How the logos of Italian football are changing? The most successful rebranding cases and club strategies
The word logo is an abbreviation of logotype, Greek welding of the terms λόγος (word) and τύπος (form). In practice, it is the image that defines the way a brand is perceived from the outside. The reification of the identity of a company, starting from letters, forms or images. But in some ways it is also a form of representation of the cultural context to which it belongs. For this reason each logo lives in a process of constant evolution: we must keep up with the times and the renewal of the logo wants to give back to the target precisely this ability to to get perked up.
In an increasingly iconographic world, made up of images that lord over words, it tends to swell with meanings. Today the logo constitutes a conspicuous slice of the branding logics of the big brands. Inevitably, one would say.
Italian football, at least in these terms, seems to have quickly absorbed the need for change. Some logos have only been imperceptibly retouched, others partially modified, others completely redesigned. After all, clubs are to all intents and purposes of companies, and in every large company, beyond the sector of reference, pervasive digitalization and systematic exposure to social platforms have forced the transition from the shamorphism of old logos to the flat design of new ones. By marking the transition from an iconography made of shadows, shades and the search for three-dimensionality to a more essential, clear, flat. It is also true that not everyone can afford a logo that is still almost identical to that of 30/40 years ago, such as those of Manchester United or Bayern Munich, which proudly make a strong point of their glorious tradition.
Beyond the particular meanings of the individual elements of the new Juventus logo, the key concept therefore remains the opportunity to grow "by communicating and evolving the brand", a process that the Juventus club has followed by literally crumbling the schemes, but that also other companies have tried to start, starting from the simple touch up of the logo. Between 2007 and 2014, Inter had three different coats of arms, three stages of a slow evolutionary path. The starting point remained the intertwining of the four FCIM letters inscribed in a circular pattern, a road traced by Giorgio Muggiani - creator of the first Nerazzurri logo - back in 1908. In 2007 the star inside the coat of arms was placed outside, the writing ' 'Inter' and '1908' eliminated, the central area enlarged, the colors opaque. In 2014, further compositional simplification was entrusted to Leftolt, with the revisiting of the four letters and the reduction of the concentric circles. A harmonization of proportions aimed at seeking greater readability and reproducibility. Today, looking at the Nerazzurri social networks, there seems to be a further step towards an even more extreme essentiality of the logo, not too far from that of Juventus.
In general, the guidelines for change are those of flat design: cleanliness, linearity and clarity. The objective is recognisability, but not only: in the context of a broader vision, the simplifying reinterpretation of the logo is a way of disconnecting from an exclusively football market. Li Muli, creator of the new logo of Palermo, pushes in this direction: "The idea is to make it more eclectic for merchandising also at an international level, for a type of clothing not only sports. It is a different way of seeing a brand, not necessarily connected to football". It is no coincidence that the new Palermo logo, which had to redesign its image this summer, is the essential union of a stylized P with the head of an eagle, which has always been the symbol of the city. A bridge between past and future, made of historical elements revisited in a modern key.
