Barclays Premier League is Really Special, or is it?

The Barclays Premier League has established a new look logo for the season 2016/17. The logo is slightly different from the previous one though it has retained all the identifying symbols present in its predecessor. As with every logo redesign, there is expected to be mixed reactions depending on the perception of the target audience.

To some, the logo is a complete flop while others have hailed it and wondered why it took so long for the league to change it, given that the current logo has been in use for more than two and a half decades. To best understand the new logo, it would be prudent to take a walk down the memory lane to see how the new look premier league logo was arrived at.

The Premier League was established in 1992. The ownership of the league lies in its 20 member clubs which bestows upon the league the ability to act on negotiations regarding sponsorship deals and broadcast licensing without any input or interference of the Football Association – the soccer governing body in England. Since 2001, the league title sponsor has been the Barclays Bank – a British multinational financial and banking services company.

The sponsorship is scheduled to expire in 2016, and the Premier League is not keen on getting another title sponsor and is likely to rely on the broadcast and advertising deals that it has been generating in the recent past.

The Premier is the most popular league in the universe with a fanatic following in almost all the countries. In just 2015, the league sold broadcast rights worth 5.136B, the highest ever recorded by any league in the world. The logo redesign is to act as a complement to the new stream of income.

The old logo featured a lion pawing a ball with a crown on its head. This is because lions are known to have crowns and if they find a ball, they will always paw it. Figuratively, the use of the lion in this manner was an indication that the premier league was the king of all football leagues in the world.

Also included in the Barclays premier league logo was the Barclays eagle neatly resting inside a ball. This was not one of the most amazing logos, given the popularity and the lucrative nature of the sport. Some people observed that the logo was already aging.

The new premier league logo, on the other hand, is quite different and has infused life and freshness in the almost redundant Barclays premier league logo. It has also taken away the secondary Barclays Bank logo which featured in eagle inside a ball.

You will also miss the king of the jungle with his claws pawing the red ball. Instead, the full lion has been minimized into a ball shaped lion with a crown on its head. Using animals in logos is always very difficult but the new premier league logo has successfully managed to display all the characteristics of the lion in a simple yet effective manner.

You will also find the new face of the lion to be very impressive. Unlike in the previous premier league logo, the new face is not looking straightforward. It has a three-quarter view, which makes it challenging to draw but at the same it has broken the expected symmetry in the most awesome manner. The common features usually present in a lion have also been well captured. These include the mane, the snout, the eyes and the ears.

The typography of the new premier league logo is also spot on! DesignStudio – the creators of the logo must have adopted the Capsule Wardrobe concept (by Steve Jobs) of wearing the same thing day in day out. According to Steve Jobs, you don’t have to stress yourself thinking about what to wear but instead, stick to one limited and prescribed types of clothes so that you can free your mind and concentrate on more important things.

The typography chosen by the DesignStudio for the new premier league logo nouveau geometric sans serif – their dad jeans and black turtleneck. (Steve Jobs favorite attire). Though the typography doesn’t exude the energy and the passion of the game as well as the lion, it was a good choice and it has blended well with the rest of the new premier league logo design.

Finally, the new premier league logo comes with a lot of versatility since it can be made huge, shrunk, colors switched amidst other adjustments without it losing on the readability. It also renders well on small screens, and big screens and it also has room for the name of the title sponsor should the premier league decide to have one in the future.

Check out some of the oldest logos here!