ReBrand: Queen of the South FC

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Queen of the South Football Club was established in 1919. This new club was result of a union between three pre-existing clubs: Maxwelltown Volunteers FC (formed in 1896 and renamed 5th King’s Own Scottish Borderers in 1908), Dumfries FC (formed in 1897) and the Arrol-Johnston Motor Company works team. The name, ‘Queen of the South’, was taken from a local poet, David Dunbar, who, while standing for Parliament in the 1857 general election, called the town of Dumfries the ‘Queen of the South’ in one of his addresses.

After participating in various non-professional leagues for several seasons, ‘the Doonhamers’, as they are known (‘doonhamer’ being a colloquial term for natives of Dumfries, many of whom, in the nineteenth century, worked in Glasgow and referred to Dumfries as doon hame, Scots for ‘down home’), joined the newly-created Third Division of the Scottish Football League in the 1923/24 season.

The Doonhamers gained promotion from the bottom tier after their second season in the SFL. Promotion to the top tier came at the close of the 1932/33 season. In their first season in the top tier, Queen of the South finished fourth in the table with 45 points, behind Celtic (47), Motherwell (62) and Rangers (66). This finish remains the club’s finest performance in the top tier.

Although the Doonhamers have yet to win any senior cups, they reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup in 1949/50 and the Scottish League Cup in 1950/51 and 1960/61. In 2007/08, the club reached the Scottish Cup final, losing narrowly 2-3 to Rangers.

Queen of the South first featured a badge on their kit in 1947. This badge, found at the centre of the current badge, is strong, bearing a handsome monogram and the Dumfries motto, in Scots, A lore burne, referring to the Loreburn (or ‘muddy stream’), a stream that ran through a marsh near the town. In times of attack, this motto served as a rallying cry to the town. What I find less attractive in the current badge is the outer circle, bearing the club’s name and leaving a lot of negative space. Additionally, the current badge’s use of text within a shield is a violation of an ancient Scottish heraldic law.

When redesigning the Queen of the South badge, I struggled to come up with something that I found satisfying. I explored various heraldic motifs before settling on an updated ‘QS’ monogram bearing a ‘queen’s’ crown and featuring a football and the Dumfries motto in a banner.

The kits make use of the Doonhamers’ traditional colours of blue (home) and red (away). The home strip is inspired in part by Bayern Munich’s handsome third kit from the 2013/14 season.

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: Inverness CT FC

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Caledonian Thistle Football Club was the result of a 1994 union between two historic Invernessian football clubs – Inverness Thistle and Caledonian, both established in 1885. In 1996, Inverness District Council requested that ‘Inverness’ be added to the club’s name. Instead of going the easy route with Inverness United FC or something of that ilk, we have the monstrosity that is ICTFC. More on that later.

Caley began life in the lowest tier of the Scottish Football League alongside Highland rivals Ross County. Over the coming years, the club would work its way up the SFL ranks, gaining prominence through their notable Scottish Cup victories over Celtic in the third round of the 1999/2000 competition as well as in the quarter-finals of the 2002/03 competition. In the 2003/04 season, Caley finished at the top of the second tier table, gaining promotion to what was then called the Scottish Premier League. The club was relegated back to the second tier after five seasons, before returning to the top for the 2010/11 season.

The 2014/15 season proved to be Caley’s finest, finishing in the third spot of the Premiership table and defeating St Mirren, Partick Thistle, Raith Rovers, Celtic and, finally, Falkirk on their road to lifting the Scottish Cup. But the good times did not last forever. At the end of the 2016/17 season, the Highland Jags found themselves relegated to the Scottish Championship, where they continue to compete today.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club. ICTFC. If the name is a mouthful, the current badge is an eyeful. In this badge, we find a thistle (the symbol of Inverness Thistle), a golden eagle (the symbol of Caledonian) and a football. It’s not so much the presence of these symbols that make this badge challenging, but that there are at least two very distinctive illustrative styles employed in their depictions. Further insult is added to injury with a very poorly designed banner bearing the club’s name.

Over the years, I have attempted several redesigns of Caley’s badge. Among all Scottish football badges, I found this to be one of the most difficult. In each attempt, I sought to employ all of the information included in the current badge and each attempt yielded a slight improvement. Still, I found my redesigns difficult to stomach.

Eventually, I realised that in my desire to capture so much in a badge, I failed in Mies’ insistence that ‘less is more’. Therefore, I have attempted yet another redesign of this behemoth of a badge. In this redesign, minimalism has been my aim. No words. No dates. Only simple lines depicting the head of a golden eagle and a thistle.

For the home shirt, I decided to go with Caley’s blue and red stripes, which have featured on most of the club’s kits since the union in 1994. The away shirt is inspired by the former Inverness Thistle’s home strips, with the black and red vertical stripes in near constant use in from 1894 until the union.

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

ReBrand: Greenock Morton FC

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Greenock Morton Football Club was established as Morton Football Club in 1874, making them the sixth oldest football club in Scotland. The precise origin of the name ‘Morton’ is unclear, though it may have been taken from ‘Morton Terrace’, a row of houses where some of the players stayed beside of the club’s original playing field.

Following the formation of the Scottish Football League in 1890, the original Second Division was formed in 1893, with Morton as one of the founding members. In the 1899/1900 season, Morton finished second, one point behind Partick Thistle. The following season, both clubs were admitted into the top tier, with Thistle finishing last and Morton coming in fourth with 21 points, behind Hibernian (25), Celtic (29) and Rangers (35).

Over the coming decade, Morton would remain in the bottom half of the table, but in the 1910s, the club began to show more promise. In the 1913/14 and 1914/15 seasons, Morton came in fourth, and by 1915/16, they finished third. Morton’s finest top tier performance came in the 1916/17 season, when the club finished in the second spot. Four years later, the club’s highest honour came when they won the 1921/22 Scottish Cup with a 1-0 victory over Rangers at Hampden Park.

In the 1926/27 season, Morton finished second-bottom and, alongside last place Dundee United, returned to the second tier for the first time since the 1899/1900 season. Over the coming decades, Morton would experience more promotions (10) and relegations (10) to and from the top tier than any other side in Scottish football, with their most recent spell in top flight football ending with relegation at the end of the 1987/88 season.

The current badge, derived from the Greenock coat of arms, is strong and some variation of it has been used since 1978. Before this, from 1964, a simpler badge, bearing the club’s name and three stars, was used on occasion.

In reworking such a strong badge, I did not want to design something that would appear too similar to other badges. I considered the other clubs which feature a ship in full sail on their badge: Stranraer, formed in 1870 and one of the oldest clubs in Scotland, and Clyde, formed in 1877. The ship on Stranraer’s badge was adopted in 1961, while the ship on Clyde’s badge, from what I can tell, came into being in the mid-1930s. If I wanted to defer either to the age of the club or longevity of the use of a ship in a club’s badge, Stranraer and Clyde, respectively, beat out Morton. The shipbuilding industry is tied very closely to Clyde’s name and it is possible that the presence of a ship on their badge predates the next earliest badge design by more than two decades, so I have gone with a ship in that redesign. It is possible that I have overthought this.

For Morton, I considered using the Free French Memorial on Lyle Hill in Greenock (which honours the fallen sailors of Free French Naval Forces who were based at Greenock from 1940 to 1945), or the James Watt Dock Crane (named after the 19th-century Greenock-born inventor). Ultimately, I departed from local symbolism entirely and adopted the main colours of the current Morton badge to form a modern ‘GM’ monogram (round so as to suggest a football).

For the home shirt, I went with the traditional blue and white hoops, which have featured on the vast majority of Morton’s home shirts from their earliest days (an aborted departure from which caused great unrest among Morton supporters in 2016). For the away shirt, the body is yellow (used commonly among many Morton away strips), with a seafoam green for the collar and sleeves.

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

ReBrand: Falkirk FC

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Falkirk Football Club was established in 1876 and joined the Scottish Football Association two years later. During these early years, ‘the Bairns’ (a [primarily] eastern Scots word meaning ‘children’ and for natives of Falkirk, in general) competed in the early rounds of the Scottish Cup and played matches as part of the Stirlingshire Football Association.

In 1902, the top tier of the Scottish Football League expanded from 10 to 12 clubs, which opened two vacancies in the second tier. These went to Raith Rovers and Falkirk. After only three seasons, the Bairns were promoted to the top flight.

The club boasts such honours as two Scottish Cup victories (1912/13 and 1956/57) in five appearances, as well as the somewhat dubious honour of having won the Scottish Challenge Cup—a competition open only to clubs that do not play in the top tier—a record-tying four times (an honour shared with St Johnstone).

More recently, as a result of reaching the final of the 2008/09 Scottish Cup, Falkirk competed in the inaugural UEFA Europa League competition in the 2009/10 season. Despite tasting European competition for the first time, Falkirk was relegated from the top tier of the Scottish Professional Football League by the end of the season. The Bairns competed in the second tier until the end of the 2018/19 season, when the club was relegated to League One (the third tier) after finishing at the bottom of the table.

Some of Falkirk’s early shirts featured what may or may not be Masonic crosses as badges, but the club did not feature a regular badge until 1909, when a crest was utilised. This crest was based on the coat of arms of the burgh of Falkirk and featured a crowned lion supporting a shield which bore the coat of arms of the Callendar family, who long held a seat of power in Falkirk. The Falkirk shirt bore two other badges before 1974, when a variation of the current badge first appeared. This badge features a football bearing a highly-stylised silhouette of the Falkirk Town Steeple. With the exception of the 2007/08 season, the steeple-fronted football has remained the primary badge for the club.

Falkirk’s badge redesign is one with which I have wrestled for a time. Because of the effectiveness of this 1974 badge, I found it very difficult to depart from the steeple image. Despite this, given that the depiction of the steeple on the current badge in no way resembles the actual Falkirk Town Steeple, and because I don’t find the steeple particularly inspiring as far as what might be affected in the viewer from a more realistic rendering, I decided to do away with the steeple image all together – no doubt, a very controversial move to Falkirk supporters. Instead, I opted for something more in line with the traditional heraldry associated with the town and club.

The shape of the central shield is inspired by the shield that enclosed the steeple badge on the Falkirk strip from 2010 to 2013. The image in the shield is a depiction of the Callendar family coat of arms, used in the Falkirk coat of arms and similar to what was used in the original 1909 badge. This shows two sets of three billets (sheets of paper), divided by an embattled bend (a normal bend would appear as a solid ribbon running diagonally across a shield), representing the Antonine Wall (built by the Romans between 142 and c.154), which passed through the town. Within the bend we find two sets of shields and swords. These represent two significant battles in Falkirk history: King Edward I of England’s defeat of Sir William Wallace in 1298 and the Jacobite victory over the Hanoverian army in 1746. Between the two is a church, the ‘Fa’ Kirk’ (which may mean either ‘the speckled church’ or the ‘church by the wall’) from which the town gets its name.

The kits are built on traditional Falkirk colour schemes. The home kit is inspired specifically by the 1937/38 home kit.

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

ReBrand: Dunfermline Athletic FC

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The history of association football in Scotland is tied inextricably to cricket. Along with clubs such as Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, St Mirren and potentially Heart of Midlothian, Dunfermline Athletic was established as a winter sporting pursuit in the cricket off-season.

The original club was called Dunfermline Football Club and was established in 1874. In order that non-cricket club members could join, Dunfermline FC broke away from the cricket club and became Dunfermline Athletic FC in 1885.

Dunfermline Athletic, or ‘the Pars’, as they are known, had a shot at their first major honour when they reached the final of the 1949/50 Scottish League Cup at Hampden Park. There, they faced their fellow Fifers, East Fife, who had won the competition two years earlier. The Pars were unlucky that day, losing 3-0, but a decade later they would have another opportunity at silverware.

On 26 April 1961, the Pars defeated Celtic 2-0 in the Scottish Cup final replay. Celtic would return the favour by defeating the Pars 3-2 in the 1964/65 final of the same competition. But the Pars’ tenacity brought the Scottish Cup back to East End Park after the club defeated Hearts in the 1967/68 final. It should also be noted that the Pars beat holders Celtic, fresh off of their illustrious 1966/67 season, in the first round of the 1967/68 Scottish Cup.

The Dunfermline Athletic kit did not include a badge until the 1958/59 season, when the club employed the skills of Dunfermline High School art teacher Colin Dymock. Dymock’s badge was thoroughly modern in shape, colour and design. It took the shape of a downward-pointing triangle and featured Malcolm’s Tower, a local landmark, as its centrepiece. This original badge was dropped from the kit in 1962.

The Pars’ shirt featured an encircled ‘DAFC’ monogram for the 1971/72 season and then from 1977 until 1986, home shirts featured the club’s initials alone. For the 1986/87 season, the club began to use a slight variation on Dymock’s 1958 badge design, and similar badges have adorned the breast of the Dunfermline Athletic shirt ever since.

The current Dunfermline Athletic badge is a cracker. When the first version was introduced in 1958, it would have been ground-breaking (and perhaps polarising). But it has become a cherished staple of the Dunfermline Athletic identity. That being stated, I find the badge very unrelatable. Malcolm’s Tower, named after Malcolm III of Scotland (Gaelic: Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, who reigned from 1058 to 1093), is a very historically significant site as it marks the move of the seat of royal power from Forteviot in Strathearn (modern-day Perth and Kinross) to Dunfermline. A crude depiction of the tower has featured in the Dunfermline coat of arms for centuries. But all that remains of the tower today is a foundational ruin and its precise design is unknown. As a result, Dymock’s design is simply an interpretation of what the tower might have looked like, and in a fragmented, modern style.

The challenge of redesigning such a unique and iconic badge has been floating around in my mind for a while now. I struggled while considering what iconography I might employ. Given my perception of the unrelatable nature of the 1958 badge, I wanted to offer something either more familiar or entirely different. I opted to retain the iconic triangular shape of the badge, but instead of Malcolm’s Tower, I decided to make use of one of Dunfermline’s most physically prominent and handsome landmarks: the clock tower of the City Chambers. With its striking green roof of oxidised copper and its skilful combination of French, Gothic and Scots baronial architectural styles, I believe that the clock tower proves to be a very fitting centrepiece for the redesigned badge. I also incorporated the zig-zagged white cloud stripes from the 1958 badge and lightened the blue background to sky blue.

For the home shirt, I decided to continue with the Pars’ long tradition of black and white vertical stripes (in near-constant use since 1909), but with a pattern that echoes the triangular badge. For the away strip, I decided to make use of red (the predominant away strip colour over the last two decades) with a black gingham pattern (inspired by the 1996/97 home strip).

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

ReBrand: Dundee United FC

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It is recorded that by the middle of the nineteenth century, nearly 20% of Dundee’s population were Irish-born immigrants. As Hibernian had been established in 1875 in order to provide opportunity for young Irish Catholic immigrants in Edinburgh, the Irish Catholic community in Dundee formed their own club in 1879 – Dundee Harp.

One match of note took place on 12 September 1885, when Dundee Harp racked up a remarkable 35-0 victory over Aberdeen Rovers (who competed from 1884 until 1889). What makes this feat even more peculiar is that it happened on the very same day that Arbroath achieved their record 36-0 victory over Bon Accord, the largest margin of victory in world football until 2002. Needless to say, 12 September 1885 was a bad day to be an Aberdonian club.

By 1894, Dundee Harp was facing serious financial difficulties, resulting in suspension by the SFA and eventual dissolution.

In 1909, Dundee Hibernian Football Club was formed with a mission similar to that of Edinburgh’s Hibernian, Dundee Harp and Celtic. After only one season, Dundee Hibernian were admitted into the Scottish Football League. In order to appeal to a base beyond the Irish Catholic community in Dundee, the club changed their name to Dundee United in 1923. The name ‘Dundee City FC’ had been floated, but this was protested by the club’s cross-town rivals, Dundee FC.

In the 1924/25 season, Dundee United secured promotion to the top tier for the first time. They remained there for two seasons, being relegated in 1927 and then returning in 1929. This 1928/29 second tier championship would be United’s last major honour for more than 50 years, when they won two consecutive Scottish League Cups (1979/80 and 1980/81). These League Cup victories signalled the beginning of the ‘New Firm’, when both United and Aberdeen would prove themselves as worthy competitors against Celtic and Rangers. United was also a relatively formidable football club on the European scene in the mid-1980s.

More recently, United won the 2009/10 Scottish Cup (their second victory in ten Scottish Cup final appearances). Having experienced a period of bad form in the 2015/16 season, United were relegated from the top tier. With the events of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019/20 season ended prematurely. At that point, United had all but won the second-tier championship with a commanding 14-point lead after 28 matches. Although the second-place Inverness Caledonian Thistle had a game in-hand, the final decision regarding the table placement came down to a ‘points per game’ ranking in which United’s 2.11 secured their first-place finish over ICT’s 1.67.

With my redesign, I have decided to stick with the somewhat jarring black and tangerine colour scheme because it’s been a ‘DUFC’ trademark since the late 1960s. But I found the black text on an orange field very unpleasing to the eye. I replaced the clunky, emboldened (and overused) Roman typeface and added the year of the club’s founding, 1909. The lion rampant has been replaced by two dragons for historical reasons, as the former Dundee Hibernian’s original crest was inspired by the Dundee coat of arms, featuring two dragons supporting an entwined ‘DH’. This was done away with when the club was renamed Dundee United. The lion rampant, which had featured on match programmes from 1956, was incorporated into a badge in 1967.

Because of Dundee United’s place as part of the ‘New Firm’ that dominated Scottish football in the 1980s, the home strip redesign is inspired by the classic Adidas kits worn during that period. The away strip redesign is inspired by United home shirts from the late 1920s.

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

ReBrand: Dumbarton FC

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Dumbarton Football Club was established in 1872, making it the fourth oldest association football club in Scotland, after Queen’s Park (1867), Kilmarnock (1869) and Stranraer (1870).

During these early years, Dumbarton—or ‘the Sons’, as they are known—were one of the most competitive sides in Scottish football. They were regular features in the Scottish Cup (winning in 1882/83 and coming runners-up on five occasions between 1880 and 1897). Dumbarton also have the distinction of being crowned Scottish champions for the first two seasons of the Scottish Football League (1890/91 and 1891/92) and of being one of only two clubs (the other being Rangers) to win each of the four tiers in Scottish professional football.

Over the years, I have found it difficult to pursue a redesign of the Dumbarton badge. Put simply, the current badge is excellent. To even consider redesigning it is a daunting task. Still, I thought of what was possibly missing from the current badge. Certainly, the year the club was founded is of note. Being that the elephant in the current badge represents Dumbarton Rock (mounted by Dumbarton Castle) and given the fact that Dumbarton’s home ground is at the foot of the rock, I also saw an opportunity to incorporate a football at the elephant’s foot.

Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to retain an elephant image. With that exception, I departed fully from Dumbarton’s handsome badge. 1 FC Köln and Derby County FC, with their iconic animal badges, came to mind. But I wanted something yet more simple. Very intentionally, the elephant in my redesign is unbridled and more lively than the one in the current Dumbarton badge—and it’s ever-so-slightly more anatomically correct, while maintaining a light, minimalistic feel.

The home shirt I designed has a 1970s feel, with alternating vertical bars of two shades of gold. The away strip takes its colours and hoops from the 1881 to 1885 home strip used by Dumbarton Athletic FC (which merged with Dumbarton in 1889).

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

ReBrand: Brechin City FC

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The 2017/18 season was unpleasant for Brechin City Football Club. They finished at the bottom of the Scottish Championship table, having failed to win a single match and having amassed only four points from four draws. The following season, in League One, Brechin City was able to amass 36 points (9 wins, 9 draws, 18 losses), but this was not enough to save the club from their second consecutive relegation.

Brechin’s woes continued in the 2019/20 season, when they finished at the bottom of the League Two table. This and the following season were cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite having finished at the bottom of the table in their first season in League Two, promotions into and relegations from the league were suspended. Unfortunately, the 2020/21 season spelled the end of Brechin City’s run in the SPFL, finishing at the bottom of the table again and losing a two-leg play-off 3-1 to Lowland League champions Kelty Hearts. As a result, Brechin City were relegated from the professional league for the first time in 67 years and will compete in the Highland League for the 2021/22 season.

Not wanting to add insult to injury, here is a badge redesign with which I can say that I am pleased.

Brechin City FC was established in 1906 by players from two Brechin-based junior sides (Brechin Harp and Brechin Hearts). The club name, ‘Brechin City’, derives from an historic designation of Brechin as a ‘city’, the result of the presence of its medieval cathedral (which dates from the 13th century). A simple illustration of the cathedral itself (now only a ‘cathedral’ in name as it is home to a Church of Scotland congregation, thus having no bishop) was first featured in the 1985 badge, which was updated to the current badge in 1995. For the 2006/07 season, the Brechin City badge featured different colours and a special centenary banner.

For my redesign, I had originally explored using some of the heraldic symbols of Brechin. While mulling over options, I rendered a simple, but more detailed and accurate illustration of the main tower of Brechin Cathedral than the one used in the current badge. This image took my fancy and I built a simple badge around it, which is seen on the right below. A subtle detail in the redesign is found in the clock, which shows six minutes past seven, or 19:06, symbolising the founding of the club.

For the home shirt, I went with Brechin City’s red (in constant use since 1955) and a black sash with a white border (mirrored in the collar). For the away shirt, I employed a white and light blue harlequin design, which was used in the 1909/10 season.

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

ReBrand: Ross County FC

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Dingwall-based Ross County Football Club were formed in 1929. Although the club was not admitted into the Scottish Football League until 1994, County has a long history of faring well against league sides in early rounds of the Scottish Cup while members of the Highland Football League. Since entering the SFL (and later Scottish Professional Football League), County have worked their way up the ranks. They reached their only Scottish Cup final in 2009/10, though they lost 3-0 to Dundee United.

In 2013, County reached the top tier for the first time in their 80+ year history. That season was an anomaly as Rangers had been booted down to the SFL Third Division (now the Scottish League Two) after a series of administrative issues, thus opening the door for the promotion of two second tier clubs. The second club, Dundee, did not fare well, and like Dunfermline Athletic of the 2011/12 season, Hamilton Academical of the 2010/11 season and many other newly promoted clubs, Dundee was relegated back to the second tier after only one season in the top. The same was not so for Ross County, who ended the 2012/13 season in the fifth spot on the table, just one point behind their Highland rivals, Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

In January 2016, County beat Celtic 3-1 in the 2015/16 Scottish League Cup semi-final, securing a spot against Hibernian in the final. On 13 March, Ross County earned their first professional cup with a 2-1 win against Hibs. But their fortunes didn’t last forever. County finished the 2017/18 season at the bottom of the Premiership table and were relegated to the second tier. Fortunately, their stay in the second tier came to an end at the end of the 2018/19 season, when County finished top of the Championship table and gained promotion back to the Premiership.

While I appreciate the minimalism of the current badge, in use since 1990, for my redesign, I decided to capitalise on the heritage of the historic County of Ross and Cromarty, both in colour and in symbolism. The shield in the middle of the badge is a retooling of the Ross and Cromarty coat of arms. The three lions rampant are taken from the old Earldom of Ross. The stag’s head is taken from the arms of the MacKenzies of Kintail, Earls of Seaforth. The flaming beacon is taken from the crest of the MacKenzies and the arms of the MacLeods of Lewis.

Unintentionally, my home shirt redesign resembles a hybrid of the traditional Ajax and Paris Saint-Germain home strips. I find the red and dark blue striking. The away shirt is inspired by original Ross County home strip used from 1929 to 1939. I also employed a stag’s head for the away badge, inspired by the County badge in use from 1953 to 1959, and then again from 1982 to 1987.

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

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design & illustration

Scotland

ReBrand: Queen of the South FC

ReBrand: Livingston FC

ReBrand: Inverness CT FC

ReBrand: Greenock Morton FC

ReBrand: Falkirk FC

ReBrand: Dunfermline Athletic FC

ReBrand: Dundee United FC

ReBrand: Dumbarton FC

ReBrand: Brechin City FC

ReBrand: Ross County FC