At every level, from grassroots to professional leagues, football crests embody the essence, values, aspirations, heritage, and regional identity of clubs. These designs are more than mere logos — they represent the heart and soul of a team, connecting fans with the club’s identity and community visually. In Australia’s intensely competitive football market, clubs from four separate codes across Rugby, NRL, AFL and the A-League all vie for supremacy. But which club’s crest design will come out on top?
This document delves into the intricacies of football crest design in Australia, hoping to offer an insightful analysis of the most successful, and least successful, examples across different codes. From the Western Sydney Wanderers’ elegantly executed crest, which seamlessly reflects their fan base and evokes the region’s rich footballing history, to the uninspiring design of the Gold Coast Sun’s crest, we explore all 55 of Australia’s professional football teams.
Why are we doing this? Firstly it combines two of our passions — football and branding. We also weren’t aware of any previous analysis, which sparked our curiosity to use our experience to objectively review the branding of football crests in a way that goes beyond the purely superficial.
To make sure our review was as objective as possible, we used common criteria to evaluate each design including the naming, colour, creativity, choice of emblem, typography, technical constructs and illustration styles, to uncover the underlying elements that contribute to the effectiveness of a successful football crest.
By dissecting the strengths and weaknesses of Australian crests, we hope to provide insights as well as actionable recommendations for clubs, designers and fans.
While any study of creativity is subjective, we aim to provide a balance between the art and science to uncover the best crest across Australia’s professional football clubs.