Ipswich Town Football Club Badge Redesign

The current ITFC has proudly served club and supporters for almost 30 years.

As a lifelong Ipswich Town fan, I have always loved the crest but felt it could be recrafted and improved. I'll explain why.

The badge naturally means a lot to all Ipswich Town fans. It's a proud symbol of the club's history - an iconic and unique shape with symbolic elements that link back to the area, but from a design perspective there are some important reasons why the design is in need of an update.

Here's the current one:

The horse illustration, which references the powerful Suffolk Punch, lacks expression in the face and overall finesse. The hooves look unfinished and the hind legs don’t sit on the same plane as the front ones, giving the impression that they are somehow hovering in the air.

There are also three further opportunities for improvement:

1. The typeface has been stretched to fit the boxes - this results in a distorted impression.
2. The waves are irregular.
3. The outer shape is not straight and feels like it is made up of too many boxes.

Once you see these issues you can’t unsee them. This presents a problem.

How do we solve this in a way that keeps all stakeholders onside?

Given that it was made in a pre-digital era, it is understandable that there is now clear room for improvement.

Here are my two updated versions:

Evolution not revolution

Before vs after:

Horse illustration evolution

To solve the problems mentioned I redrew the horse giving it a stronger and more accurate look, updated the typography to an evolved form of Gill Sans, fixed the river element and realigned the outer shape so it was symmetrical.

The new crest was designed to work effectively across a huge range of digital and physical applications from app icons to stadium branding, in full colour, single colour and as a standalone graphic element, providing you with more flexibility in sharing the brand professionally.

The badge did not need a radical change. It was a matter of evolution not revolution. Taking all the best elements and making them even better, elevating the old design so that it continues to proudly serve Ipswich Town FC as a Premier League club in the digital age.

A proud history. An exciting future.