Juventus seeks to go “beyond football” with new brand
Crest redesigned from scratch as club sets its sights on becoming a global brand operating in new markets and sectors.
Interbrand has rebranded Italian football giant Juventus, which is bidding to become a globally recognised club with a brand that reaches “beyond football.”
A completely new club crest has been created, a new suite of visual expressions and a new way of communicating as Juventus seeks to “sustain its own growth both economic and sports-wise, and extend its influence over international markets, beyond football,” according to Interbrand chief strategy officer Manfredi Ricca.
Club crest completely redesigned
The project, led by Interbrand’s Milan office, was unveiled in the city last night as Interbrand and Juventus shared details of Juventus’ international growth plan, titled Black and White and More.
The new crest eschews most of the core graphic elements of the old crest including a bull – the symbol of Turin, where the club plays – a crown and the oval badge that held the final lock-up.
It has been replaced by a stylised J symbol referencing the black and white stripes that Juventus play in and a Juventus wordmark set in a new bespoke typeface (Juventus Fans), which has five styles.
“Fearlessness”
It becomes part of a new brand, which is defined by Juventus’ “fearlessness” says Ricca who adds, “It’s about black and white. About winning and losing. It’s about contrast and going beyond. Striving for excellence.”
This visual and verbal tone of voice will imbue the character of the brand at Juventus’ academies, its community projects and other business ventures, according to Ricca.
Meanwhile Juventus’ merchandising has been overhauled as the club looks to forge brand partnerships with other “global Italian brands” which offer “more engaging experiences and open up new markets.”
The brand will begin to roll out now and will appear on club shirts from 2017/18 season.
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I can understand that there is a need to update football crests now and again. And I can understand Juve’s need to become more than just a club, however I personally feel that the new mark has lost touch with what Juve stand for in terms of football and it’s supporters. Aston Villa recently revamped yet they retained a direct link to the fans, the club and to football. The new Juve logo looks very fashion orientated, especially when you see it on some of the promotional material, the graphics on the bags looks exciting and I wish that some of that character would be present in the mark.
Unfortunately these days football seems to be so much more about the money rather than the passion, and visually this mark to me is a perfect reflection of this.
As someone who works in branding and has been a diehard Juventus fan my whole life, I can categorically say that this rebrand is an absolute disgrace. Juventus is first and foremost a football team, it’s success, growth and loyalty is, and should be driven by fans of the TEAM and SPORT, not in the interests of creating yet another marketing entity.
Granted, in isolation, it is a modern, dynamic, flexible identity that I’m sure they will apply to absolutely anything they think they can sell – but that really isn’t the point.
In completely deleting any remanence of the traditional identity, this rebrand behaves as if we have something to be ashamed of, and as one of the oldest and proudest teams in Europe we certainly don’t – cheers interbrand 🙁