An Introduction to the Design World Of Football

Football design is largely rooted in heraldry. Heraldry is an ancient form of design that assigned distinguishing marks to people and places. These marks were displayed on coats of arms, as a unique identifier of the person or place. In other places in the world, different styles and rules were used, but the basis was the same. A particular design or symbol identified a particular person or place. 

Then football came along. From the earliest days of the game, heraldry was incorporated into the design. Teams often took their inspiration from their local heraldry, using the coat of arms of their city or region as their logo to identify their team. This is still one of the essential parts of football design, even the most modern crests are rooted in the basics of heraldry. Many teams still use traditional shield shapes, and some have even kept the supporters of the shield, usually animals. The design of the crests is still meant to uniquely identify the team and, by extension, the region it comes from. 

Kits also reflect the same principles. Many teams have iconic kits that can be used to quickly and easily distinguish that particular team. Can you imagine Arsenal without the white sleeves? River Plate without the red slash? Celtic without the green and white hoops? Any of these are unthinkable. The kit can be another strong identifier of the team. However, many teams change their kits often, which can cause equal amounts of goodwill and derision for the team, depending on if the design is well done or not.

This blog is both a celebration of design in the football world, and a critical view. Currently, we only have plans to cover kits and crests. The reasons for the name "The Beautiful Game" should be fairly obvious by now, if you haven't already figured it out. We think it's quite clever, but we are also very easily amused. As designers, we are not necessarily the best writers, but we will try our best to make informative and interesting posts. 


There is definitely some leeway for debate about design, as it is not an exact science. There is no one right answer, but there are definitely wrong ones. Different people will understandably come to different conclusions. We have very definite opinions, and are not afraid to let them fly. 


We are currently preparing our next post, an analysis of the current English Premier League Crests. Also, updating the design of the site is a current priority, as a basic template will earn us no style points. But first, we wanted a little content, just in case anyone happens to stumble across this.