Future Club Crest & Brand Identity

[AvonVillain]

As a fan of the new badge, I now see that the lion does indeed face the wrong way as others have mentioned. Facing right doesn't look right, it looks odd.

[cheltenham_villa]

21 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Success brings  bigger sponserships

Im suprised we didnt get a sponser from a company out in Egypt or in the US as they are big fishes in their respected countries

the owners maybe but Villa are sadly not. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Only just realised Burnley have updated/ " minimalised " their crest:

[Captain_Townsend]

If you were stuck,  that Burnley crest would provide enough material for 8 or 9 unrelated club crests.

[Talldarkandransome]

33 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

If you were stuck,  that Burnley crest would provide enough material for 8 or 9 unrelated club crests.

No

Nay

Never

[fightoffyour]

14 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Only just realised Burnley have updated/ " minimalised " their crest:

Minimalised? Haven't they shrunk down the entire existing crest into another crest? Minimised maybe, and minimalised in colour only.

[villa89]

15 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Only just realised Burnley have updated/ " minimalised " their crest:

That's an ugly mess. Looks worse than the old one.

[maqroll]

15 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Only just realised Burnley have updated/ " minimalised " their crest:

Terrible choice of font.

[villa89]

2 hours ago, villa89 said:

That's an ugly mess. Looks worse than the old one.

Actually it seems they have just removed the colours and changed the outline a bit. Still a rubbish effort though.

[thabucks]

Please can someone with the relevant skills put the away kit badge onto the home kit - thanks !!!

@Teale's 'tache???

Edited August 3, 2023 by thabucks

[islingtonclaret]

I completely forgot there was a villatalk user with Futura2000 work as their avatar.

[allani]

On 22/07/2023 at 01:47, 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.

 

As others have said - I think part of the 1982 things does date back to the fact that a certain previous owner completely glossed over it because it "interferred" with his "legacy".  We should absolutely celebrate it but we should celebrate it like we celebrate other things in our past (and hopefully can then celebrate things that we achieve going forward).  It does have a bit of a 1966 feel - that actually it roots the club as being stuck on something that happened almost 2 generations ago rather than looking forward to what will / might happen in the next 2 generations.  I really hope that one of the things the club does is to really imbed our history into the very fabric of the ground / stadium / etc - the names of great Villa players, great matches / scorelines, details of our honours, our role in the founding of the league, etc etched into the brickwork or into the glass / windows somehow.  I remember walking around the Nou Camp years ago and reading out the names of past players and then going hunting for specific players.  I'd love there to be a LOT more of that around all of the Villa buildings and for kids to dream about their name maybe being added to it one day.  It's a great nod to the past but also an aspirational note to the future.

I might upset a few here but I do think we need more than just a Villa claret and blue.  We need a shirt design that just says Aston Villa to everyone as soon as they see it.  The current Villa, West Ham and Burnley kits are just way to similar and really don't stand out from each other and (without a second look) are easily confused.  I'd really like us to think about somehow making us different - there are plenty of inspirations from our past that could be used to really give us a more unique "look".  Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Forest all play in red shirts and yet they all look different even out of the corner of your eye.  Changing from claret shirts with blue sleeves might be initially unpopular with some but I do think we need to find a way of making our claret and blue more unique.  We've had some great variations in recent years (that ended up becoming almost iconic shirts) but this year's effort is particularly bland and easy to mistake.

I'm not sure the length of a sponsorship deal particularly concerns me - but I do want us to be better at finding a sponsor that either aligns with our location (i.e. a big brand from the Midlands) or a sponsor that aligns with our values as a club.  I know some will say what does Crown Paint or Muller or any other sponsor matter - the money is what is important.  But I think you can do both.  I think we can get good money from a sponsor that we can buy into or that ties into a story.  For example, if Aston Martin wouldn't be a sponsor why not start talking to the companies that sponsor Aston Martin F1 - then they've got a real story to tell with links to two iconic Midlands "brands" and it gives us the indirect opportunity to do link ups with Aston Martin.

[Shay]

49 minutes ago, allani said:

As others have said - I think part of the 1982 things does date back to the fact that a certain previous owner completely glossed over it because it "interferred" with his "legacy".  We should absolutely celebrate it but we should celebrate it like we celebrate other things in our past (and hopefully can then celebrate things that we achieve going forward).  It does have a bit of a 1966 feel - that actually it roots the club as being stuck on something that happened almost 2 generations ago rather than looking forward to what will / might happen in the next 2 generations.  I really hope that one of the things the club does is to really imbed our history into the very fabric of the ground / stadium / etc - the names of great Villa players, great matches / scorelines, details of our honours, our role in the founding of the league, etc etched into the brickwork or into the glass / windows somehow.  I remember walking around the Nou Camp years ago and reading out the names of past players and then going hunting for specific players.  I'd love there to be a LOT more of that around all of the Villa buildings and for kids to dream about their name maybe being added to it one day.  It's a great nod to the past but also an aspirational note to the future.

I might upset a few here but I do think we need more than just a Villa claret and blue.  We need a shirt design that just says Aston Villa to everyone as soon as they see it.  The current Villa, West Ham and Burnley kits are just way to similar and really don't stand out from each other and (without a second look) are easily confused.  I'd really like us to think about somehow making us different - there are plenty of inspirations from our past that could be used to really give us a more unique "look".  Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Forest all play in red shirts and yet they all look different even out of the corner of your eye.  Changing from claret shirts with blue sleeves might be initially unpopular with some but I do think we need to find a way of making our claret and blue more unique.  We've had some great variations in recent years (that ended up becoming almost iconic shirts) but this year's effort is particularly bland and easy to mistake.

I'm not sure the length of a sponsorship deal particularly concerns me - but I do want us to be better at finding a sponsor that either aligns with our location (i.e. a big brand from the Midlands) or a sponsor that aligns with our values as a club.  I know some will say what does Crown Paint or Muller or any other sponsor matter - the money is what is important.  But I think you can do both.  I think we can get good money from a sponsor that we can buy into or that ties into a story.  For example, if Aston Martin wouldn't be a sponsor why not start talking to the companies that sponsor Aston Martin F1 - then they've got a real story to tell with links to two iconic Midlands "brands" and it gives us the indirect opportunity to do link ups with Aston Martin.

I agree. I think a proper shade of claret top with just a tinge of blue would make us look so much better and unique. We can explore having claret shorts as our primary kit option too. 

[Captain_Townsend]

We were the pioneer of claret body and blue sleeves.  Giving that up because other teams copied us a long time ago would be, eh, a strange move.

[allani]

Just now, Captain_Townsend said:

We were the pioneer of claret body and blue sleeves.  Giving that up because other teams copied us a long time ago would be, eh, a strange move.

We were also the pioneers of other styles of kit.  I know exactly what you are saying and a lot of me agrees with you.  But at the moment there's nothing unique about our kit and we don't stand out from the other two teams - I mean our current kit could just have easily have been designed for either West Ham or Burnley.  We can either just carry on being indistinguishable (not necessarily our fault) or we can claim an identity that reflects our past and our history but also makes us stand out better.  It doesn't need to be massively radical - some of our training / leisure wear already feature designs that could be eaily replicated into a match day shirt and we've had plenty of variations in the last 20-30 years that worked well.  PS - it does 100% need to be claret and blue (but as has been said before we need to make sure that we get a consistent representation of claret and blue and that it doesn't change from dark red to purple or any shade in between). 

[fightoffyour]

50 minutes ago, Shay said:

I agree. I think a proper shade of claret top with just a tinge of blue would make us look so much better and unique. We can explore having claret shorts as our primary kit option too. 

Claret shorts with the home kit look terrible, and blue not much better. I resent any team that causes us to change from white shorts by not having a satisfactory away/third strip.

Edited August 8, 2023 by fightoffyour

[Mic09]

14 minutes ago, allani said:

We were also the pioneers of other styles of kit.  I know exactly what you are saying and a lot of me agrees with you.  But at the moment there's nothing unique about our kit and we don't stand out from the other two teams - I mean our current kit could just have easily have been designed for either West Ham or Burnley.  We can either just carry on being indistinguishable (not necessarily our fault) or we can claim an identity that reflects our past and our history but also makes us stand out better.  It doesn't need to be massively radical - some of our training / leisure wear already feature designs that could be eaily replicated into a match day shirt and we've had plenty of variations in the last 20-30 years that worked well.  PS - it does 100% need to be claret and blue (but as has been said before we need to make sure that we get a consistent representation of claret and blue and that it doesn't change from dark red to purple or any shade in between). 

The Luke kit was an excellent example of that.

It could be slightly different - but mainly claret, with blue as an addition. 

[HalfTimePost]

19 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

We were the pioneer of claret body and blue sleeves.  Giving that up because other teams copied us a long time ago would be, eh, a strange move.

True, but nobody links that to us as 'Villa' any more. It could easily be West Ham, Burnley or Scunthorpe. 

We also have such a mess of a colour palette that it's difficult to look at any 'claret' and say 'thats Villa'. 

The other clubs have the same issues too. But it can be resolved.

Personally, I'd go darker Claret and make sure the same tone of claret is used always as the majority, Signature Tone, other tones can be used but 70% (for example) minimum has to be the Signature Tone

[thabucks]

Thoughts on the new utd 3rd kit badge and what we could learn from it … Here’s the 3 different ones they’ve used recently… 

[allani]

2 hours ago, fightoffyour said:

Claret shorts with the home kit look terrible, and blue not much better. I resent any team that causes us to change from white shorts by not having a satisfactory away/third strip.

At the risk of being called a looney, leftie, liberal snowflake - I would hope that the club considers abandoning white shorts pretty quickly especially given how well the women's team are doing at establishing themselves as genuine challengers.  It seems like a very small change that would mean a lot to a sizeable portion of our fanbase / playing personnel.