UEFA CUP

SBHD: BY DESIGN BRIDGE

Design Bridge has achieved what even the great AC Milan could not – it has scooped all the European trophies in one season. And it has achieved this with a team in which at least one of the star players knew absolutely nothing about football when the game started.

All right, so Design Bridge and AC Milan are in different leagues, not to mention ball games. But UEFA, the governing body of European football, appointed the consultancy to review its image and redesign its ten competition identities.

`We gave a team of about ten people the same brief and then created mood boards for each identity’, says Design Bridge creative head, football player and Aberdeen supporter Rod Petrie.

While UEFA was reluctant to have its corporate identity changed, Petrie, who led the project, says the marque did need to be evolved. `UEFA wanted to have its existing identity implemented in an exciting way, so we kept the roundel device, and looked at different ways of rendering the map, not only to update it, but also to reflect the ever-increasing size of Europe,’ he says.

The same team line-up and strategy was used for each of the competition identities. Petrie says the final presentation was done in footballing jargon, where UEFA was the team and each competition was likened to footballing greats, such as Pele and Bobby Moore, to illustrate that each competition has a distinctive personality.

The same format is used for each of the competition identities to create and raise awareness of the competition and also the UEFA brand.

`With the Under competitions, each one represents different levels of skills, but they are all branded as a family,’ says Design Bridge senior designer and former football novice Marion Dalley.

The new identities will be unveiled by UEFA at the end of this month. They will be implemented on to all literature and promotional material for each respective competition and on to merchandising, including hoardings, badges and clothing.

All things considered, the boys done good.