Aston Villa unveils new SomeOne-designed crest
The Premier League club’s lion has gained some claws in this newly unveiled redesign.
Football club Aston Villa has unveiled a new club crest, designed by SomeOne, that features what the club calls “some subtle yet important changes”.
The club – which is currently sitting at the bottom of the Premier League – says it is putting “greater emphasis” on the heraldic lion at the centre of its crest – including giving it new claws.
The heraldic lion has been created by engraver Christopher Wormell and aims, the club says, “to better reflect our heritage, history and attitude”.
In a statement, Aston Villa says: “When we asked about the design of the lion in fan focus groups, the feedback was that it did not adequately capture the heritage of the Club.
“The lack of claws on the lion in the current badge was something that fans commented on specifically.”
The lion has been “enlarged and made more dynamic”, the club says, and in order to make it “larger and prouder” within the shield, the word “Prepared” has been removed from the club crest.
SomeOne says: “As part of the brand tool kit for Aston Villa, we have introduced a series of textures, crops and details of the crafted lion. Beautiful hand engraved marks, detailed stitching and elegant bas-relief all form part of a broader brand world that helps support the Club, and it’s drive back to success.
“We crafted these assets in several angles and crops using all of the signature Villa colours.”
The club says: “As part of the review of our current badge – and in association with fan focus groups – we saw that the current lion was smaller within the shield – in part due to the word ‘Prepared’.
“This meant that our badge did not perform as well at very small sizes, notably in some digital applications.
It adds: “The word ‘Prepared’ will always be part of our heritage and it is a word that you will continue to see around the Club.”
However, the crest retains the AVFC initials and the star that marks the club’s European Cup win in 1982.
Aston Villa adds: “The lion in the badge will be an important part of the complete overhaul of the Club’s visual identity in order to make us more effective in the digital age.”
The new crest will come into use from the start of the 2016/17 season. Aston Villa says it has used at least eight iterations of its club crest in its 142-year history.
Read this next
A poor crest is the least of Villa’s problems!
“…we have introduced a series of textures, crops and details of the crafted lion. Beautiful hand engraved marks, detailed stitching and elegant bas-relief…” – which we’ve then washed out for it’s primary application!
The work of Christopher Wormed is simply stunning – hopefully there is a place for it to shine fully…
“The club says: “As part of the review of our current badge – and in association with fan focus groups – we saw that the current lion was smaller within the shield – in part due to the word ‘Prepared’.
“This meant that our badge did not perform as well at very small sizes, notably in some digital applications.”
This should have been sorted out when the last re-brand was developed a few years ago – so what was the Marketing department doing then?
The Club just keep wasting money and irritating fans and giving the media fuel to fan ‘negative’ flames. Any designer of worth should know how a logo will perform at small sizes, digital or not – basic stuff and you don’t need to pay London prices for that.
It’s a shame that the club didn’t use the services of a local Birmingham based agency to delete the word Prepared and enlarge the lion a bit. Football clubs are about the local coomunity after all. At least they used to be.