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I dare say the think tank who rebranded Leeds United’s crest meant well, but doesn’t this show we should leave some things in football well alone?
Within seconds of the design hitting social media online petitions appeared signed by millions – this is Leeds, after all – demanding the cartoon figure be hung, re-drawn and quartered.
To the club’s credit, they appear to be listening. A hasty re-think is in the offing, after which I suspect we will get a modern twist on an old favourite, just as Bolton Wanderers did a few years ago to produce their current design.
Like Leeds, Wanderers haven’t been able to settle on a badge they have been truly happy with since the 1920s. The Football Crest Index, a rather nifty online resource for this type of thing, lists eight different designs used since the FA Cup-winning heyday.
We have had elephants balanced on shields, the town’s motto ‘Supera Moras,’ arrows, Lancashire roses, ribbons, initials – the works.
True, some of Wanderers’ badges were produced specifically for cup finals in 1953 and 1958.
But I wonder at what stage in each generation someone looked at the club crest and decided it needed to be updated? I consider it a shame that they did.
In my humble opinion a club badge should look old-fashioned. I get the need for fluid, dynamic designs on club shop produce, or that elephants are not exactly the sexiest animal to be associated with modern football – but why hide from history?
Surely there is scope for an emblem which stands there for official posterity and one which can be Photoshopped on to the front of a programme with bolts of lightning radiating from it, as is the modern way.
For my money Wanderers dropped the ball in 2002 when they produced the ribbon-style badge in an effort to ‘globalise’ the club brand, words that still make me wince.
As a young sub-editor in the early noughties I grew to despise that design.
Those pesky red and blue strings made it impossible to use the club’s badge on the back page of the paper without obscuring half the copy, sticking out at an impossible angle.
Thankfully, a few years ago the club’s commercial men saw sense and we brought back a spin on the mid-seventies design.
They even added cartoon elephants on the back of the shirt recently, which was a nice touch, considering no-one really knows why the lumbering beast has such an association with this part of Lancashire.
Some say it could date back to the cotton trading links with India, others that the animal could have been carved or inscribed in local parish churches as a symbol of Christianity.
Elephants have featured in the town’s crest since 1799 and can be seen dotted around the town in one guise or another.
I messed around on the concrete figures on Newport Street as a kid, and so did my children some 20-odd years later – it’s just one of the quirky aspects of Bolton which makes it stand out against the urban sprawl.
Those details, the ones which say most about a town’s heritage and way of life, and the ones the corporate men should care about. Not what might look good on a baseball cap in Massachusetts or Malaysia.
Leeds’ reasoning for a redesign was, rather ironically, to celebrate their centenary.
Their rather cumbersome effort was, argued the club’s managing director Angus Kinnear, the result of a 10,000-fan consultation.
One wonders what questions were being asked of the people being consulted?
It is a shame some clubs feel they have to modernise. What is wrong with just having a traditional design which reflects the community you serve?
Leeds are by no means alone. Everton recently made a cock-up redesigning their famous Beacon badge, incurring the wrath of Blue Merseyside by removing the Latin ‘Nil Satis, Nisi Optimum’ (nothing but the best is good enough).
Hull City and Cardiff City have both experienced a major backlash as foreign-based ownership tried to airbrush history and let’s not even start with MK Dons.
I’m sure the marketing men have a clever explanation in store for why these new designs are better than the old ones.
They will use words like ‘dynamic’ ‘fresh’ and ‘innovative’ and show me detailed graphs about profit growth and global reach.
And the whole thing will give me indigestion, rather like the bloke on Leeds’ badge.
Source
Within seconds of the design hitting social media online petitions appeared signed by millions – this is Leeds, after all – demanding the cartoon figure be hung, re-drawn and quartered.
To the club’s credit, they appear to be listening. A hasty re-think is in the offing, after which I suspect we will get a modern twist on an old favourite, just as Bolton Wanderers did a few years ago to produce their current design.
Like Leeds, Wanderers haven’t been able to settle on a badge they have been truly happy with since the 1920s. The Football Crest Index, a rather nifty online resource for this type of thing, lists eight different designs used since the FA Cup-winning heyday.
We have had elephants balanced on shields, the town’s motto ‘Supera Moras,’ arrows, Lancashire roses, ribbons, initials – the works.
True, some of Wanderers’ badges were produced specifically for cup finals in 1953 and 1958.
But I wonder at what stage in each generation someone looked at the club crest and decided it needed to be updated? I consider it a shame that they did.
In my humble opinion a club badge should look old-fashioned. I get the need for fluid, dynamic designs on club shop produce, or that elephants are not exactly the sexiest animal to be associated with modern football – but why hide from history?
Surely there is scope for an emblem which stands there for official posterity and one which can be Photoshopped on to the front of a programme with bolts of lightning radiating from it, as is the modern way.
For my money Wanderers dropped the ball in 2002 when they produced the ribbon-style badge in an effort to ‘globalise’ the club brand, words that still make me wince.
As a young sub-editor in the early noughties I grew to despise that design.
Those pesky red and blue strings made it impossible to use the club’s badge on the back page of the paper without obscuring half the copy, sticking out at an impossible angle.
Thankfully, a few years ago the club’s commercial men saw sense and we brought back a spin on the mid-seventies design.
They even added cartoon elephants on the back of the shirt recently, which was a nice touch, considering no-one really knows why the lumbering beast has such an association with this part of Lancashire.
Some say it could date back to the cotton trading links with India, others that the animal could have been carved or inscribed in local parish churches as a symbol of Christianity.
Elephants have featured in the town’s crest since 1799 and can be seen dotted around the town in one guise or another.
I messed around on the concrete figures on Newport Street as a kid, and so did my children some 20-odd years later – it’s just one of the quirky aspects of Bolton which makes it stand out against the urban sprawl.
Those details, the ones which say most about a town’s heritage and way of life, and the ones the corporate men should care about. Not what might look good on a baseball cap in Massachusetts or Malaysia.
Leeds’ reasoning for a redesign was, rather ironically, to celebrate their centenary.
Their rather cumbersome effort was, argued the club’s managing director Angus Kinnear, the result of a 10,000-fan consultation.
One wonders what questions were being asked of the people being consulted?
It is a shame some clubs feel they have to modernise. What is wrong with just having a traditional design which reflects the community you serve?
Leeds are by no means alone. Everton recently made a cock-up redesigning their famous Beacon badge, incurring the wrath of Blue Merseyside by removing the Latin ‘Nil Satis, Nisi Optimum’ (nothing but the best is good enough).
Hull City and Cardiff City have both experienced a major backlash as foreign-based ownership tried to airbrush history and let’s not even start with MK Dons.
I’m sure the marketing men have a clever explanation in store for why these new designs are better than the old ones.
They will use words like ‘dynamic’ ‘fresh’ and ‘innovative’ and show me detailed graphs about profit growth and global reach.
And the whole thing will give me indigestion, rather like the bloke on Leeds’ badge.
Source