Designing a new logo for Western Springs Football Club
A few years ago I moved into the neighbourhood of Western Springs Football Club, in Auckland, an excellently run club with an amazing youth setup. My son and I both joined, winning many games and losing many, respectively.
The Uniform
Saturday mornings the the club’s Seddon Fields are swarmed by thousands of kids in green & white uniform, which look fantastic.
Hoops are a classic football shirt design and the green and white colours look great.
But take a closer look and you’ll notice something that lets down the playing kit — its the club logo.
The logo consists of a small font thats illegible at distance, a couple of rudely positioned balls and a black swan that even looks like it’s trying to get away.
Im not a designer by trade but to create a better logo for the club has been a itch Ive been needing to scratch
The Design
The current logo has some good elements and I wanted to preserve these. The 2 footballs, I presume, represent the 2 clubs that amalgamated in 1989 to create Western Springs AFC, they were Grey Lynn Celtic and Pt Chevalier AFC. The black swan is common in Western Springs Park so is a perfect centrepiece for the logo.
So here is my vision for a new Western Springs AFC logo.
The circular border has been simplified and is just a solid green band that mimics the hoops on the club’s shirts.
The name of the club is bold and clearly readable from a distance. You’ll notice that Ive dropped “Associated” from the club name, mostly due to spacing reasons, but also as Western Springs Football Club rolls off the tongue easier.
The 2 balls are kept but placed in the border in completely innocent positions.
Finally, the Western Springs black swan gets centre of attention, and is formed from 2 stylised letters W and S — I couldn’t resist.
I whipped this up in a few hours and some elements, the swan in particular, need more work.
If you’re reading this and know someone in the club’s admin hierarchy, please send them a link.
One More Thing…
I also took the liberty of writing a Western Springs iOS app for their junior fixtures, to help bleary eyed parents find their kid’s field before their Saturday morning coffee.
WSAFC Jr. is free on the App Store
