ReBrand: Bonnyrigg Rose AFC

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The Midlothian town of Bonnyrigg was first home to a club called Bonnyrigg Swifts, who were established in 1874. The Swifts gained the nickname ‘the Rose’ and in 1881, a new club, Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic Football Club, was born of the Swifts. For the vast majority of their history, the Rose competed as a junior side, having won the Scottish Junior Cup on two occasions: 1966 and 1978.

In the twentieth century, the Rose joined the Scottish Junior Football East Region Super League and were crowned league champions on four occasions (2008/09, 2011/12, 2015/16 and 2017/18), making them the most successful side in the league’s history. With each Super League championship, the Rose qualified for the first preliminary round of the Scottish Cup. Their most successful outing took place in the 2016/17 competition. Having defeated Glasgow University and Burntisland Shipyard (the latter result of 14-0 being the competitions largest margin of victory since 1984, when Stirling Albion dealt Selkirk a 20-0 dismantling), the Rose proceded to the first round proper of the Scottish Cup. There, they defeated Highland League side Turriff United 4-1 in a replay. In the second round, the Rose faced and defeated another Highland League outfit, Cove Rangers.

By the third round, the Rose and Beith were the only junior sides remaining in the competition. There, they issued a shock defeat against SPFL side Dumbarton in a replay at Dumbarton’s home ground. The rose proceeded to the fourth round as the only remaining junior side, though their draw would prove too great a challenge. Playing at Hearts‘ home ground of Tynecastle, the Rose lost 1-8 against cup-holders Hibernian in January 2017 and exited the tournament.

After their 2017/18 season, the Rose joined the East of Scotland Football League and in their inaugural season, won their conference (B) and qualified for the league’s championship playoff. They competed against other conference winners, Penicuik Athletic (Conference A winners) and Broxburn Athletic (Conference C winners) in order to gain the prize of promotion to the Lowland Football League. Ultimately, the Rose defeated both of their opponents and on 14 June 2019, Bonnyrigg Rose gained admittance into the Scottish Football Association.

The Rose went from strength to strength in the Lowland League, finishing second-top in their inaugural season and third in 2020/21. The 2021/22 season proved to be Bonnyrigg’s finest, finishing with 28 wins, three draws and three losses, enough to secure their place as Lowland League champions and gaining a spot against Highland League champions Fraserburgh in the first round of the SPFL League Two play-off. The Rose prevailed 3-2 on aggregate, setting them up for a two-leg play-off against League Two bottom-dwellers, Cowdenbeath. Bonnyrigg defeated Cowdenbeath 4-0 over two legs and entered the SPFL for the 2022/23 season.

I’m going to come out and say it – I don’t like the current Bonnyrigg Rose badge. I find the club’s name to crammed together (it doesn’t even reflect the club’s actual name: Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic Football Club). Additionally, the typeface differs from that used in the club’s year of foundation. I also find the other features (the rose and the footballs) jarring. But this is the badge of a junior side and I’ve seen worse. Still, the Rose have climbed the ladder in phenomenal fashion and are now part of the Lowland League. Therefore, a redesign is in order. My design is simple and clean, incorporating a stylised (and more symmetrical) rose and opting to remove the footballs.

Bonnyrigg Rose’s home kits have long featured red and white hoops. For these kits, I have decided to borrow from the schemes for both the home and away kits of the 2018/19 season.

ReBrand: Kelty Hearts FC

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Kelty Hearts Football Club was established as an amateur side in 1975. After the 1978/79 season, five of the club’s players were signed by Halbeath Juniors, prompting the amateurs to become a junior side in order to remain competitive. In June 1980, the club was accepted into the Scottish Junior Football Association, where they competed for the better part of the next three decades.

During their time as a junior side, the Hearts reached the Scottish Junior Cup final twice, in 1999 and in 2007, though finished as runners up on both occasions. By the 2010s, the club was looking more dominant in the East Region Super League, winning the league in 2015 and 2017. After their second league victory, Kelty Hearts applied for admission into the Scottish Football Association, which was granted in December 2017.

The club entered the East of Scotland Football League in 2018 and finished at the top of the table that same season. As EoSFL champions, the Hearts played Threave Rovers for a chance at gaining another promotion. Over two legs, the Hearts dominated the Rovers, amassing a comprehensive 10-0 aggregate score to seal their entry into the Lowland Football League.

Kelty’s success continued in the Lowland League, placing third in their inaugural season (behind East Kilbride and BSC Glasgow, in first and second place, respectively). They topped the table in both of the curtailed (as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic) 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. Because of the pandemic, neither the Highland nor Lowland League champions were given the chance to compete for promotion into the SPFL in the 2019-20 season. Despite having only played 13 matches in the 2020-21 season, Kelty were given the opportunity to play Brora Rangers, the Highland League champions, who they defeated 6-1 over two legs. Kelty then faced SPFL League Two bottom side, Brechin City. With their 3-1 victory over Brechin over two legs, Kelty gained promotion to the SPFL for the first time in their history and will compete in League Two for the 2021-22 season.

The current Kelty Hearts badge is quite a sight to behold. I imagine, judging from the design, that this badge has been used since the 1970s. While I admire its uniqueness, with the text set on straight lines within a circle, there is very little design coherence. All four linear elements — the heart, the club name, the date and football and the ‘F.C.’ banner — utilise completely different styles. In order to bring them into some sort of unity, I decided to incorporate each element within a new circular badge.

Both the home and away kits make use of the traditional Kelty Hearts colours and have been inspired by 1970s kit styles.

ReBrand: Cove Rangers FC

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Cove Rangers Football Club was established in 1922. The club takes its name from Cove Bay, located in the southeastern corner of the city of Aberdeen, in which they play.

In 1947, the club became a founding member of the Aberdeen Amateur Football Association. That season, Cove Rangers won the first of their 11 amateur championships. In 1948, they began to play at Allen Park. Among them, their highlight came in the 1964/65 season, when the club went unbeaten in the league.

Cove Rangers competed as amateurs until 1985, when they became a junior side. The following season, they became a senior side and joined the Highland Football League. By the 1990s, Cove Rangers began to rack up local silverware and in 2001, they won the first of their six Highland League championships. In 2016, in order to comply with SPFL regulations, the club relocated from Allen Park to their new Balmoral Stadium ground.

The club continued their dominance of the Highland League, finishing at the top of the table over two consecutive seasons between 2017 and 2019. After being crowned league champions at the end of the 2017/18 season, Cove Rangers secured an SPFL promotion playoff by defeating the Lowland League champions Spartans. Ultimately, Cove Rangers lost 3-2 to Cowdenbeath over two legs to remain in the Highland League. The club remained competitive and secured another SPFL promotion playoff the following season with a 5-1 aggregate victory over Lowland League champions East Kilbride over two legs. This time, Cove Rangers faced Berwick Rangers. The Aberdeen side dominated Berwick, winning 0-7 over two legs and gaining promotion into the bottom tier of the SPFL for the 2019/20 season.

In redesigning the Cove Rangers badge, I wanted to call back to the early twentieth century. I was unconvinced by the olive branches encircling a griffin rampant and decided on a stylised monogram. After first illustrating the ‘C’, I realised that the ends of the legs resembled boots and decided to place a circle, representing a football, between them.

For the home kit, I was inspired by the Cove home kit from the 1982/83 season. The layout of the away kit is also inspired by a Cove home kit from the 1980s – that used in the 1986/87 season.

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.

Kingdom of Fife Football

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Building on my SPFL badge redesigns, I’ve made a wee map of Fife with the new badges and some club information.

ReBrand: Stirling Albion FC

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Stirling Albion Football Club was established in 1945. The club’s formation was tied closely to the end of the Second World War and the dissolution of an earlier Stirling-based club, King’s Park FC (1875). King’s Park were members of the Scottish Football League from 1931 until 1939. In 1940, their home ground, Forthbank Park, was bombed by the Luftwaffe and King’s Park never played again.

After the war, coal magnate and former managing director of King’s Park, Tom Fergusson, purchased the Annfield Estate in Stirling, developing the site as a new football ground and establishing a new football club, Stirling Albion. This new club was accepted into the Scottish Football League for the 1946/47 season and has remained there ever since.

For the first two decades of their existence, Stirling Albion hopped between the top and second tiers, earning the unfortunate nickname, ‘the Yo-Yos’. The club has never soared to especially great heights, their best finish being 12th in the top tier in the 1958/59 season. To date, the 1967/68 season was Stirling Albion’s last spell in top flight football.

The club’s first badge consisted of a rendering of the Stirling coat of arms, composed primarily of a Saltire and lion rampant within a shield. This badge was used from 1961 until 1964. In 1966, Stirling Albion became the first British club to tour Japan. During this tour, a new badge was designed for the club’s blazers. Annfield House, the club’s offices and changing rooms, formed the centrepiece of this badge. Rather humorously, this badge also featured a yo-yo running through its centre. In 1987, the club began to use this badge on their kits.

In 1993, the club left Annfield for a new stadium, called Forthbank after King’s Park FC’s Forthbank Park. The badge featuring Annfield House remained until 2000, when the current badge was chosen as its replacement. The centrepiece of this badge consists of the National Wallace Monument atop Abbey Craig, with the Ochil Hills in the background.

Although the Wallace Monument is a striking structure, being neither ancient (built between 1861 and 1869) nor very central, I find its inclusion to be relatively unrepresentative of both Stirling and the football club. I opted to stay away from a depiction of an architectural landmark and instead, I designed a modern monogram of the club’s initials. The wide-set ‘A’ resembles a set of goals, while the ‘S’ cradles a football into the net (or is it being saved by the keeper?). I decided to keep the red and black colour scheme of the current badge, though, on my kit renderings, the monogram is displayed in one colour.

The home kit is inspired by the classic Stirling Albion home kits from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, particularly the home kit from the 1964/65 season. The away kit is inspired primarily by the handsome Macron 2015/16 away kit. On this kit, the monogram is presented in yellow on the dark blue field.

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

ReBrand: Queen’s Park FC

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Queen’s Park Football Club was established in 1867, making it the oldest football club in Scotland. It can be argued that no single club has had such an influence on the game of football in Britain—and in turn, the world—than Queen’s Park. They invented the passing game (as opposed to the tactic of a ‘rolling-maul’ like that used in rugby, the primary tactic employed by all other football clubs of this early era), as well as the crossbar on goals, the half-time interval and free kicks.

Having been established in 1871, the [English] Football Association Cup competition predates the Scottish Cup by two years. In these early years, Queen’s Park was invited to participate in the FA Cup and reached the final in 1883/84 and 1884/85, losing to Blackburn Rovers in both. Although other Scottish clubs were invited to participate in early editions of the FA Cup (including Cowlairs, Hearts, Partick Thistle, Rangers, Renton and Third Lanark ), Queen’s Park are the only Scottish club to have ever played in the final.

In Scotland, Queen’s Park won the first three Scottish Cup finals and had amassed ten Scottish Cup final victories between 1873 and 1893. The club’s record would only be surpassed by Celtic in 1922/23 and Rangers in 1935/36. This means that, despite not having won the competition for 125 years, Queen’s Park remain in the third position for all-time Scottish Cup victories.

Another distinguishing feature of this historic club is the fact that Queen’s Park was, until November 2019, an amateur side, reflected in the club’s Latin motto, Ludere causa ludendi, ‘To play for the sake of playing’. So committed had Queen’s Park been to retaining their amateur ideals, that they resisted joining the Scottish Football League when it formed in 1890. Eventually, in 1900, Queen’s Park applied for membership into the SFL and were admitted directly to the top tier. But that season saw Queen’s Park beaten by Celtic in the Scottish Cup final, heralding the end of the amateurs’ dominance of Scottish football.

The Queen’s Park kit did not feature a regular badge until 1928, which has more-or-less remained the same ever since. This badge is heraldic in nature, featuring a black and white hooped shield (reminiscent of the iconic Queen’s Park home shirt, from which their nickname, ‘the Spiders’, is derived) tilted anti-clockwise. The shield is topped by a helmet, from which emerges mantling, a torse and a crest of a lion rampant in red. The club motto is displayed on a scroll beneath the shield.

Given the club’s illustrious history, I found the Spiders’ badge one of the most difficult to redesign. Being that they are the oldest club in Scotland, I found it essential to include the year of their formation, as well as the club’s initials and the Latin motto. I have included all of these features in a typeface of my own design, inspired by the script in several medieval illuminated manuscripts. As a centrepiece, I have included an illustration of a Victorian era football.

Both of the kit redesigns are based on historic Queen’s Park kits. The home kit features the club’s traditional tight black and white hoops (in use since 1873). In particular, this kit is inspired by the 1927/28 home kit and variations on said kit used until 1960. The away kit is inspired primarily by the home kit worn from 1872 to 1873, with dark blue and white hooped socks. This similar dark blue and grey colour scheme was also used in the home kit between 2016 and 2018 to commemorate the club’s 150th anniversary.

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

ReBrand: Peterhead FC

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Peterhead Football Club was established in 1891 by a number of local football enthusiasts. The passion of this young club caught the attention of the town’s Feuars Managers and a plot of land was gifted to the club within Peterhead’s Raemoss Park. Recreation Park, as it this original home ground was called, opened that same year. Although the stage was set for competition, Peterhead would have to wait until their admittance into the small Aberdeenshire Football Association (consisting of only six sides) in 1900 before playing competitive football.

In 1931, Peterhead would join the larger Highland Football League, where they would be crowned champions three times in four seasons (1946/47, 1948/49, 1949/50) and then twice more, in 1988/89 and 1998/99. The club also won the Highland League Cup on five occasions (1962/63, 1965/66, 1967/68, 1980/81 and 1988/89).

After competing for over a century as a non-league side, Peterhead would gain admittance into the Scottish Football League in 2000. Their application was aided by their relocation to Balmoor in 1997.

In 2013/14, Peterhead topped the Scottish League Two table, gaining promotion to League One. Their stay in League One lasted only three seasons, though they came close to returning to the third tier after finishing second in the 2017/18 League Two season. This led to a play-off, in which the club was defeated by fellow League Two side, Stenhousemuir over two legs, despite the latter having finished the season 22 points behind Peterhead. Undeterred, Peterhead returned to the third tier after winning League Two in the 2018/19 season.

Peterhead adopted their nickname ‘the Blue Toon’, from their town, which itself probably comes from the fact that the historical fishermen of the port town were known for wearing blue worsted stockings. Accordingly, blue has been Peterhead FC’s primary colour since their early days.

The club’s kit first featured a badge in 1947. This badge consisted of the club’s ‘PFC’ initials within a shield and was used for one season before being revived during the early 1960s. Several variations of the club’s initials appeared on their kits at various points in the 1980s.

In 1989, when Peterhead won the Highland League title (their first such honour since 1950), the club adopted a new badge to celebrate the achievement. This badge featured of a version of the Peterhead coat of arms. In 1993, the club became a limited company and adopted their current badge. This badge consists of a downward-pointing triangle with a wavy top, representing the sea. Within the triangle is an illustration of a football and a fish—the fish representing the town’s fishing industry—superimposed over a net. The badge also features an outer ring and the club’s nickname.

For my redesign, I wanted to create something more unified and balanced than the current badge. I decided to omit the triangle so as to avoid any resemblance to the much older Dunfermline Athletic badge. I illustrated a new football, encircled by two haddock fishes for the centrepiece of the badge. I also included blue and white waves to represent the sea.

For Peterhead’s home shirt, I employed a blue and white colour scheme, with the waves on the body of the kit echoing the waves in the badge. The home socks are all blue, calling back to the blue worsted stockings from which the Blue Toon gets its nickname. The away shirt colour scheme of red, white and black is taken from many historical Peterhead away strips.

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

ReBrand: Elgin City FC

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Elgin City Football Club was established when two Elgin-based clubs, Rovers FC (1887) and Vale of Lossie FC (1888) united in 1893. For more than a century, the club competed in the Highland Football League, amassing a number of regional honours.

In the 1967/68 Scottish Cup, Elgin City defeated Albion Rovers, Tarff Rovers, Forfar Athletic and Arbroath to teach the quarter-final. Their opponents, Greenock Morton proved too strong for the Highland League outfit and Elgin City left the tournament after a 2-1 loss. No other Highland League club, before or since, has progressed as far in the Scottish Cup.

In 2000, the Scottish Premier League (the top tier in Scottish football at the time) expanded from 10 to 12 clubs, opening the door for the admittance of two new clubs into the bottom tier of the Scottish Football League. Elgin City, along with fellow Highland Leaguers Peterhead, were successful in their application and have competed in the SFL (and subsequent Scottish Professional Football League) ever since.

Throughout the vast majority of the club’s history, Elgin City’s home shirt has consisted of black and white vertical stripes. It was not until 1990 that the kit featured a badge, which is still used today. This badge, a rendering of the coat of arms of the city and royal burgh of Elgin, features the patron saint of Elgin, St Giles, supported by two angels and bears the motto, Sic itur ad astra (Latin for ‘Thus one goes to the stars’ or ‘Such is the way to immortality’, from Virgil’s Aeneid, IX). The angels and motto refer to the legend that at his death, St Giles was brought by angels to heaven.

Despite the conceptual strength of the current badge, I find its execution lacking. While I admire the strength of a minimalist depiction of figures within a badge, I wanted to add more details so as to better resemble traditional depictions of the Elgin coat of arms and to create more depth.

As I wished to include the fine Latin motto, I did away with the shield (so as to avoid conflict with the ancient Scottish heraldic law forbidding the use of lettering within shields that are not approved by the Court of the Lord Lyon) as well as the stone compartment in which the motto was written in the original badge. I placed this redesign within a circular badge and added a football to occupy the negative space above the shield bearing St Giles. The dominant colours of the redesigned badge (red and white) are in line with the specified colours of the Elgin coat of arms, which are taken from the traditional colours of the Moray region.

Both kit redesigns make use of traditional Elgin City colours. The home kit redesign is inspired primarily by the Elgin City kit used from 1991 to 1993.

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

ReBrand: FC Edinburgh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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design & illustration

SPFL

ReBrand: Bonnyrigg Rose AFC

ReBrand: Kelty Hearts FC

ReBrand: Cove Rangers FC

ReBrand: SPFL

Kingdom of Fife Football

ReBrand: Stirling Albion FC

ReBrand: Queen’s Park FC

ReBrand: Peterhead FC

ReBrand: Elgin City FC

ReBrand: FC Edinburgh