redesign

Back in May 2013, I tried my hand at redesigning the Partick Thistle Football Club badge. I wrote,

‘I actually think the current crest is very strong, but I experimented with trying to tie a bit more history into it. Being that Partick Thistle has actually played in Maryhill (as opposed to Partick) since 1909, I wanted to find a way to acknowledge their mixed history by blending elements of both the Partick and Maryhill coats of arms in order to form the crest centrepiece. But that design proved too busy (it might be able to be retooled later). So for Partick Thistle I simply changed the typeface and added a few rings to frame the crest better…’

Truth be told, I was never content with the redesign because it wasn’t much a redesign at all. So I revisited the badge (something I hope to do with some other Scottish Premiership badges in the near future) and came up with something very different:

I decided to add a more stylised thistle atop a traditional shield. It’s something like a throwback to 1970s style and I find it different enough to satisfy me.

Have you ever noticed how poor some of the designs that we in the Western World are forced to encounter actually are? I’ve noticed. It’s a pathetic thing to get hung up on, but if I was going to go through the effort of raising a sign for my storefront I’d have to make sure that I was satisfied with the aesthetic quality of the sign. That’s probably because I have problems. But say you wanted to investigate a particular establishment—a restaurant, a potential employer, a potential church, anything really—on the Internet and you could barely navigate your way through an out of date website. Some of these websites were never ‘in date’ to begin with. If a newspaper looks too busy or scattered, I don’t want to read it. If I wanted to buy a new pair of running shoes my inclination would be to choose a shop that looked legitimate, aesthetically legitimate. As a designer, the whole package is valuable to me. So, thanks to last night’s insomnia, I finally got around to starting a design project called ‘ReBrand’. My intention is to take common logos and brands and give them a wee bit of an adjustment. I’m not prepared to say that I can make any vast improvements, but I figured that when I’m taking wee breaks from my daily PhD research [anxiety setting in at the mere mention of PhD research…] I could occupy myself with this project. At the very least, I can focus my mind on other things and practise my design technique.

I’ve decided that I’d start this project with something close to my heart – football. And in Scottish football there’s no shortage of lazy designs. I’ll probably focus solely on the Scottish Premier League, as it is the top tier of professional Scottish football. So below you have the current SPL logo, and below it you have a quick wee redesign I’ve been playing with:

I thought that the saltire (Scottish flag) on the football was effective in the current logo, so I kept a subtle ball in there and added a bit of a tartan for the white cross. And here’s a texture for more fun…

UPDATE: This summer the SPL was abolished and replaced by the Scottish Premiership which is the top tier of the new Scottish Professional Football League. The new SPFL logo isn’t too bad:

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design & illustration

ReBrand: Partick Thistle FC Update

ReBrand: SPL