ReBrand: SPFL

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I first began redesigning Scottish football badges in 2013 as a personal challenge. Eventually, I lost a bit of steam, but have found myself reembarking on the endeavour as of late. In 2018, I set myself the task of tweaking or completely redesigning my initial rebrandings, particularly those which I have found uninspiring or too similar to current badges. I have also expanded beyond my original redesigns (the 2013/14 top tier and a smattering of lower division clubs) to include the entirety of the Scottish Professional Football League, as well as redesigns of home and away strips. As part of this project, I have also redesigned the SPFL logo and badges for the respective SPFL divisions. The lion’s head of this design derives heavily from the last Scottish Football League logo (used until the merger of the SFL and the Scottish Premier League in 2013, which resulted in the formation of the SPFL). The somewhat playful design of the football and ‘SPFL’ lettering is a direct reaction to what seems to be a move toward overly ‘futuristic’ league branding, not only in Scotland, but throughout the world.

ReBrand: Clyde FC

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Clyde Football Club was established in 1877. The club’s first home ground was called Barrowfield Park, located near the Glasgow district of Bridgeton, on the northern bank of the River Clyde, from which the club took its name.

In 1891, Clyde joined the Scottish Football League and their first league match resulted in a dominant 10-3 victory over Vale of Leven. By 1898, the club had outgrown their home at Barrowfield and relocated to Shawfield in Rutherglen, where they would compete until 1986.

During the first half of the twentieth century, this modest club, nicknamed ‘the Bully Wee’, had become a formidable side within Scottish football. Clyde won the final of the Scottish Cup three occasions (1938/39, 1954/55 and 1957/58) in six appearances.

By the late 1960s, many urban areas in Glasgow were being cleared for new developments. Large swathes of the population in these areas were forced to relocate to more remote regions of the city. A significant number of Clyde’s supporters resided in Bridgeton, Dalmarnock, the Gorbals, Oatlands and Rutherglen, all of which experienced significant population reduction during this period. Clyde’s support dwindled and the club has bounced around the lower divisions ever since their last spell in the top tier, which ended in 1975.

In addition to bouncing around the lower tiers of Scottish football, Clyde has moved their home several times since leaving Shawfield in 1986. And although they are now based in Cumbernauld (where they have played since the middle of the 1994/95 season and some nine miles north of the River Clyde as the crow flies), they retain their original name.

At the end of the 2018/19 season, Clyde finished second in the League Two (the bottom tier of the Scottish Professional Football League) table, qualifying them for the League One play-offs alongside third-placed Edinburgh City and fourth-placed Annan Athletic. In the play-off semi-final, Stenhousemuir, who finished second-bottom in League One, were drawn against Annan, while Clyde faced Edinburgh City. After dispatching Edinburgh City with a 4-0 aggregate score over two legs, Clyde faced Annan in the two-leg play-off final. Annan came out ahead in the first leg with a 1-0 victory over Clyde, but the Bully Wee made up the difference with their 2-0 victory in the second leg, securing their promotion from the bottom tier.

To celebrate their centenary in 1977, a version of the current Clyde badge came into regular use, though some version of it may have appeared as early as 1934. This badge features a ship in full sail encircled by a floral wreath. My redesign is an update of this badge. To commemorate their three Scottish Cup victories, I have included three sails for each of the ship’s three masts.

The redesigned home kit is inspired in part by the 2012/13 home kit. For the away kit, I decided to go with an all-red number (used as the third kit colour scheme as recently as the 2019/20 season), a reference to the left-wing political movement known as ‘Red Clydeside’, a major figure of which, James Maxton, served as an MP for the Bridgeton district for more than two decades.

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

ReBrand: Raith Rovers FC

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Raith Rovers Football Club was established in 1883. The club draws its name, Raith, from a vague historical association with the region of Fife from Kirkcaldy (where the club is based) to Lochgelly.

Throughout their history, the Rovers have won the second tier on five occasions and have appeared in the Scottish Cup final once, losing 2-0 to Falkirk in 1912/13. The club reached the final of the 1948/49 Scottish League Cup, but experienced another 2-0 loss, this time to Rangers. The club would have to wait until 1994/95 League Cup final to receive their first and only major honour to date, defeating Celtic 6-5 on penalties after ending extra time 2-2.

The Rovers first used a badge on their kits during the 1912/13 season. This early badge included a lion rampant holding a belt buckle, the latter of which being derived from the Kirkcaldy coat of arms. A variation of this badge was used until the 1949/50 season, when the Scottish royal coat of arms, featuring a yellow shield with a red lion rampant, was used to mark the Rovers’ promotion to the Scottish top tier. The following season, the more traditional badge returned to the kit.

By the 1960s, crests became less popular in Scottish football in favour of calligraphic club initials. A new badge was used intermittently between 1976 and 1985, when another badge came into use. By 1998, the traditional badge was again reinstated and some variation of this badge has been used ever since.

For years I assumed, having only seen the badge at a relative distance or in a low resolution, that the Rovers’ insignia was a depiction of a horse holding a globus cruciger (Latin for ‘cross-bearing orb’), a medieval symbol representing the authority of Christ or Christianity over the world. For my redesign, I sought to make both the lion rampant and the buckle more identifiable. I have also included the club’s name within a banner, which resembles the Scottish Football Association crest used until 2012. This is also a call back to the 1949/50 season, when the Rovers were promoted to the top tier and their badge was nearly identical to that used by the Scottish national team.

The home kit is inspired by the Rovers’ home kits from 1950 to 1954, in particular, the kit worn during the 1953/54 season. The away kit is a hooped version of the Rovers’ traditional red away colour scheme.

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

ReBrand: Montrose FC

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Established in 1879, Montrose Football Club were founding members of the Forfarshire Football Association in 1883. It would be another 40 years before Montrose would join the ranks of the Scottish Football League. Since that time, the club has been been hacking away in the lower leagues of Scottish football with little to show for it apart from local cup victories (they are ten-time winners of the Forfarshire Cup) and a handful of appearances in the later stages of the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup.

Despite a history of many disappointments, the 2017/18 season was strong for Montrose, with the club finishing at the top of the Scottish League Two table, thus gaining promotion to League One (Montrose’s first departure from the bottom tier since the 1995/96 season). This is all the more significant due to the fact that only a few seasons earlier, in 2014/15, Montrose narrowly avoided losing their place in the Scottish Professional Football League by defeating the Highland Football League champions, Brora Rangers in a play-off.

Except for different versions of the club’s initials, the current badge, introduced in 1990, is the only badge that Montrose has ever used. This features a rose (from the folk etymology of Montrose, ‘Mount of Roses’), a football, the club name and the date of the club’s founding.

I first attempted to redesign the Montrose badge in 2014. For this initial redesign, I drew inspiration from a badge that was used for only one season (1973/74), featuring an ‘M’ flanked by an ‘F’ and a ‘C’. In this initial redesign, the diagonal strokes on the ‘M’ meet well below the baseline. In addition to the very deep crotch on the ‘M’, I decided to add the rose and the date of the club’s founding to create a stronger sense of centrality. This initial redesign, on the left below, was published on 3 November 2014:

I was quite sold on my 2014 redesign, but I thought that I ought to challenge myself further in this round by tackling the badge from another angle. Using the same rose motif, I constructed a round badge, with the rose superimposed over a football. I was aiming for clean and basic with this design.

The home kit is inspired by Montrose kits from 1959 to 1970. The away strip makes use of the colour scheme of the badge, dominated by red. The shorts for both kits feature only the central badge image of the rose superimposed over the football.

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

ReBrand: Forfar Athletic FC

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Forfar Athletic Football Club was established when the now-defunct Angus Athletic Football Club (1883-1885) second team of the broke away from their mother club in 1885. This young team, dubbed ‘the Loons’ (East Angus Scots for ‘young men’) proved their meddle early on, defeating the established Dundonian club, Our Boys, 1-0 in their first match on 16 May 1885.

Since joining the Scottish Football League for the 1921/22 season, the Loons have competed in the professional game in Scotland, but have yet to reach the top tier. Their best Scottish League Cup and Scottish Cup performances came in the 1977/78 and 1981/82 seasons, respectively. In both competitions, the Loons reached the semi-finals, where they lost to Rangers on both occasions. The first was a 5-2 loss in the 1977/78 League Cup, which Rangers would go on to win. In the 1981/82 Scottish Cup, Forfar Athletic forced a replay against Rangers after a 0-0 draw. Unfortunately for the Loons, the replay resulted in a 3-1 loss and the club would go away empty-handed once again.

The Loons’ 1960/61 shirt featured a badge consisting of the four heraldic symbols of the former royal burgh of Forfar within a shield: a Scots fir tree, a bull’s head, a stag’s head and a depiction of the former Castle of Forfar with three towers. A round badge featuring these symbols without a shield came into regular use in 1980. Some version of this badge has been used ever since, with the current badge, in use since 2007, placing the heraldic symbols within a shield once again.

For my redesign, I considered working with the current badge, but decided that, as these symbols are so far removed from the people of Forfar (the castle being destroyed in 1313), I would go another route. This began with a sketch of a highly-stylised, round monogram. Eventually, I placed the monogram within a ring. The outer ring contains two jute plant flowers, a reference to the contribution of the jute industry to the growth of the town in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The textile theme is recalled once again by the knot that borders the badge.

For the home strip, I went with the Loons’ classic light blue colour scheme. This particular rendering is inspired by the kits used between 1983 and 1986. The away strip is inspired by an odd move for the club. Between 1955 and 1967, Forfar Athletic departed from their traditional blues in favour of a green home strip. My design draws mostly from the kit used from August to December 1967, but with vertical stripes composed of a diamond pattern.

Thank you to Forfar Athletic supporter David Carnegie and to Dave at Historical Football Kits for some of the historical information used above.

ReBrand: East Fife FC

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The history of football in the conurbation of Levenmouth, East Fife dates from as early as 1879, when junior side Cameron Bridge Football Club was formed. A number of other junior clubs were formed in the late nineteenth century, most notably, Leven Thistle (in the late 1880s), Methil Rovers (1893) and Buckhaven United (1890-91, and then again in 1897). In 1901, Methil Rovers folded and the following year, Leven Thistle, who had changed home ground numerous times, settled in their final home, Town Hall Park, Methil.

As a result of local demand for a senior football club in Levenmouth, East Fife Football Club was established in early 1903. This new club purchased Leven Thistle’s Town Hall Park and renamed it Bayview Park. Soon after, Leven Thistle decided to close up shop. Buckhaven United continued to compete as a junior side until 1912.

After applying for entry into the Scottish Football League on a number of occasions, East Fife joined the reformed Scottish Second Division in 1921 with the incorporation of their Central Football League (which the club had first joined in 1909) into the SFL.

East Fife holds a special place in the history of Scottish football. The Fifers have appeared in three Scottish Cup finals (1926/27, 1937/38, 1949/50), reigning victorious against Kilmarnock in the final replay before a crowd of 92,716 at Hampden Park on 27 April 1938. Until Hibernian defeated Rangers in the 2015/16 Scottish Cup final, East Fife was the only non-top tier club to have ever achieved the honour. It’s also worth noting that East Fife has also won the Scottish League Cup three times (1947/48, 1949/50, 1953/54), a first among all Scottish clubs.

The club’s first kit consisted of a shirt of green and white hoops, similar to those first adopted by Celtic that same year. In 1911, the green and white was swapped for black and gold, which has remained the club’s primary colour scheme ever since.

The Fifers first began using a badge on their kit in 1950. This original badge consisted of a shield, divided into thirds. The top portion of the shield featured the club’s initials, while the middle featured a Saltire and the bottom featured a thistle. This badge was used until 1970, when it was replaced by the club’s initials alone. Some variation of the initials remained until 1991, when the first version of the current badge was introduced. Like the 1950 badge, the current badge features a Saltire, with the addition of a superimposed football.

With my redesign, I decided to move away from the above monogram, as well as the current shield, in favour of a round badge. I included the Saltire in my latest redesign as it is the only consistent feature among East Fife’s historical badges. (The omission of a Saltire within a shield also avoids a potential confrontation with the Court of the Lord Lyon.) The Saltire is enclosed in a circle, behind a gold fishing net, a reference to the prevalent fishing industry in East Fife. The historic burgh seals of every settlement on the coast in East Fife feature either the Firth of Forth, fishing boats, fishing nets or fish (or a combination of several of these), including the burgh seal of Buckhaven, Methil and Innerleven, the locale of East Fife FC. The fishing net also acts as a goal net, receiving a football. Lastly, I placed a star in the outer ring, commemorating East Fife’s 1937/38 Scottish Cup victory.

For the home kit, I went with the club’s traditional black and gold vertical stripes with black shorts. I also included black and gold hooped socks, last worn in 1939. For the away shirt, I employed red with dark red herringbone stripes.

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: 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.

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design & illustration

Scottish League 1

ReBrand: SPFL

ReBrand: Clyde FC

ReBrand: Raith Rovers FC

ReBrand: Montrose FC

ReBrand: Forfar Athletic FC

ReBrand: East Fife FC

ReBrand: Falkirk FC

ReBrand: Dumbarton FC