New Badge - 2 Year Appraisal

[exAtyeoMax]

17 hours ago, Olé said:

I know there are bigger things to worry about, but I'm past caring about most of the current playing squad, so for a change of pace I'd like to reflect on something we will all have to live with for much, much longer. The badge. We're just about to complete our second season playing under it.

I'm a firm believer that any time you make a radical and long lasting strategic change, you should never be afraid to appraise it after a reasonable period of time and make adjustments if needed. How has it gone? Is it meeting our aims? Could anything be done better. Can we evolve further?

• Fans: From most feedback I read or hear, most are happy with the badge, for others it has "grown on them" - though I'm never sure if that's inevitable through its brute force use everywhere or as we have no option but to identify with it. But I certainly don't hear strong resentment. So I'd say: indifferent to good.
• Players: I think it's important to consider the impact on players. Are they proud of the badge? Do they identify with it? How does it make then feel? There's a lot of good psychological evidence (Time magazine) of the impact of a club's identity to its players. It may be unrelated but 2 year form has been very poor. 

I do have an agenda here - I think our new badge is imperfect. The rationale and the intention articulated by the club all make sense and it could be perfect but it has flaws. As an amateur psychologist I do think those flaws have implicitly translated into the mentality of the club and the players. 

• It has no eyes and can't see. There is no better metaphor for City than this - it has always seemed completely ridiculous to me that we produced a badge with a Robin with no eyes and didn't think it was a missed opportunity or might send the wrong message. Eyes are the most emotive part of the body (as you will know having been stuck behind COVID masks). You can make eyes look angry - it is literally the "signature" for the emotion of any living creature. 
• It's stood on one ***ing leg. As you do. Are we supposed to be a one legged bird? Or midway through a ballet performance? Two legs, planted firmly, conveys strength and whole levels of self confidence. Find me a badge or a statute of a person or animal that is balancing on one leg and meant to be taken seriously?
• It's wing is incomplete. Minor point perhaps but doesn't that mean more flapping and less flying. If I want a visual metaphor I want a solid object that works.
• The ball is incomplete. Are we playing football? Or unicycling? Balls don't have gaps in them. It certainly doesn't look like a ball we have under any control.
• It's unnecessarily fussy. The year, and stuff.

It takes the most minor revisions (i.e. 5 minutes) to address these points. I mean literally it takes a couple of extra lines.

Okay I'm biased, but having eyes - in our own colours - creates an actual personality to our badge, angry and menacing. Which it would be handy for us to be. Two feet planted firmly on and in control of the football. Also a stronger message. And a full wing rather than weird flap of skin. Might also lend us a bit of conviction.

I'm not trying to be clever or self-congratulatory here - but when I look back at it now, I almost can't believe we did the things we did to the finished badge, given how close it was to being a significantly stronger, more identifiable and convincing look. But that doesn't mean it's not too late to make some simple adjustments...? 

 

I think the two legs look better, possibly just a dot or line for the eye, and possibly a line or block or two to suggest a football by its stitching.

[RedRock]

8 hours ago, ExiledAjax said:

This one? It's the one I liked as well.

Found the old thread from the time of the announcement. 

 

Strip out the date and ‘Bristol City’.....and a very nice simple badge.

With most design follow the rule ‘less is more’ or ‘keep it simple stupid’.

Clever design encapsulating the three key ingredients ... ‘our’ bridge, the robin and football.
 

[Eddie Hitler]

I don't like it all but see it is a first attempt towards a badge which is both decent and also recognisable at a glance.

The city crest is a decent badge but at any distance it looks just like every other city crest.

The robin is recognisable but looks really weedy and insubstantial with those gaps; as most people know robins are absolute thugs in real life and fight rivals to the death. They are not thin and graceful like swifts which is how it is drawn.

[Red_Alligator]

3 hours ago, Eddie Hitler said:

I don't like it all but see it is a first attempt towards a badge which is both decent and also recognisable at a glance.

The city crest is a decent badge but at any distance it looks just like every other city crest.

The robin is recognisable but looks really weedy and insubstantial with those gaps; as most people know robins are absolute thugs in real life and fight rivals to the death. They are not thin and graceful like swifts which is how it is drawn.

Robins are hard bastards indeed Eddie!

[BRISTOL86]

Executive summary. 

2 years in. Still shit. 

Another JL vanity project done with all the professionalism of a 7 year old. 

[Lanterne Rouge]

2 hours ago, Red_Alligator said:

Robins are hard bastards indeed Eddie!

They are. I was only watching two of them beating the shit out of each other in the garden this morning. Even the pheasants gave them a wide berth!