The 5 logos that made Serie A history in the 1980s Also known as: an analysis of the transition from heraldry to minimalist design
The recent release of the new Inter Milan crest has represented a pivotal moment for Italian football, and not only. Even if the neroazzurri’s new brand identity doesn’t apparently seem to mark a revolutionary change in the tradition of the club’s history, actually, the new logo has launched clear signals about the future of European football.
Although introducing graphic solutions dominated by digitalisation and own of contemporary times, the new logo of the neroazzurri promotes the research of essential traits where to stand out is the intersection of shapes over volumes. Mirko Borsche - head designer of Bureau Borsche, the German studio that curated Inter Milan’s crest restyling - explains in an interview on nss sports: “Technical innovations have a big impact on society and on the consumption of content and media–accompanying brand identity requirements have changed drastically. [...] Design is a fluid process as changes in society are.”
The new Inter Milan crest, therefore, breaks free from the research for classicism and the opulence of heraldry typical of the ‘00s and ‘10s. Manchester City, for instance, has been the epitome of such a transition: first with its wannabe heraldic crest, then with the return, since 2016, to the 1960s rounded logo, although reinterpreted in a distinctively plastic and digital key.
In crucial years for the establishment of a new divide between the past and the future of graphic design in sports inaugurated by Juventus in 2017, Italian football is preparing itself for new scenarios where marketing plays a fundamental role. Just a few weeks ago, in fact, Udinese showcased its latest graphic identity that, similarly to Inter Milan and Juventus’ new crests, embraces a return to the minimalist modernism that blossomed in the Serie A between the ‘70s and the ‘80s.
In years when the red of protesters, policemen and innocent civilians' blood was the only colour brightening an otherwise grey nation up, the change embodied by the Serie A crests didn’t simply represent a chromatic revolution, but also a psychological one. The influence of multiple factors - including the advent of colour television in Italy and the concession by the FIGC to the use of technical sponsors on jerseys starting from the 1978-79 season - led to a rediscovery of colour in Italian football, later compared to that witnessed on the streets during the Summer of Love. Those were years when, also thanks to the renovated importance of sponsors, Italian football seemed to be updating its way of intending sports aesthetics in accordance to the American mentality.
Football graphic design, hence, seemed to draw a bridge with commercial design, giving birth to crests that could simultaneously work as brand logos or as elements of the visual identity of the Italian comedy films of the time. Lightened of the weight of shield and standard shapes, the crests turn into autonomous graphic elements, essential in their traits and therefore instantly recognisable. By the late ‘70s a process of renovation of italian sports graphics began,none that is still relevant to these days as highlighted by Borsche’s words: “For a football club to move beyond the stadium gates and weekly games, it needs to present itself as a global brand. To not only be present in society and in the world of sport but to emerge in the broader sphere of consumption (of goods and content), communication, and become a fully-fledged entertainment company.”
AS Roma
Not always, though, the iconography of football teams lies in city crests. Bari is an example of this. Its cockerell (or hotspur), in fact, is the outcome of a journalistic initiative. When in 1928 Guerin Sportivo magazine, following an idea of illustrator and humorist Carlo ‘Carlin’ Bergoglio, decided to pair the main Italian football teams with a mascotte - the so-called ‘animalie’ - Bari found itself lacking significant allegorical symbols. It was Pugliese journalist Alfredo Bogardo who rescued his team by suggesting the nickname ‘i galletti’ (aka the cockerels), allegory of the biancorossi fierce and fighting attitude. However, once again, it’s not until 1979 that the club adopted a truly innovative and representative crest.
Designed by the brilliant pen of Piero Gratton, the Barese cockerel is a gem of minimalist modernism. Straight and curved traits balance each other in an essential way, giving back one of the most iconic crests of Italian football, as well as the most dynamic work in Gratton’s portfolio. The cockerel will emblazon the club’s shirts until 2014, accompanying through highs, first, and lows, later, the epic of its owners the Matarrese family.
