2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

We wanted to reinforce Manchester City's reputation as "the people's club" - creating a contemporary crest that reflected the club's proud history, resonated with fans, and embodied the spirit of Manchester. We actively involved the club's fans from the outset, asking them which symbols they felt best captured the culture of the club and the spirit of the city. This process revealed that the vast majority of fans were keen to revert to the crest's historical round shape, and also identified a series of iconic symbols that they wanted to see incorporated: a ship (in reference to the Manchester Ship Canal), three rivers (in reference to the Irwell, Irk and Medlock rivers), and the red rose of Lancashire. We also recommended that - for the first time - the Club should include the year of its foundation (1894) as a nod to its rich history within the Manchester community.

Creative Execution

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.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The new crest is lauded as a ‘modern original’, and has won universal praise from fans, players and key stakeholders alike. It was even described as “proper” by music legend, Noel Gallagher (high praise, indeed, from a Mancunian!). The crest has been applied throughout City’s Etihad Campus, with more than 1500 seatbacks replaced at the Etihad Stadium in preparation for the 2016/17 season, and across the club’s global network. More than 5000 items featuring the new crest have been produced to-date. It has even been projected onto Manchester Town Hall and applied to a specially-branded Etihad plane!

We led 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. Thousands of fans completed a formal questionnaire, either at one of the club’s home games or via the club’s website, while a dedicated consultation office was also established at the Etihad stadium. A series of free lectures, provided by football historian Gary James, offered fans more information on the history of the club’s crest. The consultation process revealed resounding support for the evolution of the crest, and also identified a series of iconic symbols that fans wanted to see incorporated. We then researched each of the shortlisted elements, studying their use in previous club crests and the City of Manchester's coat of arms, before starting the creative design process.