An Update!

A little update on the blog below, after our awesome designer Nick has his Watford FC badge selected as one of the final 5 designs across the UK!

Check his incredible developed artwork...

Brief

Ahead of the 2020/ 21 season, Watford FC gave designers around the world the chance to design their new badge, with the winning design to be used on their kit, merchandise and across the stadium. Watford FC wanted a new badge that brings to life the club’s culture and nickname, ‘The Hornets' in a modern way. As the current official badge includes a red hart - a type of deer, they wanted for submissions that represented a hornet within a distinctive shape.

The Process

The club and a panel of fans narrowed down 4,000 submissions to just 20 designs. Then the fan panel will vote to select the 5 finalists. The designs are then shared opened up to everyone to vote on the 5 finalist designs to select the winning Watford FC badge.

Entries from our designers

Two of our awesome designers Steve and Nick submitted designs into the contest. You can see their fantastic logo designs below:

Nick's entries:

Entry 1:

In my first entry, a stylised hornet plays the focal point of the badge concept. The body is a stepped gradient with a central up arrow to reflect progression and the wings take on a 'W' form. Framed with a double keyline which stays true to the existing overall badge.

Entry 2:

My second entry is very similar to the first but I wanted a more simplified modern look. I made some adjustments to the hornet mark and removed the border so it's left free from constraints.

Steve's Entry:

I based my entry on and used inspiration from one of Watford's previous badges from the 1960s and '70s. To break down the process of how I designed this, I took a screenshot of that badge and created a hornet loosely based around the older version but giving it a more modern and bold look. Throughout designing the new crest, I had to keep in mind that this crest will both be used at a very small and large size so the hornet isn't too detailed as that detail will get lost when produced on the shirt. From there, I kept in mind Watford's brief of keeping a unique shape, so I framed my hornet with a similar shape to their current badge, so there is some club identify left.

After doing some research it seemed that the shape of the crest was important to fans as it's instantly recognisable as opposed to a shield or circle. The founding year 1881, was also an important element a lot of fans seemed to want to see in the design, so I included this element without making it too small to see when produced at a small size. I changed the colours in the frame from black and yellow to red and yellow, using the colours from the brand guides, to make the hornet stand out and not get lost in the black. A modern but timeless font was used for the WATFORD text.