Rebranding the Eagles

Rebranding the Eagles: The Importance of Brand Identity and Effective Brand Management of a Football Club Effectively refreshing a long standing and high profile identity, for one of the most critical target audiences

By Stuart McAdam

Notes: This publication has been produced for educational purposes only, there is no intention to publish or profit from this report. All images are property of their respective owners. All designs by fans have been attributed to their respective owners.

All offical club logo’s, designs and materials are the interlectual property of Crystal Palace FC. Researched, written and designed by Stuart McAdam.

BA (Hons) Graphic Design for Communication, London College of Communication.

MCA10307990

Contents Abstract Introduction The Importance of Brand Identity and Effective Brand Management of Football Clubs Case Study: Crystal Palace FC Crystal Palace FC: A Brief History Announcement, First Designs and Reaction The Power of the Fan Controversey Secondary Designs A New Era Co-Design Conclusion

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Abstract This report examines the importance of brand identity and effective brand management in football, with a particular focus on the recent rebrand of Crystal Palace FC; a South London football club currently playing in the Barclays Premier League.

The report looks at the process and methods employed

by Crystal Palace FC to reach such a successful outcome, particularly the concept of co-design.

Keywords: Branding, identity, brand management, football, business, co-design, graphic communication, sport.

Crystal Palace supporters ‘tifo’ display against Spurs 4

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Introduction The aim of this report is to examine the importance of brand identity and effective brand management in regards to football clubs, as well as investigating the process of refreshing a long standing and high profile identity in the world of competitive sport, in particular the increasingly high value market of football where there is potential for expansion and profit for some owners. A prime example of the potential for large windfall of revenue is promotion to the Barclays Premier League (BPL), which according to FCBusiness; the business magazine for the football industry, was this year worth an estimated ÂŁ120million, largely courtesy of the unprecedented television revenue for the 2013/2014 season. Over the past few decades football clubs have increasingly being seen as profit making entities similar to any other form of business, but with a difference, their target audience is more often than not tribal and fiercely loyal, with choices being made upon which tribe early in life, usually under the guidance of a close friend or family member. History dictates that clubs gain fans through sustained success at the highest level, which over the years has continued to provide more and more exposure to emerging markets such as Asia and the Middle East, with Manchester United widely regarded as a textbook example.

the current owners CPFC2010, who are considerably active and open to discussion.This resource was key to the research involved in developing this report, providing a great deal of insight into the involvement from the fans.

As a fan myself I had a special interest and followed the process closely, I agreed with the decision by the owners (CPFC2010); a consortium of businessmen who are actually fans of the club (a rarity in the current landscape of the game), to adopt a new crest to mark a new era of ownership after turbulent few decades, including two periods of administration; one as recent as 2010 where by the club was hours from going out of business. My one concern was that the new design would be tasked to someone with no connection to the club, and even more so, little understanding of the challenging target audience.

The research in this report is comprised of online forum dialogue and poll statistics (CPFC.org and Holmesdale.net) as well as web articles from a variety of sources. There is also some primary research from a questionnaire that was distributed to three key participants involved in the process.

This report is centred on the recent rebrand of Crystal Palace FC or more often than not the ‘Eagles’, a Barclays Premier League club situated in South London. It will focus on the innovative Co-Design process that manifested itself during the project, including the involvement of the key stakeholders in the club, the fans, at multiple stages. One key element in enabling the involvement of the fans was an online fans forum, CPFC.org. The site not only enables discussion about routine subjects such as team news and transfer discussion, it also acts as a place where fans can submit questions and suggestions to 7

The Importance of Brand Identity and Effective Brand Management of Football Clubs A good starting point for beginning to explore the power of branding in football is Brand Finance’s yearly report, which highlights the 50 most valuable football brands from around the globe. Clubs brand values are calculated by defining the brand as the trademark and associated intellectual property.

Football clubs are made up of a mixture of fixed tangible assets (stadium, training ground) and disclosed intangible assets (purchased players) with brand value, internally developed players & goodwill making up the difference to provide the combined clubs value. As well as brand value the clubs are also given a rating which is aimed at defining the strength of brand in the current global market, this method is essentially not to dissimilar to the way that banks are rated on their strength in current global market climates (See Moody’s).

Brand Finance have produced a yearly report focusing on brands in football since 2008 with data ranging back to 2005, providing a extremely valuable insight into the increasingly heady heights of the burgeoning football market amongst the top leagues in the world. For example when the first report was released in 2008, the leaders at the time were Real Madrid with a brand value of $537million, which had increased from £398million in 2005. The most recent report released on the 28th of May 2013 puts Real Madrid’s current brand value at $621million but both Manchester United and Bayern Munich have eclipsed this with $837million and $860million respectively. Even from this relatively quick analysis its clear that the brand value of the worlds top football clubs has exploded over the past 8 years, this can be put down to the increasingly global reach of the top 5 leagues thanks largely to television rights being sold to each and every corner of the world. A prime example of the reach of one of these leagues is the English Barclays Premier League, often described as the worlds ‘most watched league’, which is broadcast in 212 territories around the world working with a grand total of 80 different broadcasters, reaching more than 4.7billion people worldwide (Annual Review of Football Finance 2013, Deloitte). Modern technology and progression on a global scale has accelerated the development of this kind of network as well as a shrewd expansion plan being executed by the Premier League itself, whereby rights are being sold at accessible, competitive prices to certain markets in the attempt to maximize profit margins (Owen Gibson, 2012.

Premier League continues to maximize TV revenue on a global scale).

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The cover of Brand Finance’s report for 2013

Edward Freedman with Lionel Messi

Football is now more of a business than ever, with increasingly ludicrous amounts of money being exchanged for the services of players in the form of transfers, wages and agents fees.

Financial incentives in every area of the sport at the top level are now astronomical; this dictates that business principal must be applied both in the business management sector but also equally importantly, the creative sector. Branding and in particular merchandizing play a huge role in maximizing revenue streams, having an identity that people (in particular the fans) like so much that they will happily pay to attach themselves to it, by purchasing all kinds of products from casual wear to coffee mugs.The tribal nature of football means that the target audience for these products is usually relatively small in comparison to that of global designer brands, but in some cases clubs with a rich heritage who continue to compete at the highest level (Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester United etc) have managed to monetize their brand with great success.

A key figure in the branding and merchandising side of football is Edward Freedman who became head of merchandizing at Manchester United in 1992 after a hugely successful tenure as the managing director of merchandising at Tottenham Hotspur FC. At that point in time Tottenham Hotspur had the highest merchandising turnover in England, 50% above that of Manchester United. Freedman quickly ascertained that United’s brand was so strong that people would pay to attach themselves to it, the main factor of which was United’s incredible record in the newly conceived Premier League at the time, which happened to coincide with Freedman’s tenure at the club, and still continues to this day. A vast range of merchandise was promptly developed – everything from baby grows to lighters, even a credit card, all showcased in a club megastore at Old Trafford and available via mail order through a catalogue, this transformed the merchandising operation, taking it from a turnover of £1.2million to £28million in 5 years. Under the guidance of Freedman United became the

most powerful brand in world football at a very promising moment in time, their inclusion in the Premier League meant a prime cut of television rights and a great deal of exposure, this coupled with the success on the pitch provided United with the perfect platform from which to launch their plan of the domination of the football world (Worldventures.co.uk).

The most important form of merchandise for any football club is of course the team kit, being the most visible uniform of the club they are eagerly awaited by many a fan both young and old.The next season’s kits are typically previewed towards the last few games of the current season to varying amounts of fan fare depending on the size of the club, and released during the summer off-season.

The shirt in particular is the focal point of any clubs merchandise, so much so that sponsors will pay millions of pounds to have their logo situated on it’s front. A prime example once again being United who recently signed a deal with American car giant Chevrolet worth an estimated £44.5million a season over a period of seven years, with the overall total value thought to be in the region of £357million (Mirror.co.uk, 2012. Va va vroom! United’s shirt deal with Chevy is worth £357m). This record breaking deal smashed the previous record set by Barcelona’s £25million a year deal with the Qatar Foundation (Paul Kelso, 2010. Barcelona sell shirt sponsorship for the first time as Qatar Foundation £125m to share space with Unicef), making it the most expensive kit sponsorship in the world. The sheer size of the deal is even more apparent after looking at United’s recent history of shirt sponsorship, in 2006 Vodafone were reportedly paying £8million a year to have their logo emblazoned on United’s shirts, this was then replaced with a £14million a year deal with financial-services firm AIG which ran until 2010, when Aon took over at a starting point of £19.6million per season; eventually thought to increase to £25million.

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Cristiano Ronaldo, in the colors of Real Madrid The excitement of a marquee signing can often provide an explosion in shirt sales, with every man and his dog wanting the new star players name on the backs of their new shirt.

Recently Arsenal reported an enormous spike in replica shirt sale after their record signing of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, with sales of shirts via the clubs online store 12 times than usual (Jack Lang, 2013. Arsenal shirt sales go through the roof).

Perhaps the most pertinent example being Real Madrid’s once world record signing of Cristiano Ronaldo for £80million, which the clubs president Florentino Perez claimed would be made back through shirt sales and merchandising. Sure enough the club announced no less than a year later that they had made £90million off the back of shirts sales and other memorabilia, which included 1.2million shirt sales in Madrid alone (Sean Smith, 2013. How can Real Madrid afford Gareth Bale?). This was no fluke as Perez had overseen the same process in 2003 with the signing of another ‘Galactico’ by the name of David Beckham for £35.1million which proved to be even better value for money, since then Beckham has gone on to sell an estimated £1billion worth of replica shirts and can now be considered as a brand himself (The Economist, 2004).

Another area of revenue with regards to the kits is the supplier who will pay teams to wear their brand of kit; this sector is comprised of companies like Nike, Adidas and Puma.

A recent example of this is Liverpool FC’s new kit deal with Warrior; a new entrant into the market, owned by New Balance, thought to be worth £150million over the next 6 seasons. This deal also allows Liverpool to control all nonbranded merchandising; products outside the usual kit range, and are free to open club stores wherever they choose. That was not the case under Adidas, who controlled Liverpool’s kit supply and the sale of non-branded merchandise. Due to this new agreement, Liverpool believe they could as much as double the £25million a year they receive by developing a range of non-branded merchandise to be sold online and in stores (Andy Hunter, 2012. Liverpool expect to earn £300m from new deal with Warrior Sports)

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David Beckham signing for Real Madrid in 2003

The Emirate Stadium, home of Arsenal Assets like the stadium and training ground can also draw in a considerable amount of revenue through sponsorship and more recently even naming rights. This is a relatively new practice in Europe and football in general but has been common practice among the many competitive sports franchises of North America and Canada for sometime, with deals worth upwards of $100million typically lasting 20 years or more.Arsenal were the first team in the UK to capitalize on this form of sponsorship, cutting a deal with Emirates Airlines reported to be worth over ÂŁ100million (Jennifer Whitehead, 2004. Arsenal name ground Emirates Stadium in ÂŁ100m deal). As well as all these highly visible avenues of sponsorship there is a multitude of less valuable partnership deals involving program space, billboards and even official timepiece and credit card sponsors.

communicate with their target audience, the fans. In a time when football is becoming more and more about money and business dealings there is a risk of alienating fans, not just with high ticket prices, poor communication and facilities, but also increasingly dictatorial owners who see clubs as play toys to do with what they want.

The value of all these deals depends on the strength of the brand which thus determines how much a company, a person and even another brand is prepared to pay to attach themselves to it. The strength of a football clubs brand lies in many factors including location, heritage, performance, assets and its ability to communicate with the target audience.

The most obvious of these is performance, which can be translated on the pitch to league positioning, tournament success and style of play. The clubs performance off the pitch also has a direct impact on the brand; the main concerns here are managerial appointments, player signings and general decision-making and club conduct. Heritage plays an important role any brand and it’s no different with that of a football club, past success at the highest level has been a key foundation to all of the strongest football brands in the world.

The exposure from these moments in the spotlight past and present entice people to buy into the brand, thus spawning a new generation of fans around the country or even the world, this is becoming increasingly prevalent due to the wide reach of the worlds biggest leagues.

Arguably the most overlooked of all the defining factors in the strength of a football clubs brand is the ability to 11

Crystal Palace’s ‘Ultra’ supporters, The Holmesdale Fanatics 12

Case Study:

Crystal Palace FC The following case study explores the process of Crystal Palace FC’s recent rebrand, the reason it had to happen and the reaction. The sources for this case study consist mainly of forum dialogue on CPFC.org and Holmesdale.net, as well as an abundance of web articles pertaining to each stage of the process over a number of years. The study also includes a list of interview questions, which were sent to the three main protagonists Dan Mulchay – the fan involved, Robert Deacon – Head Designer at CPFC and Steve Parish – the co-chairman most involved in the process. Unfortunately despite months of attempted communication I was only able to extract any information from was Dan.

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Crystal Palace FC identity timeline, images courtosey of Historicalkits.co.uk 14

The Crystal Palace , destroyed by fire in 1956

Crystal Palace FC: A Brief History Crystal Palace Football Club are an English Premier League football club who were recently promoted from the Football League Championship via the play-offs, after beating arch rivals Brighton in the semi’s and seeing off Watford 1-0 in the final at Wembley. Their home is Selhurst Park, located in the London suburb of South Norwood in the Borough of Croydon.

The history of Crystal Palace F.C can be traced back to very beginning of football, as it is known today. The original Crystal Palace F.C was an amateur club founded in 1861 and was made up of workmen at the Crystal Palace exhibition hall as well as local athletes, public schoolboys and professionals from the surrounding villages of Penge and Sydenham. At this point in time football had no real organization or set rules, but in 1863 representatives from 12 early clubs, including Crystal Palace, met and formed what is now known as the Football Association (FA). When the Football Association debuted FA Cup in 1871 Crystal Palace were one of the original 15 teams that entered, reaching the semi-finals in its inaugural year.

On the 30th of November 1872 Scotland hosted England in the world’s first official international football match, Crystal Palace forward Charles Chereny was in the England team for this historic fixture which ended 0 – 0. The team disappear from historical records after a 0 – 3 defeat to Wanderers in the second round of the 1875-76 FA Cup. However this was only the start of a long-standing association between Crystal Palace and the FA Cup. In 1895 the FA adopted the Crystal Palace as the new permanent home of the final, with the owners of the attraction reliant on tourist activity for their income, they continually sought fresh attractions for the venue, and it did not take long for the idea of forming their own team to play at the ground to occur (Holmesdale.net, 2004. The original Crystal Palace FC 1861-76) The Crystal Palace F.C of today was formed on the 10th of September 1905 under the guidance of Aston Villa assistant

secretary Edmund Goodman. Failing to gain election into The Football League at the time the club instead joined the Southern Football League Second Division, playing home games at The Crystal Palace, inspiration for the clubs initial nickname, ‘The Glaziers’. In 1973 new manager Malcolm Allison sought to drastically alter the image of the club, using his position to end the 68-year association with the claret and blue of Aston Villa in favor of a more eye-catching red and blue now associated with the club as well as changing the clubs nickname from the ‘Glaziers’ to the ‘Eagles’. Allison is still hailed as a club legend for injecting flair and a fresh identity despite being relegated twice in his 3-year stint at Selhurst Park, taking the club from the First Division to the Third. This transformation was followed by a period of sustained success where the club cemented itself in the top two divisions with successive promotions in 1977 and 1979.

Steve Coppell’s tenure from 1989-1991 saw the Eagles finish 3rd in the First Division and narrowly missing out on the FA Cup after an agonizing replay against Manchester United at the old Wembley. Palace became founding members of the Premier League in 1992, but were relegated the same season after failing to win the final game of the season against Arsenal, after a historic set of results, which saw Oldham Athletic snatch Premier League safety from under their noses. For the last two decades the story has been much the same but with added financial strife after two periods of administration in 1999 and 2010, promoted via the play-off’s in both 1997 and 2004 only to be relegated the following season on each occasion, as well as numerous FA and League Cup heartbreaks, and owners. The club was saved from liquidation at the eleventh hour by CPFC2010; a consortium, composed of four wealthy fans (historicalkits.co.uk)

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Three quarters of CPFC2010; Martin Long, Steve Parish and Steve Browett

The Process: Announcement, First Designs and Reaction The idea to rebrand the club was first revealed around October 2010 via Steve Parish’s comments on CPFC.org the most prominent supporters forum. The motivation for change according to Parish was not because of aspirations of a ‘global image’ or ‘brand’, but instead greater appeal with the local population, the current badge at the time was thought to be outdated and not representative of the clubs role in the area. At this time it was suggested the Eagle would stay but representation of the iconic Victorian landmark could go, “It won’t change our heritage, we just won’t have a picture of the building on the logo. We need to be open to new possibilities…they are ideas to be discussed, debated and researched.” Parish was quoted as saying in an article by Five Year Plan – a popular Palace blog “Modernizing the badge may be part of us regaining and rebuilding, and making ourselves more relevant to the fans of today.” He continued (Robert Sutherland, 2010. New Image for new Eagles?). While I am sure that modernization was the primary reason behind the rebrand it may of also had something to do with the previous owner and chairman (and even manager) Ron Noades who implemented the existing design in 1994. Some have suggested that the lack of copyright on the old crest as well as Noades use of it as a logo for his golf clubs could have contributed to the decision that it was time for change. It has also been noted that the old crest was difficult to replicate on club merchandise, especially kits and clothing.

The first design leaked publicly on July the 28th 2011, with the remaining designs following it in an official release on the 4th of August. The initial reaction on two fans forums – CPFC.org and Holmesdale.net, was mixed, tilting somewhat in the favor of negative; one user named doof commented, “They are all horrendous. Please, please, please don’t use any of these!”, another user Lawd Elpus remarked “Well – I can see you want to go for a fresh image – but I’m afraid the designs are too one dimensional – and are meant to portray two very intricate objects. They are far too wishy washy for 16

me – and by the look of how things are shaping up – I’m not a minority.” (CPFC2010, 2011. New Badge) Despite some positive feedback the general consensus was that the new designs were too radical, many users suggested that a more subtle modernization of the current crest - at the time, would be more appropriate. My view at this stage was much the same, if not more critical, I thought the designs were average at best but did consider that these were just to test the water as part of a large process. In my opinion the first designs served their purpose effectively, that purpose was to encourage a reaction from the target audience, which in turn would help the club ascertain what the expectations of the fans were.The overwhelming reaction from this piece of research was that the fans valued the current crest but conceded it had its fair share of shortcomings, many declared that they would rather see an updated more dynamic version of the current crest rather than a completely new concept with little relation to previous iterations. With this valuable insight in the bag the club could now tailor its efforts and really start to focus on exploring avenues of design that were more in tune with the demands of the target audience.

The 4 original designs released on th 4th of August 2011 17

The Power of the Fan As could be expected many a fan has tried to give their take on what the clubs crest should look like in the past and CPFC.org has been a place where fans that fancy themselves as designers can showcase their efforts. Believe it or not this actually became a pivotal point in the design process, in reply to the fans feedback on the forums the board challenged the fans to contribute their designs, one first point of reference was a design from 2007 by a user called kolja51, this set the tone and ignited the creative spark of a fair share of users who began their own efforts.

On the 14th of August - just nine days after the official release of the four preliminary designs, a thread titled ‘New Badge – The best BBS designs here’ created by the user Dodge appeared on CPFC.org, this thread collated what he considered to be the best designs posted on the forums.

Designs from four users were posted – The Omen, kolja51, doof and a9lpc, and there was also a poll posing the question “Based on these designs, do you support a new badge?” The results were;Yes – 59, No – 34 and Moo – 3 (a regular feature on most polls on CPFC.org) As the poll suggests the reaction was largely positive in comparison to the first round of official designs. I believe this can be put down to the substantial focus on the clubs heritage in the four fans designs; this is backed up by the previous reaction encouraging a more evolutionary, rather than revolutionary approach to the ‘modernization’ of the current crest.

The same day CPFC2010 – an account run by the board, posted a thread titled “New Badge” which contained the following I’ve been following the debate closely and before we launched the vote looking at as many of the designs that have been posted, most of them I have seen before and are similar to the options we have.

There is one that I think there is merit in adding to the options.

I think the round design is a very good option, both the shield option and the round option are very easy to use as they have a natural ‘frame’.

I do think we would need to make some changes to the design if it was selected, just minor tweaks but I am minded to add it to the options.

There was no indication given to which member of the board posted this but I suspect it was Steve Parish from my general enquiries into the process.

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kolja51’s original design

Kolja51

The Omen

doof

a9lpc

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Infographic by kolja51 20

Just some of the selection of designs conributed by kolja51

Controversy At this stage some controversy arose, the round design was officially credited to doof but utilized kolja51’s more dynamic Eagle. Despite working closely at points kolja51 was not informed about doof’s appointment as an official collaborator on the project while using elements from his designs.

I just received an email from SP, and I’m not happy that he just informed me that doof is working on the design that will incorporate my work in it. I think I deserved to be asked if I agree, and by the comments from the board I think that I can produce as good if not better work than SP (Steve Parish) would ask me to. Especially since we are talking about my eagle, which is by far the hardest thing to design. Do you think I can’t do circles around it? That someone else had to do it for me? Really disappointed with the whole process. (kolja51, 18/08/11. New Badge) The reaction to this revelation was largely sympathetic to kolja51’s argument, although some users did question his professionalism for taking the issue public.The issue was quickly transferred back into the realms of private communication, but this valuable insight did pose some questions about the organization and execution of the design process.

Discussion and designing on the forum did not stop despite the realization that the fans that designed the most popular crests were now in direct contact with CPFC2010 regarding their work. The body of work was so extensive that kolja51 even produced a visualization documenting the progression of most popular and influential designs.

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Secondary Designs Finally on Monday the 16th of January 2012 the wait was over - six designs were revealed and the voting process began the same day. Mike Sinnerton, a spokesperson for the club said upon the release: The new owners wanted to update and modernize the crest.

The reaction has been mixed, some people like the badge as it is, the tradition of it.

Initially, at the launch of the idea at the start of the season, we had four designs but since then we have added a further two.We hope the fans will get involved in the process. (yourlocalguardian.co.uk, 2012. Crystal Palace reveal possible new badge designs) These comments are interesting considering the fans had been involved ever since the announcement was first made that the club was considering a new crest. If anything the fans had already been involved and almost dictated the process, the club responded by taking the views of the fans onboard and included the ‘round design’ mentioned previously by CPFC2010.

The voting process was open to season ticket holders, members, half-season ticket holders and members of the 6 and 12 game packages. The process consisted of the fan emailing their top 3 preferences out of the 6, as well as their client number to info@cpfc.co.uk. Voting closed on the 30th of January 2012, and it was not until Tuesday the 27th of March 2012 that the fans heard anything, co-chairman Steve Parish revealed in his program notes for that nights game against Doncaster City that “I want to go back to the drawing board and take another look at it.” Parish’s reasoning for this was “We have new kits coming which we’ve worked very hard on and I don’t want anything to undermine the success (or otherwise) of those. Had we changed two things so drastically at once – kit and crest – then I think it would have been hard to gauge the success of both, the last thing I wanted was some king of boycott of the new kits due to the new badge.” Parish also commented “The whole process was very enlightening, it shows how hard it is to move institutions like football clubs forward and to a certain extent how careful once has to be embracing a small, but very vocal section of fans.” (Stephen Bridle, 2012. No goodbye to the old crest just yet) 22

Opposite: The six crests which the fans were asked to vote on

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Tony Pulis

Barry Bannan, Stuart O’Keefe Dwight Gayle (top) Adelene Guedioura (bottom)

A New Era The new crest was finally revealed at the clubs Player of the Year award night on Tuesday the 8th of May along with the next season’s kits, the crest itself was a hybrid of Dan Mulchay (doof) and kolja51’s designs, both of which were heavily influenced by the clubs previous crests and heritage. At the release Steve Parish had this to say about the process;

refreshed identity with open arms – although that could also have something to do with the play-off final victory. A poll posted on CPFC.org posed the simple question “Do you like the new badge or not?” Out of the 639 participants to date, 583 like it, 17 hate it and 39 people opted for not sure yet/ moo, resulting in a 91.24% approval rating (CPFC2010, 2013)

When we put a number of badges to vote a year ago we receive a real cross section of opinion and have take these views on board.

Its not just fans of the club that have been impressed by the outcome, the press, media and football fans from around the world have been quick to praise the new design. The Football Attic; a blog, which runs the tagline – the home to football nostalgia, ran an article showing the evolution of the clubs crest over the years. As well as stating, “In our view, the new badge looks excellent,” the article also ran a poll inviting visitors to vote on their favorite Palace crest over the years.

Out of the seven options the new crest received 47.54% of the vote, with the previous crest garnering only 6.56% of support. Reaction on FootballShirtCulture.com – a website that focus’s on kit and badge designs, was no different with one commenter claiming “The best re-design of a badge for a long long time!!” another declared “Top level crest for a top level team.”

The badge has been designed by one of our supporters, Dan Mulchay, assisted by the designers at CHI&Partners and Robert Deacon in the club’s own design studio. We would like to thank them all, especially Dan, who has worked tirelessly to get this produced.

I see this change as more evolution than revolution, as it was important to keep the heritage of the past.The towers, glass building and eagle have been included, but the badge brought up to date using the latest techniques and design styles, we have also added the year we were founded as this was requested by the fan base.

The crest itself was in the words of Parish “Designed to be able to be used in different ways.” These consisted of a primary badge for “the club kits, training wear and in media” A simplified version for “some casual clothing and merchandise.”

As well as a “shield in a ‘coat of arms format’ around the stadium.” Incidentally he also went on to state “The new design will re-produce much better than the old line drawing,” confirming early rumors that one of the contributing factors in the decision to modernize was the difficulty to replicate the previous crest on club merchandise. (Jim Daly, 2013. New Crystal Palace badge and kits revealed) The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive since the release; the clubs fans have embraced their much needed, 24

Screengrabs of the official press release for the new crest 25

Co-Design Despite being able to build a relatively comprehensive picture of the process using sources like CPFC.org, club press releases and media reports, I wanted to delve deeper into the club that is so close to my heart. I attempted to contact three of the key figures in the process Dan Mulchay, Robert Deacon and the co-chairman Steve Parish himself. I drafted a list of 8 questions that would enable me to gain a greater insight into what in my opinion was an extremely successful codesign process. Unfortunately only Dan managed to get some answers to me despite also being in contact with Robert and trying to pin down Steve to little success. Although Dan was unable to answer all of my questions due to the nature that some were more tailored towards Steve, his answers did help me build a better picture of the process.

Dan’s answers confirmed much of what I had learnt from my research, but what I was really interested in was whether or not the concept of co-design had been mentioned at any stage during the project, the answer given to this question was “There were meetings and discussions just after the initial voting process to discuss how working as a team, using everything we had learned from all the fan response including our own ideas, we could create the best possible badge.”

When compared with the Design Councils definition of “A set of tools used by designers to engage non-designers by asking, listening, learning, communicating and creating solutions collaboratively” (www.designcouncil.org.uk) the similarities are undeniable. Arguably the biggest asset in the process was CPFC.org, which enabled the engagement of hundreds of diehard fans - who all wanted their say in what direction the club should take, as well designers (The Omen, doof and kolja51 to name a few) and even the board (CPFC2010).

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Another valuable insight garnered from Dan’s answers was his opinion that the club used the correct strategy for the task at hand, developing a process and outcome that will be shown as a prime example of how a football club can effectively refresh their brand.

I actually think we may have found on a really good way a football club can effectively rebrand themselves. You take two seasons and in the first you test out some ideas and get all the fan outrage and protests to get an idea of what works, what doesn’t and what should never have even been considered! From that you work as a team who spend season two with all the failures and bad ideas out of the way but now with tons of research and hopefully the confidence to produce something great.

Dan Mulchay (doof) Full list of questions and answers located in appendix

Conclusion The world of football is in a constant state of flux, with everincreasing incentives at the highest level, wider reach and truly amazing opportunities for potential investors. Though just like with any business there is risk attached, clubs can rise and fall in the period of just a few seasons or in some cases, where the club is poorly managed financially, overnight.

Possibly the most important factor in the equation though is the target audience, the fans, in particular the diehard section that attends games, buys merchandise and represents the club in their day to day life, on the streets, in the work place and even on social media, without them, there would be no ‘Beautiful game’. For this reason communication is paramount and dialogue between owners and fans an absolute necessity, whether it be via focus groups, online forums or even around ground on match day. Not consulting or going against the fans can result in dire consequences, fans may choose not to renew their season ticket or boycott club merchandise which inevitable has effect on morale, finances and ultimately the performance of the club in general. Two recent examples of such a situations are Cardiff and Hull City; both clubs have been embroiled in similar scandals regarding foreign owners interfering with the clubs identity, be it colors of kit and club crest (Cardiff) or name (Hull).

Crystal Palace FC players celebrating their playoff final win against Watford at Wembley lots of positive feedback from the media and supporters of football in general. I’d like to think that the new crest has contributed to the current feel good factor around the club, which is currently showcasing some of the best home and away support in the league along with possibly our best ever chance of consecutive seasons in the Premier League (as I write this the club currently lies 16th in the table).

Crystal Palace’s recent modernization can be regarded as a prime example of they way owners should approach any possible change in a clubs identity, with the concept of codesign central to such an important element as the club crest/badge. By taking their time to gather the opinions of and directly involve the fan base as well as external designers, the club has managed to produce a design that has achieved a 91.24% approval rate with fans on CPFC.org, along with 27

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Press Release Screengrabs of the official press release of the new crest. Interlectual property of Crystal Palace FC, 19 January 2014. Not avaliable online.

Designs All designs by fans have been attributed to their relevant owners, these are kolja51, doof, The Omen and a9lpc. All offical club logos designs and materials are the interlectual property of Crystal Palace FC.

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Appendix

1. There was clearly an intention to involve the fans from the start via the vote process, but had you considered before hand involving fans in the actual design work itself?

N/A 2. Would you consider the final set of outcomes a result of a co-design process?

It was definitely a team effort. I worked with Steve Parish sending designs back and forth and then he would get some input and then come back to me with some more tweaks or sketches. A design like this has many elements from the towers, the ball or the font and then the building etc… Then there is the eagle itself, which again has many parts that we had to get right.

We were starting to hone in on something really special and then Robert Deacon, CPFC Head Designer and whose job it was to implement it, got more and more involved. I think we have a really strong brand now, which we didn’t have before and it’s down to a team of people working hard to create something.

3. Was the concept of co-design ever mentioned during the process? If so could you elaborate at what stage and who was the key exponent of this method?

There were meetings and discussions just after the initial voting process to discuss how working as a team, using everything we had learned from all the fan response including our own ideas, we could create the best possible badge.The feeling was that we were close but more work was needed to get something we were all happy with.

4. Did the wealth of input from fans surprise you, In particular the quality and sheer number of designs?

N/A 5. What impact did CPFC.org (The BBS) have on the process?

If it wasn’t for the BBS I would never have been involved. Having such a direct communication with the owners on there meant I could throw some ideas their way and get one of my designs considered. I also found all the comments very helpful at first as I was able to get a very good idea on what people would like. If you

look at how the badge was received, it got something like a 90% approval on there which shows just how we used al that research to get something that the majority of fans would be proud of.

6. You clearly considered the fans as the primary stakeholders in the club but did the potential repercussions of not consulting the fans ever cross your mind? A prime example being Cardiff’s recent rebrand.

I think Cardiff are a perfect example of how not to do it.

I actually think we may have found on a really good way a football club can effectively rebrand themselves.You take two seasons and in the first you test out some ideas and get all the fan outrage and protests to get an idea of what works, what doesn’t and what should never have even been considered! From that you work as a team who spend season 2 with all the failures and bad ideas out of the way but now with tons of research and hopefully the confidence to produce something great. Everton seem to be doing just that and I’m sure they are using us as an example. I know on Twitter their fans mentioned our rebrand as a way it should be done. Everton have now created new designs and I think their latest efforts are really smart. Fan power should never be underestimated!

7. Heritage is an important part of any clubs identity; did you consider this from the outset?

Very much so.This was always in my mind and I think it is massively important when you are rebranding something that has over 100 years of history. In our case Crystal Palace is a club that rose from the ashes on more than one occasion! The badge needed to tell that story and if you looked at the initial four ideas that were presented that history wasn’t really there. For the 2nd phase of work on the badge this was one of the main points Steve wanted to address. How can we make the badge more heraldic?

8. Many fans were upset with the idea of change from the start, even more so when they saw the first designs, did this vocal reaction encourage you to change tact?

N/A

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