Supporting one of the world's oldest + most successful brands step into the digital era
Proud of a rich history stretching back to 1872, Rangers FC is one of the world’s oldest and most successful football clubs amassing more years and trophies than the likes of Barcelona, Juventus FC, Manchester United and AC Milan. Preparing for the world’s glare during 2022’s 150-year celebrations, alongside embarking on a radical digital transformation strategy to support global growth + fan engagement ambitions, Rangers challenged us with modernising its visual style for a global digital audience, while holding true to its heritage.
Applying initialism to their ‘Ready’ motto to guide the development of brand values, we sought to amplify these values + visually position Rangers as the global giant it is.
A brand strategy guided by heritage, character + vision
As an emblem of unity, heritage + glory, no Club’s brand asset is closer to its beating heart (quite literally) than the badge. We knew to kneel to both Rangers’ loyal fans + the Club’s brand value of ‘Yours’ by retaining, but restoring + re-energising original visual elements to keep fans + stakeholders on-side, whilst making a transformative impact.
Excellence is in the detail
We kicked-off the project by restoring precision to the Club’s main ‘Ready’ crest (the ‘Scroll’ crest being exclusive to kits). We redrew the Lion Rampant in his existing position to support Rangers’ ‘Ready’ motto, yet with heightened artistic precision + detail to present a far more fierce + relentless quality.
We extended further by developing three versions of the Lion Rampant: a detailed yet flat version to be used within the crest; a larger version using light + shade to introduce texture to be used independently or cropped to extract abstract background shapes to enhance the creativity of marketing collateral; + a Lioness Rampant to provide Rangers Womens’ Team with its own sub-identity for the first time, further supporting Rangers’ brand value of ‘Diversity.’
A bold custom typeface that captures Rangers of the past + present
Partnering with internationally renowned typographer + lifelong Rangers’ fan Craig Black, together we explored Ibrox, delving through the archives to craft a custom font, Rangers Display, which perfectly captured Ranger’s heritage + personality. With serif kicks that echo those of the bluebells at Ibrox’s iconic gates, the new typeface also takes cues from Ibrox’s entrance floor mosaic in addition to various letterheads used over the years.
Rangers Display manages to be both modern + fresh, yet instantly recognisable as Rangers — representative of not only the past, but the now + the future.
Redressing balance to the badge
Spacing between ball panels has been made equal, whilst the ball has been enlarged to best house the Lion Rampant + ‘Ready’ text. We also slightly ‘inflated’ the ball to capture a sense of personality + fun, centring proportionately to make the strongest visual impact. The word ‘Rangers’ now sits proud at the top of the crest in its own custom font for ultimate legibility, clarity + confidence.
Establishing clarity + consistency across Rangers’ brand house
Produced to help support Rangers successfully + consistently roll-out their new identity across the world, we’ve also documented the new identities for Rangers’ many sub-brands, alongside other assets such as their ‘Scroll’ crest + web fonts.
