At the end of June this year, shortly after the 40th anniversary of our European Cup, we announced our intention to review and evolve how we present Aston Villa Football Club, from the design of our club crest to the wider way we visually present ourselves across all we do.
Our announcement, which you can find here, was also an invite to you, our fans; it’s important to us that we listen to your views and get your help and input during this process.
You responded; over six thousand people expressed their interest in getting involved.
Since June, we have shared a digital survey across our fanbase and held in-person discussion sessions on this subject with our Fan Consultation Group (FCG) as well as two sets of international fans and two sets of our local fanbase, all of whom had responded to our initial invite.
The digital survey was completed by 12,600 people; a club-record response to any open request for input.
For those of you who were part of the above, a massive thank you. To others who remain interested in this important moment, we wanted to share some observations we’ve made from the feedback we’ve had, as well as what happens next.
An openness for change
There isn’t universal love for our current crest; whilst there is nothing inherently bad about it, what we heard from our fan survey and discussions is that it doesn’t do as strong as job as it could at showing our best side. We heard that there is room for the crest to be bolder and for it to stand-out more amongst our Premier League (and wider set of football club) peers.
Balancing past, present & future
The feedback told us that the challenge is to better balance our much-cherished and important heritage as a founding member of the Football League with our current position as a modern and progressive force. This is a prestigious club, which must be respected in how we approach the crest, yet we have to do our forward-looking edge justice too. Whilst many fans like previous club crests more than today’s, we want to go forward, not just look back.
Protecting what is most iconic
We learned a lot about what you think about the different elements of our club crest today. The lion at the heart of our crest has been a very consistent presence through history, so it is thought of as critical to any future version. However, we heard that it doesn’t stand-out as much as it could; for example, when used in yellow it can appear a little faded-out in some instances. We also heard that it could have more character and fearlessness in how it looks.
Beyond the lion, we found that our name as it appears in the crest (‘AVFC’) is not hugely well-liked. In our fan discussion groups, we heard that there would be interest in seeing our name as ‘Aston Villa’, given how unique it feels in the world of football.
These are all elements to explore in our work, as well as looking at the balance of colour in the crest and the choice of crest shape we make, given that only 19% of fans who filled out the survey claimed to like the current shield shape.
As a result of your input, we have set to work on creative development to explore some possibilities for a new, evolved club crest and our wider visual design system.
In the next month, this exploration will involve testing how any suitable options work in important areas the crest is used, from future kits to our stadium to social media and broadcast uses. Importantly, we will also be re-convening fan groups and our FCG representatives to test emerging options, so we are confident that we are creating a look that we can all be proud of in the future.
This process is a responsibility we take seriously as Aston Villa Football Club, and once again we thank our fans for stepping forward and playing their role in it too.
Thank you to all fans who completed the survey and those who attended our focus groups, including members of our Fan Consultation Group and the fans listed below:
Ethan Cleverley, Connor Hassall, Ethan Shelley, Charlie Mintz, Lena Curran, Caius Hall, Adam Finney, Connor Smith, Ben Roberson-Holmes, Joshua Jones, Emily Wildbore, Billy Sims, Mark Hickey, Russell Cochrane, David Ennis, Donna Prime, Ingolf Olsen, Matthew Larner, Elaine Lunsford, Andrew King, Brett Bates, Berenice Moran, Michael Boyle, Biplav Gautam.
