Familiarity shouldn't prevent progress

With the initial fury of the Bristol Bears rebrand long forgotten, another of the Bristol Sport stable is running the gauntlet of its loyal following with Bristol City's launch of the new club crest.

Lessons have clearly been learned from the likes of last year’s Leeds United gaff with the Robin prominently featuring (compared with the jettisoning of the white rose of Yorkshire), but opinion is already divided as to whether it’s an improvement on what fans have come to be familiar with.

But should that familiarity be a blocker for taking the brand forward?

Only a small percentage of the City’s (Bristol City’s, not the City of Bristol for all of the Bristol Rovers fans out there!) fan base were consulted in the process of the re-design, and questions will be raised as to whether the views captured in a survey can be a true measure of success, when the subjective point of view of a few can’t be considered representative of wider feeling.

Design opinion aside though – and there’s clear evidence that the team working on the new identity has been informed by the growing trend for paired back, sans-serif simplicity – football fans don’t buy into a crest, they’re part of a club. Providing the change in badge doesn’t signal an  impact on their Saturday rituals, relationships with fellow fans and the performance of the team this news will become tomorrow’s match day chip paper in no time (as has quickly become the case with The Bears).

On which note, thinking of the rebrand as part of piece of wider portfolio strategy also provides a sound rationale for the evolution. Bristol Sport under the stewardship of Steve Lansdown is a progressive Masterbrand with the ambition to #makeBristolproud. It’s investment in infrastructure and the ‘sub brands’ across a range of sports shows its commitment to sport in the city of Bristol, and in return for this commitment supporters are being asked to embrace and share in the vision to inspire sport in Bristol and beyond.

Unlike Leeds United (for whom the rebrand almost came as an opportunity to wipe some of the recent past under the carpet), this redesign feels like it’s been informed by a more purposeful objective than to simply hoodwink supporters into thinking that good times are ahead.