Manchester City Football Club has had three club crests since the 1930s.

In 1997, the club discovered that its existing crest was ineligible for trademark registration, and so introduced a new crest in the shape of an eagle. However, the new 1997 crest was derided by fans, who felt that it did not reflect the club’s proud history.

We were appointed to lead a 30-day consultation process with the club’s ‘Cityzens’ supporters, to discuss the redesign of the club’s badge and to seek opinions on what elements of the badge were considered to be the most authentic symbols of the club.

The consultation process revealed resounding support for the evolution of the club crest, with fans keen to revert to the historical round shape that had graced City’s shirts from the 1930s until 1997.

Each of the iconic elements were re-drawn in a consistent and contemporary style, to ensure that the crest could be reproduced at any scale. The ship was modified to offer a more accurate representation of a ship in full-sail, while the three rivers were placed on a 40-degree angle to align with the shield’s centre point. The shield breaks the circle to offer more depth and impact, while a double-outer-key-line safeguards the crest’s legibility.

The colour palette echoes the Club's traditional colours, however, we also added a second, darker shade of gold to offer definition. A mono version was also created for single-colour applications, to ensure the same balance, legibility and prestige of the full colour version.

A key requirement was to ensure that the words ‘Manchester’ and ‘City’ were prominent in the final crest; the word ‘City’ was therefore left un-curved to avoid negatively impacting its graphic prominence.