) you’ve worked with, I’d love to hear those! :cigar:
 
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