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: Ayr United FC

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In 1910, the two rival football clubs in Ayr, Ayr FC and Ayr Parkhouse FC, determined that their town was too small to both support two senior teams and for those teams to rival the leading Scottish clubs. The result of this realisation was the formation of Ayr United Football Club. (Historically, Ayr Football Club had already formed as an amalgamation of several clubs, the earliest of which was Ayr Eglinton, formed in 1875.)

Despite the noble intentions of the two clubs that formed Ayr United in 1910, the club has never been counted among the most competitive in Scotland. Still, they continue to survive, boasting such honours as reaching the final of the 2001/02 Scottish League Cup (where they were defeated by Rangers) and being crowned champions of the second tier on six occasions (1911/12, 1912/13, 1927/28, 1936/37, 1958/59 and 1965/66). More recently, Ayr United gained promotion to the Scottish Championship after topping the League One table in the 2017/18 season.

Ayr United’s kit first featured a badge in 1938. This badge consisted of a stylised black anchor within a white shield with a black border and was used until 1948. Another badge appeared for the 1967/68 season, though regular use of a badge wouldn’t feature until 1977. From that time until 2017, some form of this 1967/68 badge was used.

In 2016, an anonymous complaint to the Court of the Lord Lyon challenged the use of the club’s badge, noting that it featured both a Saltire and the club’s initials within a shield, both a breach of an ancient heraldic law in Scotland, the same which caused bother for Airdrieonians in 2015. Reluctantly, in 2016, Ayr United opened up a competition in which fans could vote on their favourite badge from a pool of finalists. A badge designed by Jamie Stevenson, a Scottish Ayr United supporter living abroad, came out on top, ganering 48% of the vote. This new badge, seen on the left below, was then incorporated into the kit for the 2017/18 season.

The current badge utilises several features from the previous badge, including the Saltire and a football within a cord of rope, the rope recalling the town’s maritime heritage. At the bottom of the badge is the club’s nickname, ‘The Honest Men’, which comes from the Robert Burns poem ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ (1790). The second verse of the poem reads,

‘This truth fand honest Tam o’ Shanter,
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter,
(Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonny lasses.)’

For my redesign, I decided to make use of some of the historical imagery of the club, though with a significant departure from the club’s current badge. The colours used—black, white and red—are consistent with the historic club colours. I omitted the Saltire in favour of a singular image of a horse rampant upon an anchor. The anchor calls back to the original Ayr United badge from 1938.

The stylised horse with a missing tail is a visual reference—which, in a badge, I prefer over an overt, written reference—to ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ and the club’s nickname. In the narrative poem, the eponymous character, Tam, is depicted as having a ‘gray mare, Meg’. In the climax of the poem, Tam, demonstrating his ‘honest’ character, is escaping from a ‘hellish legion’ of the devil, warlocks, and witches who have begun to shed their clothing (noting one particularly attractive witch, Nannie Dee, with an undersized ‘cutty-sark’ or ‘shirt’). When Tam is fleeing upon his trusty Meg, Nannie is able to grab hold of Meg’s ‘gray tail’, which is left behind.

The home kit is based upon Ayr United’s traditional home colour scheme of a white top with black shorts. The away strip makes use of the club colours in a vertical stripe running down a dark blue kit, borrowing from the old Ayr FC’s early colours.

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

ReBrand: Arbroath FC

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Arbroath Football Cub was established in 1878 and as early as 1885, their shirts featured a badge consisting of a golden portcullis sewn into a large shield, representing the entrance to the ruined Arbroath Abbey (famous, in part, for its association with the Declaration of Arbroath), derived from the Arbroath coat of arms. That same year, Arbroath boasted a victory of 36-0 against the now-defunct Aberdonian side Bon Accord FC (who competed from 1884 until 1892), the largest margin of victory in world football until 2002 (the current record of 149-0 between Malagasy sides AS Adema and SO l’Emyrne was thrown, with SO l’Emyrne scoring 149 own-goals in protest to a previous refereeing decision made which saw them out of contention for the Malagasy title).

After competing in the Northern Football League for a number of years, Arbroath joined the Central Football League from its formation in 1909. Twelve years later, the Central League was incorporated into the Scottish Football League.

During their years in the SFL, ‘the Red Lichties’ have advanced to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup on two occasions. In the 1946/47 Scottish Cup, Arbroath triumphed over Stenhousemuir, Raith Rovers and Hearts before losing 0-2 to Aberdeen, who would go on to win the tournament. Arbroath reached their second major cup semi-final in the 1959/60 season, losing 3-0 to Third Lanark.

At the end of the 2018/19 season, Arbroath finished at the top of the League One table, securing promotion to the Scottish Championship (the second tier) for the first time since their relegation to the third tier after the 2002/03 season.

For several periods from 1953 until 1992, the Arbroath kit featured some variation of the club initials, sometimes in a shield. In 1980, a single colour version of the current badge saw regular use. This badge was updated with light blue and yellow in 1992. In recent years, the colours have been more in line with the 1980 version.

I have always been impressed with Arbroath’s 1992 badge. I would commend its timelessness, if not for the dated typeface and colours. For my redesign, I stripped the shield away and retooled the portcullis so that it forms something similar to a traditional Iberian shield found in some historical depictions of the Arbroath coat of arms. I also swapped the typeface for something more Romanesque, recalling the historical significance of the town.

The Arbroath home shirt first featured in maroon in 1882. Typically, this was accompanied with white details and shorts, not dissimilar to Hearts kits over the years. Arbroath first used a fully maroon kit in 1997 (Hearts did not use this scheme until 2002). I decided to capitalise on the attractive look of a fully maroon kit, with light blue details. My redesigned away kit is dominated by this light blue, with black shorts and details.

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

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: 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: Kilmarnock FC

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Kilmarnock Football Club was formed in 1869, making it one of the oldest football clubs in the world. Before this time, Kilmarnock was an established cricket club, playing according to rugby football code in the cricket off-season. This rugby football code history is reflected in the naming of the club’s ground, Rugby Park.

Technically speaking, Killie is the 15th oldest association football club in the world (the fifth oldest still playing league football and the oldest competing in top tier league football) and the second oldest Scottish club now playing according to association football code, after Queen’s Park.

Killie’s honours include one top tier championship (1964/65)—which came after finishing as runners-up in four of the five preceding seasons—as well as three Scottish Cup victories (1919/20, 1928/29 and 1996/97) in eight appearances and one Scottish League Cup (2011/12) in six appearances.

The original Kilmarnock badge, featured on their strip from 1873 to 1887, consisted of a football topped with a hand of blessing. This hand symbol was borrowed from the Kilmarnock coat of arms, which itself is taken from the badge of Clan Boyd, whose seat is based in Kilmarnock. The hand represents the sixth-century disciple of St Columba, St Marnon (Gaelic: Cill Mhearnáig or Cill Mo-Ernóc), from whom the name Kilmarnock derives. From 1887 to 1977, the club’s shirt did not feature a badge.

In 1977, an early version of the current badge was incorporated into the kit. This badge was altered in 1993 and is still used today. The current badge features a football and the hand of blessing, as well as additional heraldic symbols from the Kilmarnock/Boyd coat of arms, including the two supporting red squirrels and the blue and white heraldic wreath. The top of the badge features the Latin motto, Confidemus (‘We trust’), derived from the Boyd motto, Confido (‘I trust’). Below is my initial Kilmarnock redesign that was published on 10 August 2013:I was never quite satisfied with the redesign above. I have long appreciated the content of the current Kilmarnock badge, but have found the execution to be lacking. Ultimately, with my redesign here, I decided to go for something far more minimalistic, calling back to the original badge used from 1873 to 1887.

As far as the kits go, the home strip utilises the established Kilmarnock vertical stripes, first featured on the 1896 home strip and used throughout most of Killie’s history. The away strip borrows its colour and buttoned collar from some of the club’s earliest home shirts.

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

ReBrand: Hamilton Academical FC

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Hamilton Academical Football Club was established in 1874 by, as the name suggests, pupils and the rector of Hamilton Academy (1588-1972).

Although the academy’s colours were blue and green, the Accies played in red and white so as to distinguish themselves from the earlier Hamilton Football Club (which folded in 1878).

The Accies competed as founding members of the Lanarkshire Football League from 1893 until, following the resignation of Renton Football Club (1872-1922) in 1897, they were elected to the third division of the Scottish Football League. Since that time, the Accies have reached two Scottish Cup finals (1910/11 and 1934/35), though their spells in the top flight have been mixed. Their best ever top tier performance came in the 1934/35 season, when the Accies finished in fourth place with 48 points, behind Hearts (50), Celtic (52) and Rangers (55).

More recently, at the end of the 2013/14 season, the Accies gained promotion from the Scottish Championship to the Scottish Premiership, joining Dundee in the top tier for the 2014/15 season. Because of 2013’s launch of the Scottish Professional Football League and the restructuring of the Scottish league system, the Accies, who came in just behind Dundee in the Scottish Championship, had another opportunity for promotion by competing in several playoff rounds. There, they faced the Scottish Premiership‘s Hibernian in the second leg of their playoff schedule, playing away at Easter Road with a 0-2 deficit for which they had to make up in order to gain promotion. The Accies performed brilliantly, leading 1-0 at half time and adding a second goal in the 90th minute. After extra time, the score remained 2-0, leaving an aggregate score of 2-2 over two matches, forcing a penalty shootout. In the end, the Hamiltonians were victorious, sending Hibs down to the Scottish Championship and gaining promotion to the top tier for yet another shot at the top tier since their consecutive promotions and relegations in 2008 and 2011, respectively. The Accies’ stay in the top tier would last until the end of the 2020/21 season, when the club finished at the bottom of the table and were relegated to the Scottish Championship.

The Hamilton Academical kit did not feature a badge until 1979, when the current badge was introduced. This badge features a shield with three white cinquefoils derived from the Clan Hamilton coat of arms. The shield is encircled by a ring with the club’s name and founding date. For my redesign, I’ve drawn heavily from the original crest of Hamilton Academy, creating a minimalist ‘HA’ monogram within a shield, topped with a singular white cinquefoil.

I went with the Accies’ classic red and white hoops (used for most home shirts from at least 1876) for the home top and a historical and [an unintentional, though admittedly Inter Milan-esque] black and blue-striped away top. The away strip and both pairs of shorts feature the ‘HA’ monogram alone.

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

SPFL Championship

ReBrand: SPFL

ReBrand: Ayr United FC

ReBrand: Arbroath FC

ReBrand: Queen of the South FC

ReBrand: Inverness CT FC

ReBrand: Greenock Morton FC

ReBrand: Falkirk FC

ReBrand: Dunfermline Athletic FC

ReBrand: Kilmarnock FC

ReBrand: Hamilton Academical FC