Future Club Crest & Brand Identity

[CarryOnVilla]

1 minute ago, HKP90 said:

Oh, i'm not embarrassed, and it's not the end of the world, but it doesn't give off the air of professionalism that we all suspect we've been trying to achieve. 

I’m not either, it happens fairly often in rebranding that 2 logos co exist. Not so much in football, but several clubs have changed and backtracked before and had two badges existing at the same time. 
 

transition periods suck ass 

[Jas10]

Look how glorious the lion looks here, new one just isn’t as good imo:

[est1874]

54 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Look how glorious the lion looks here, new one just isn’t as good imo:

Yep. Really don't understand now why we don't just use the standalone lion and add Aston Villa to it. Done.

[R.Bear]

I can't get over how bad our new badge is. I wince everytime I see it. It's disgusting and we're going to be stuck with it for years.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

15 minutes ago, R.Bear said:

I can't get over how bad our new badge is. I wince everytime I see it. It's disgusting and we're going to be stuck with it for years.

If you " wince " more at the new round badge... than the current monstrosity... you're half blind.

[R.Bear]

1 minute ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

If you " wince " more at the new round badge... than the current monstrosity... you're half blind.

The new round badge makes the old badge look like a Van Gogh.

[OutByEaster?]

2 hours ago, est1874 said:

Yep. Really don't understand now why we don't just use the standalone lion and add Aston Villa to it. Done.

We should be, the new badge is designed so that we can do that - there were mock ups of it being used that way and discussion about it.

The club have decided not to do that.

 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

22 minutes ago, R.Bear said:

The new round badge makes the old badge look like a Van Gogh.

Yeah you're defo blind.

Neither are my favourite, but basic design fundamentals, symmetry, colour balance, scalability and presentation contradict this. lol

[Villaphan04]

4 hours ago, Jas10 said:

Look how glorious the lion looks here, new one just isn’t as good imo:

just take the stand-alone lion with Aston Villa Football Club as @est1874 says. Would be far better than the proposed losing badge, Lerner's old shield badge, or the new claret Chelsea round circle badge we have. 

 

(while trawling back through the pages, I noticed @OutByEaster?mentioned this exact same thing.) 

[Stephen_Evans]

2 hours ago, R.Bear said:

The new round badge makes the old badge look like a Van Gogh.

Excessively pixelated?

[bobzy]

All badges suck. We should just have “ASTON VILLA” in that space. Done. 

[MrBlack]

5 hours ago, R.Bear said:

The new round badge makes the old badge look like a Van Gogh.

Are you referring to the monochrome version that is all over the place at the moment? If so, I agree... they got the colours inverted on it and thanks to the solid white band it looks a bit naff. It looks great with the white bits swapped round, see the mock up a few pages back.

I'll give it that the old badge, in it's monochrome form,  looks better. 

However, in their true colous, the old badge is terrible and can barely be made out in normal everyday light. The lion fades into nothingness on the pale blue background. For this reason alone, it cannot be declared a Van Gogh  compared to anything. The new one is therefor better, even if you think it isn't great, because you can at least see what it is when you look at it

Edited July 21, 2023 by MrBlack

[Spoony]

I think we might have some of the worst branding in the football system and I think it’s one of the reasons it’s hard to identify Aston Villa as a big club, and seriously effects our image abroad. There’s absolutely nothing consistent about our branding. Our badge has changed 3 times since I started supporting Villa about 20 years ago. And it’s due to change again. There was no star. Now there’s a star. Will there still be a star? There’s no prepared when there was prepared. Are we Aston Villa FC. are we AVFC. Are we Aston Villa. Heck the only consistent thing is we have a lion. But that’s changed several times. Now it’s facing a totally new direction.

I know this is a minor point but what about sponsors and kit manufacturers. The big teams don’t change these every other season yet we do.

Our colours aren’t even the same year on year. There seems to be a whole dulux colour chart of clarets and blues to pick from.

I really thinking our branding is horrendous and needs a really hard look at. I’m hoping that’s what Heck is doing. You can’t really point to anything and say “that’s Aston Villa”  

For me I’d like:

1. Just get over 1982. Please. For the love of god. It was a fabulous achievement but it is NOT our club’s identity. Get rid of that damned star and get over the round badge just for the sake of 1982. It’s like Man City having a badge with “AGUEEEROOOO” underneath  

2. Pick a lion, stick with it and make that 90% of our brand. I would make our badge the ‘Aston Villa lion’ with our name and nothing else and plaster that same lion absolutely everywhere.

3. Have a claret and blue that is the Aston Villa claret and blue. No compromises.

4. Get longer term sponsorship deals. I know this one is all based on economics and is just a pipe dream, but seriously how can a million extra from a dodgy Chinese gambling company make that much difference to a football club. I’d love to see a long term manufacturer and sponsor.

 

[479Villan]

This thread is like the Hot Taek Express writ large. Multiple clubs (and other professional sports entities) have changed their primary design before, and continue to do so. Who is it that you people are holding up as The Gold Standard of consistency in logos? Because for any of them, I can argue their style is decrepit. Arsenal's had their crest for a while, after changing it: people HATED that. You a big fan of their current change strip? I doubt it. This is just complaining for complaining's sake.

I have a Chelsea friend who loves the new crest. He'd go out of his way to make a comparison if it was there, instead he rates it.

I agree there is room for "just" the lion on a shirt, though: I would do it like Arsenal have a cannon on a 3rd, or like Liverpool did when taking the Shankly Gates off the shirt and having the liver bird as the primary. You can have "multiple" logos, it's not a crime in and of itself to have multiple logos. Others do it.

Edited July 22, 2023 by 479Villan

[R.Bear]

11 hours ago, Spoony said:

I think we might have some of the worst branding in the football system and I think it’s one of the reasons it’s hard to identify Aston Villa as a big club, and seriously effects our image abroad. There’s absolutely nothing consistent about our branding. Our badge has changed 3 times since I started supporting Villa about 20 years ago. And it’s due to change again. There was no star. Now there’s a star. Will there still be a star? There’s no prepared when there was prepared. Are we Aston Villa FC. are we AVFC. Are we Aston Villa. Heck the only consistent thing is we have a lion. But that’s changed several times. Now it’s facing a totally new direction.

For me I’d like:

1. Just get over 1982. Please. For the love of god. It was a fabulous achievement but it is NOT our club’s identity. Get rid of that damned star and get over the round badge just for the sake of 1982. It’s like Man City having a badge with “AGUEEEROOOO” underneath  

2. Pick a lion, stick with it and make that 90% of our brand. I would make our badge the ‘Aston Villa lion’ with our name and nothing else and plaster that same lion absolutely everywhere.

3. Have a claret and blue that is the Aston Villa claret and blue. No compromises.

Preach! Agree with every word. Especially point 1.

Edited July 22, 2023 by R.Bear

[Captain_Townsend]

Good post except for the get over 1982 bit. Maybe some of our younger fans are unaware that for a very long time the club ignored 1982. Doug Ellis was away from the club for our most successful period and when he returned we started to break up that team. When Southgate played for Villa in the mid 90s he thought it weird that we had no photos of our best ever team. Members of the 1982 team were quite alienated from the club until Ellis sold up. That's part f the reason why the 25th and 40th anniversaries were marked in the way they were. We made up for years of neglect.

I think it is important to be aware of this context.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Captain_Townsend

[Stephen_Evans]

1 hour ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Good post except for the get over 1982 bit. Maybe some of our younger fans are unaware that for a very long time the club ignored 1982. Doug Ellis was away from the club for our most successful period and when he returned we started to break up that team. When Southgate played for Villa in the mid 90s he thought it weird that we had no photos of our best ever team. Members of the 1982 team were quite alienated from the club until Ellis sold up. That's part f the reason why the 25th and 40th anniversaries were marked in the way they were. We made up for years of neglect.

I think it is important to be aware of this context.

All this is true.

Perhaps what we need now is to embrace more of our history but in a way which shows that it is continuing and being built on.

Going on about certain things ends up trivialising it.  Even as a history buff I get fed up of reading references in the programme to 1957 and 1982, as if they are the only exciting things which have ever happened.  My other pet hate is constantly telling us how many times we’ve won a particular cup every time tickets go on sale!

 

[Captain_Townsend]

I personally see the 90s as a fabulous period: 2 second place finishes, a 4th place finish, a fifth place finish, a 6th place finish and a 7th place finish. European runs and two league cup wins. People go on anout Newcastle of that era but we achieved more than they did in the 90s.

[Jas10]

 

[mrchnry]

On 22/07/2023 at 00:47, Spoony said:

I think we might have some of the worst branding in the football system and I think it’s one of the reasons it’s hard to identify Aston Villa as a big club, and seriously effects our image abroad. There’s absolutely nothing consistent about our branding. Our badge has changed 3 times since I started supporting Villa about 20 years ago. And it’s due to change again. There was no star. Now there’s a star. Will there still be a star? There’s no prepared when there was prepared. Are we Aston Villa FC. are we AVFC. Are we Aston Villa. Heck the only consistent thing is we have a lion. But that’s changed several times. Now it’s facing a totally new direction.

I know this is a minor point but what about sponsors and kit manufacturers. The big teams don’t change these every other season yet we do.

Our colours aren’t even the same year on year. There seems to be a whole dulux colour chart of clarets and blues to pick from.

I really thinking our branding is horrendous and needs a really hard look at. I’m hoping that’s what Heck is doing. You can’t really point to anything and say “that’s Aston Villa”  

For me I’d like:

1. Just get over 1982. Please. For the love of god. It was a fabulous achievement but it is NOT our club’s identity. Get rid of that damned star and get over the round badge just for the sake of 1982. It’s like Man City having a badge with “AGUEEEROOOO” underneath  

2. Pick a lion, stick with it and make that 90% of our brand. I would make our badge the ‘Aston Villa lion’ with our name and nothing else and plaster that same lion absolutely everywhere.

3. Have a claret and blue that is the Aston Villa claret and blue. No compromises.

4. Get longer term sponsorship deals. I know this one is all based on economics and is just a pipe dream, but seriously how can a million extra from a dodgy Chinese gambling company make that much difference to a football club. I’d love to see a long term manufacturer and sponsor.

 

Points 1-3 are absolutely bang on here. The European Cup win was a massive achievement and it makes us elite but it doesn't define us. It's felt like that for too long nobody knows what does. It's clear the Luke kits got something right, yet we haven't built upon it at all. I don't get that from a business point of view at all.