Remember the days of the Barclays Premier League? Where the league embraced their corporate sponsors as part of their brand? Well here's a reminder:
As the new season kicks off this weekend, we do away with the corporate sponsor and we now have a clean and crisp looking brand designed by London-based DesignStudio and Robin Brand Consultants. Check it out:
Noted is the lack of football as well as a corporate sponsor, but that crowned lion icon more than makes up for it. With a brand as well known (and as rich) as the Premier League, there is no longer a need to spell out to it’s audience what it is. And the rollout of the brand looks pretty tight too.
Which brings us to LaLiga’s new lockup…
Their logo features a football at the heart of an icon that looks like it came straight from a late 90’s photo development shop or a firm of printers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nicely executed but somehow it looks like two elements from a stock library have been bolted together along with THAT Santander logo. As far as logo’s go it’s like Frankenstein’s monster… too many bits and pieces flung together!
You can see from the above that Spain-based IS Creative Studio have put some work into this identity and actually have spent quite some time in tightening that icon up and refining it even down making the colours more vibrant. Unfortunately all that gets lost as it’s overshadowed by the sponsorship.
Granted there’s not much in the way of rollout for LaLiga but compared to the Premier League’s branding it looks decades behind! Let’s compare both brands to other football leagues from around the world:
Of the eight leagues shown above, I would suggest the Premier League and the recent rebrand of the MLS are the pick of the bunch.
If this were a match, I would say it’s 1-0 to the Premier League!
David Huskison
David is the founder of DWH and is involved in all aspects of the design process from the initial creative concept through to final artwork stage. With over 20 years of experience working with agencies across the Midlands, his role is to provide significant creative injection into client projects. By personally delivering creative concepts, he ensures that client briefs are effectively executed and that the final project is delivered within budget.