Vicky Elmer (Beercock)

Football club crests are not logos. They are inherited identity - carrying the emotional weight of generations of supporters, the commercial expectations of owners, and the reputational stakes of an institution that operates entirely in public. Getting one wrong is easy. The 2013 redesign had proven that.

When the decision was made to revisit the crest, the challenge was not creative. It was structural. Supporter trust had already been damaged once by a process that felt imposed rather than earned. A second attempt that failed - or that succeeded on the pitch but lost the fanbase - would have been worse than no attempt at all.

The project was framed from the outset not as a design brief but as a brand governance and trust-restoration programme. Process credibility was as important as the final outcome. Possibly more so.

Governance & Strategy

The strategic principles that shaped the programme:

Supporter legitimacy first. The process had to be genuinely consultative - not the appearance of consultation followed by a predetermined outcome. If supporters did not feel ownership of the result, the result would not hold.

Heritage with intent. The new crest needed to honour Club history while functioning across modern digital, retail, broadcast and licensing environments. Nostalgia alone was not a design brief.

Commercial readiness. The identity needed to work across kits, merchandise, international markets and sponsorship activation - without compromise.

Long-term stability. The goal was a crest that would not need revisiting. That required clear decision criteria, rigorous stakeholder alignment and a process that could be defended publicly at every stage.

Process & Delivery

The redesign followed a structured, multi-phase consultation designed to produce a result that supporters felt they had genuinely created - because they had.

Phase one was a large-scale supporter survey establishing emotional attachment, failure points and design expectations across the fanbase. Phase two was a nomination and open vote to appoint a representative twelve-person community panel. Phase three brought that panel into two facilitated creative sessions, translating the collective supporter vote into the principles that would guide the final design.

Throughout, the governance was as important as the creative. Every decision point was documented, every stakeholder - supporter groups, executive leadership, commercial, retail, media and marketing functions - was aligned before the next phase began. The embargoed reveal to the Club owner and the coordinated media launch required as much communications discipline as any of the creative work.

The result was a crest that arrived with legitimacy already built in.

Impact

Supporter sentiment reversed. The negative legacy of the 2013 redesign was addressed directly, and the new crest was met with strong approval - not just acceptance.

A future-proof brand asset. Designed for longevity across kits, merchandise, digital platforms, broadcast and international markets.

Commercial and retail enablement. A scalable identity that supports licensing, merchandising and sponsorship activation without compromise.

A replicable governance model. The process established a framework for managing high-stakes brand decisions involving deeply invested stakeholder groups - applicable well beyond football.

Strategic Significance

What this project demonstrated is that in environments where brand identity carries emotional, cultural and financial weight - sport, heritage institutions, community organisations - the process is the product. A crest imposed is a crest contested. A crest co-created is a crest owned.

The discipline here was not in the design. It was in the restraint, the sequencing and the willingness to let the right answer emerge from the right process rather than arrive pre-formed from the top.

Hull City Crest Redesign Feedback:

• ONE FOOTBALL: Hull City have unveiled a new club crest and we’re impressed.

• ITV: The new crest is fresh, new and improved.

• FAN BANTER: Love it… clean modern design… thank you Hull City.

• THE SPORTSMAN: Big fan of Hull City's new crest…

THE HISTORY OF THE HULL CITY AFC CREST BACK TO 1904

REDESIGN BTS AND PROCESS RECAP