ReBrand: Spartans FC

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In 1951, the Spartans Football Club was established by Elliot Wardlaw and Jimmy Beaumont, two former Edinburgh University players. It was their intention that the club would field graduates of the university, though the constitution soon allowed for the admission of ‘other interested parties’.

Upon their founding, the Spartans were admitted into the East of Scotland Football League, where they would compete for more than six decades and amass nine league championships (including a spell of three consecutive championships between 2009 and 2011). It was also during this time that the Spartans pulled off some impressive Scottish Cup runs – advancing to the fourth round in the 2003/04 season after defeating Buckie Thistle and league sides Alloa Athletic and Arbroath. Eventually, this run would end at the hands of top-tier side Livingston. The club would reach the fourth round on two more occasions — in 2005/06 and in 2008/09 — defeating many league sides in the process.

In 2013, the Spartan’s long stay in the EoSFL ended when they became founding members of the Lowland Football League. During that first season, the club topped the table for the first time. Their greatest Scottish Cup performance came in the 2014/15 competition. By the fifth round (the round of 16), the Spartans were the only non-league side remaining. On 7 February 2015, the Spartans drew 1-1 with Berwick Rangers, forcing a replay. Ten days later, the Spartan’s run would end in England, with a 1-0 loss away at Berwick.

After winning the Lowland League in the 2017/18 season, the Spartans qualified for the League Two play-off semi-finals. As Lowland League champions, they faced the Highland Football League champions, Cove Rangers. Cove proved too strong over two legs and the Spartans went away losing 2-5 on aggregate.

For the badge redesign, I sought to capture and build upon the boldness and strength of the current badge. I decided upon a minimalist badge, incorporating a depiction of the Spartan helmet alone. Within the crest of the helmet is found the club’s initials and the year of the club’s founding.

The home kit incorporates the traditional Spartans strip of a white shirt with red shorts and white socks. The top features red details in a scheme resembling the handsome Admiral strips from the early 1980s. The away kit also incorporates a bold 1980s athletic feel, making use of the badge’s blue and red colour scheme while presenting the redesigned badge in white.

ReBrand: Edinburgh University AFC

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Edinburgh University Association Football Club was constituted formally in 1878 and has been a member of the Scottish Football Association since the same year.

The club’s honours include the 1883 Edinburgh Shield (which is now known as the East of Scotland Shield) awarded by the East of Scotland Football Association. The club has also won the Queen’s Park Shield (a tournament for Scottish universities and colleges, with the shield itself donated by Queen’s Park to the Scottish Amateur Football Association in 1921) a record 26 times, including a run of eight consecutive wins from 1974 to 1982.

Having been eligible to compete for the Scottish Cup since their admittance into the SFA, Edinburgh University’s best performance came in 2006, when they beat Vale of Leithen to qualify for the first round of the competition. The club then defeated Highland League outfit Keith, proceeding to the second round where they met Cowdenbeath. The Uni lost to the league side 5-1, thus ending their run.

The club was the most successful university side in history until passing into senior football with their admittance into the Lowland League in 2014. Since that time, the Uni has yet to make a significant impact, with their best finish being 6th in the 2015/16 season.

The club’s current badge is a version of the university crest. This might well be used in order to comply with the university’s branding policies, but I thought that I would change it up ever so slightly, as that is my task here. I have designed a slight variation on the crest, doing away with the black outlines, and incorporating a unified design style for each of the heraldic symbols of the university. I have also included two Victorian-styled footballs as well as the year of the club’s founding. The shield is enclosed within a ring which features the club’s name.

For the kits, I have gone with the club’s traditional colours with some additional features. The outer ring and all text is omitted from the shorts.

ReBrand: Civil Service Strollers FC

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Civil Service Strollers Football Club was established as Edinburgh Civil Service Football Club in 1908. The club was based at Stenhouse Stadium until moving to Pinkhill Stadium in Corstorphine in the 1920s. In 1957, the club moved to the Edinburgh Area Civil Service Sports Association in Muirhouse, where they continue to play today.

In 2000, the club began to develop youth football sides, at which point the ‘Civil Service Stollers’ name first came into use. Before being admitted into the Lowland Football League in 2016, the Strollers experienced sporadic success in the East of Scotland Football League, but their greatest achievement came in the 2017/18 season, when they won the Scottish Football Association South Challenge Cup with a 2-1 victory after extra time over BSC Glasgow.

For the badge redesign, I sought to incorporate the club’s current symbols of a football and an inkwell and quill. The football redesign is more reflective of the club’s date of founding. I have also replaced the typeface with a serif-type and placed the lot within a roundel.

The home kit calls back to the 1970s, when the Strollers experienced some minor success in the East of Scotland Football League.

ReBrand: Edinburgh City FC

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Edinburgh City Football Club was first formed in 1928 as an amateur side, akin to Queen’s Park. Although the club joined the Scottish Football League in 1931, they struggled throughout the fifteen subsequent seasons and reverted to junior status in 1946. By 1955, the lease at their playing ground (City Park) expired and the football club folded, continuing only as a social club.

In 1966, Postal United Football Club was established and adopted the Edinburgh City name in 1986. By the mid-1990s, this new incarnation of Edinburgh City FC became members of the Scottish Football Association. After competing in the East of Scotland Football League for a number of years, Edinburgh City, along with Gretna 2008, Preston Athletic, Spartans, the University of Stirling, Vale of Leithen and Whitehill Welfare, transferred to the new Lowland Football League for the 2013/14 season.

Edinburgh City were crowned Lowland League champions in the second year of the competition, giving them the opportunity to compete in the Scottish League Two play-off semi-final for a spot in the Scottish Professional Football League. Unfortunately, Edinburgh City lost to the Highland Football League champions, Brora Rangers over two legs. (Brora Rangers would go on to lose to last-place League Two side, Montrose 3-2 on aggregate.)

Edinburgh City would have better luck when they won the Lowland League again in the 2015/16 season. This time, the club faced Cove Rangers in the semi-final. After winning with a 4-1 aggregate score over two legs, Edinburgh City faced the last-place League Two side, East Stirlingshire. The first leg ended in a 1-1 draw. In the second leg, Edinburgh City took the spoils with a 0-1 victory, gaining promotion to the SPFL.

Edinburgh City performed well during its first few seasons in League Two and finished the 2021/22 season in fourth place. This enabled them to enter into the SPFL League One play-off, where they first faced Dumbarton. The Citizens advanced to the next round after having defeated Dumbarton 5-2 over two legs. Next came Annan Athletic, who Edinburgh City beat narrowly (3-2), securing their admittance into League One. After the end of that season, Edinburgh City’s name was changed Football Club of Edinburgh, or simply FC Edinburgh, before reverting back to Edinburgh City FC in June 2023.

In their early years, the kit of the original Edinburgh City FC featured the coat of arms of Edinburgh. By 1938, the club used an ‘ECFC’ monogram as their badge. Upon the adoption of the Edinburgh City name by Postal United, a new badge, featuring a castle above the club’s initials was used. In 1998, a new club badge was launched, featuring the same castle from 1986, encircled by the club’s full name. For the 2018/19 season, an update on this badge was introduced which included a gold accent. With the most recent renaming of the club, a simple castle is used as the club’s badge.

For this redesign, I opted to include a varation on the stylised football ECFC monogram I had employed in an earlier design, topped with a version of the castle in current use:

The redesigned home kit consists of a white top with black shorts, the traditional colour scheme since 1928. The top features black details in a scheme resembling Admiral strips from the early 1980s. The away kit is inspired primarily by the 2016/17 Edinburgh City away kit.

As ever, I am indebted to Dave at Historical Football Kits for some of the historical information used above.

ReBrand: Livingston FC

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The history of Livingston Football Club is one of the most tumultuous in all of Scottish football.

The club began its life in 1943, as the works team of Ferranti, who had set up a factory at Crewe Toll, Edinburgh for the manufacturing of gyro gunsights for Spitfire aircraft during the Second World War. The original club name was Ferranti Thistle FC. They played under that name until 1974, when the club gained admittance into the Scottish Football League.

Because their home ground, the former City Park, did not meet the SFL’s requirements, and because of controversy arising from a team bearing the name of a commercial company, Ferranti Thistle moved to the Commonwealth Stadium (later called Meadowbank) and changed their name to Meadowbank Thistle FC. The team struggled in the lower divisions for many years and in 1995, they relocated to Livingston, changing their name to Livingston FC in the process.

After this move to West Lothian, Livingston FC began to show promise. By 2001, the club had gained promotion into the top tier and in this first campaign, the Livi finished third in the table, which meant that they qualified for the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League). Livingston would meet further success when they defeated Hibernian in the final of the 2003/04 Scottish League Cup on 14 March 2004. But Livingston’s victory was bittersweet, as the club had entered administration on 3 February, eventually emerging in May 2005. That same month, Livingston avoided relegation narrowly. Ultimately, their stay in the top tier was ended when they finished the 2005/06 season at the bottom of the table.

In 2009, Livingston entered into administration for a second time and were in danger of outright liquidation. As a result of breaching rules on insolvency, the SFL took the decision to demote Livingston to the Third Division (the bottom tier). In the two subsequent seasons, Livingston won consecutive promotions, reaching the First Division in 2011.

In 2013, the SFL was replaced by the Scottish Professional Football League, and the First Division was renamed the Scottish Championship. At the end of the 2015/16 season, Livingston were relegated to League One (the third tier). But their stay in League One lasted only one season, with the club gaining promotion back to the Championship in 2017. In the 2017/18 season, Livingston secured second place in the Championship table. This gave them the opportunity to gain promotion to the top tier for the first time since 2006 via playoff, which they achieved in a 3-1 victory over Partick Thistle over two legs.

When redesigning Livingston’s badge and kit, I kept this challenging history very much in my mind. Because of the abundance of thistles among Scottish football club badges, I opted to omit the thistle image from the new badge (and save it for clubs with ‘thistle’ in their names, like Partick Thistle and Inverness Caledonian Thistle).

Being that the club has been based in Livingston since 1995, I wanted to capitalise on that local identity. The acorns represent West Lothian (whose coat of arms features an ‘oak tree fructed’) and the three cinqfoils are taken from the Livingston family coat of arms. The crossed pickaxes represent Livingston’s historical shale mining industry.

The Latin in the outer ring, Fortiter Omnia Vincit (‘Bravely Conquers All’) is the club motto, which was included in the club’s badge from 1995 until 1999. I feel this motto is especially appropriate given Livingston’s unlikely survival over the years. The lion rampant has featured in the Livingston badge since 1999 and I believe it is fitting for a Scottish club and accompanying the motto above.

For the home kit, I went with a black body and gold details, a colour scheme used numerous times since the club’s 1995 move. The away strip is more adventurous, calling back to the Ferranti works team who manufactured gyro gunsights for Spitfire. The scheme is based on the Types A.1 and C.1 roundels used on Spitfires during the Second World War.

As ever, I am indebted to Dave at Historical Football Kits for some of the historical information used above.

ReBrand: Hibernian FC

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During the challenging years of the Great Famine in the nineteenth century, many Irish emigrated to Scotland, with most settling in and around Glasgow. Smaller groups of Irish immigrants settled in the east, especially in Dundee and Edinburgh. A particularly concentrated Irish population settled in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh and it was there that in 1875, Irish-born priest Canon Edward Joseph Hannon of St Patrick’s Church was encouraged by Michael Whelahan to establish a football club in order to promote a life of temperance and religious adherence among the young Irish Catholic male population in Edinburgh. Hibernian Football Club was thus formed, with Whelahan acting as the club’s first captain and Canon Hannon acting as the club’s first manager.

By the late 1880s, Hibs were experiencing numerous difficulties due to mismanagement. When the Scottish Football League was established in 1890, the Hibees played no part in its formation. In 1891, the club’s lease on their home ground expired and many key players left to join the ranks of Celtic, who were already making their mark on the professional game in Scotland. Hibernian seemed all but lost.

The following year, the club was reconstituted and a new home was acquired, this time at Easter Road in Leith. By 1893, Hibs had joined the SFL. Since that time, the club has proven itself as one of the most competitive sides in Scotland by achieving a number of significant domestic honours. The club has been crowned champions of the top tier on four occasions (tied for third most alongside Aberdeen and Hearts), most recently, at the end of the 1951/52 season. Hibernian have also won both the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup on three occasions each (1886/87, 1901/02 and 2015/16, and 1972/73, 1991/92 and 2006/07, respectively).

The first Hibernian badge consisted of a harp within a shield, reflecting their Irish identity. From 1876 to 1879, their shirts featured the letters ‘HFC’ in blackletter across the chest. The Hibs’ kits featured no badge from 1879 to 1980. It was during this period (1920) that Leith was incorporated into the City of Edinburgh. In 1981 the ‘crown crest’ was introduced, which consisted of a football topped by a crown and flanked by two olive branches. Some version of this badge was used until 1989, when a more modern badge was introduced. Hibs’ current badge has been in use since 2000 and reflects much of their history. It features a ship to represent Leith, a harp to represent their Irish heritage and a castle to represent the City of Edinburgh.

While I consider the current Hibs badge to be very strong, I find it a bit busy and disunited. In my redesign, I opted to go for a full-on vintage look, with a typeface that calls back to the time of their foundation and the reintroduction of a harp as the primary icon. I also desired to include both the Leith and Edinburgh heritage by including both names. I used a ‘V’ instead of the ‘U’ in Edinburgh in order to reflect the city’s current branding and the Latin in the club’s name (Hibernia being the Roman name for the island of Ireland).

I find the dominance of the white in the redesign especially striking against the green field of the home strip (which is based on the classic Hibernian home strip of a green body and white sleeves). I’ve also incorporated a larger, offset harp in a lighter shade of green on the body of the home shirt. For the away strip, I decided to go with a yellow and dark blue colour scheme and a minimalised harp badge, the harp calling back to the first Hibs kit.

As ever, I am indebted to Dave at Historical Football Kits for some of the historical information used above.

ReBrand: Heart of Midlothian FC

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The precise origin of the Heart of Midlothian Football Club is unclear. A report in The Scotsman from 1864 first mentions ‘Heart of Midlothian’ as a cricket club, though it is not known for certain whether—alongside the likes of Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, Dunfermline Athletic and St Mirren—this cricket club would eventually form the football club of the same name. What is known is that Heart of Midlothian adopted association football rules in 1874, which is considered the official year of the club’s formation.

In 2013, this illustrious club, bearing such domestic honours as four top tier (tied for third most), eight Scottish Cups (fourth most) and four Scottish League Cups (fourth most), began process of entering into administration. This resulted in disciplinary action by the Scottish Football Association, including an embargo on signing new players. Hearts were also forced to begin the 2013/14 season with a fifteen-point deduction.

By the end of the season, Hearts found themselves at the bottom of the top tier table and were relegated to the Scottish Championship (all other things being equal, had they not been deducted the 15 points, they still would have ended the season in a relegation playoff position). But demonstrating profound resilience, Hearts were able to secure promotion to the Scottish Premiership with seven games remaining in the 2014/15 season. With the events of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the wrapping up of the 2019/20 season after 30 matches, Hearts found themselves relegated back to the Scottish Championship for the 2020/21 season. Their stay wouldn’t last long, as Hearts topped the table for a return to the Premiership for the 2021/22 season.

As far as badges go, the current Hearts badge is very strong. The image is based on a mosaic that can be found on the pavement near St Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The mosaic sits on the site of the Old Tolbooth (which stood between c.1400 and 1817), the former administrative centre of Edinburgh as well as the site of a prison and public executions.

With my redesign, I wanted to call back to an earlier age without doing away with the current badge completely, borrowing some features from the club’s previous badges, namely, the vertical bars supporting a central heart. I incorporated the more obtuse heart and gold lettering found in the current badge. I also incorporated a subtle Saltire in the inner and outer rings.