Boston Legacy FC has learned a crucial lesson even before setting their feet on the field or signing a player: no problem trying again.
“It has been a learning process and we had a hiccup when we launched the first pieces of our brand, as you know, and everyone knows,” said Jennifer Epstein, manager of the owner and controller The Atletico on Friday.
While “Hiccup” can be an euphemism of how The first attempt In a brand launch, it went to the 15th NWSL Club, between the original name of Bos Nation FC and ““ “Many ballsCampaign, everyone in Boston took time and space not only to have it and learn, but to move on.
In March, the team announced their new name. When the time has come to think about the launch of its first crest and brand, the club took a long time.
Set to start playing next year, Boston Legacy FC is ready to spread their wings, completing a five -month design process after the Rebrand team’s decision. As part of this, Legacy FC has hired experienced designer Matthew Wolff to lead the new Crest’s specific project, with the team’s name already announced and the colors that go back to the original team’s release last year.
The club sought an expert wherever he could trust – entering Wolff, a known designer in the world of football – and enlisted brand consultants, as well as his own contribution, to ensure that they had several points of view for their second attempt.
“I open it to a plurality of perspectives and voices really helped us drill and do something we find beautiful, but also older and newer mixes and is the perfect symbol for this new legacy we are building here in Boston,” Epstein said.
A rendering of the future home of the team, White Stadium. (STTTent rendering
Instead of using the team’s entire name, the crest simply says Boston. The team will celebrate the new identity with a party in Boston Common on Saturday.
Wolff is not strange to enter a project where a course correction is required. His first NWSL project was in 2020 with Racing Louisville FCAfter the original release as proof Louisville FC. Since then, he has also worked with Gotham FC and San Diego Wave.
“Intentionality matters,” said Wolff The Atletico Before entering what you have learned from your work throughout the league in the last five years. “Women’s soccer fans really care about the appearance of their clubs, the way their clubs feel, what their clubs represent. There is a high standard and there must be a high standard for that.”
As a designer, Wolff is an advocate of the idea that the crest and visual identity of a club contribute directly to the growth of the game.
As for the crest itself, it was not always certain that the swan would be the centerpiece of the design. The idea was still emerging in conversations, according to Wolff, and they realized it was strong enough to build all identity.
“The swans have a long history in the city of Boston. They are iconic birds that populate the Charles and Mystic (rivers). Of course they reside in the public garden of Boston, which is in the emerald necklace, which extends to where our domestic speech will be at White Stadium,” said Epstein. And looking at the rest of the crests throughout the league, while Washington’s spirit nods to their eagle, a bird would stand out from the rest.
“The swans are extraordinarily fierce and extraordinarily loyal. Doesn’t that look like a Bostonian to you?” Wolff asked. “The swans are elegant, fierce, and loyal. For me, this is Boston, which is sports of Boston. At first, we realized that there was some mirroring of the animal and the values of the Bostonians and the personalities of the Bostonians. The triangulation of these three things made the right move to the center of the crest.”
The staff’s explanator also gives a nod to “Romeo and Juliet”, a pair of swimming swans in Boston’s public garden for years. Both swans were female. It is a fun on the part that should be popular among supporters, even if it were not an influence directly on the design itself.
After the swan was defined, there were lower details to adjust. Each penalty represents one of the eight original NWSL teams of its release in 2013. Boston Breakers were always in alphabetical order at the top of this list.
The inherited property wanted to ensure that an nWSL staff, Boston Breakers, was part of the design (Fred Kfoury III / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“The brokers are obviously a really important part of Boston football, Boston sports, women’s sports, women’s football history,” said Wolff. The initial design summary always had a nod for them in some way, listed as one of the priorities.
The angle of the feathers is also an nod for the Zakim Bridge, which crosses the Charles River to the far north of Boston and was also presented on the interim Boston crest used in the early days of the expansion team.
“When I’m working on a football crest, I want to represent the soccer club and the women who will compete on the field,” said Wolff. “But equally, if no more importance, it is representing the whole city, the whole community – then I believe that a powerful crest can really attract people who may not originally be interested in sports for the sport.”
If well done, said Wolff, a crest represents the player, the club, the place, the fan, but their family too, their neighbors, the community itself. There was no way to ignore the power of sports in Boston in this project, something Wolff said he often thought at a time when we gathered as less and less communities.
Yes, there is brand power in the use of Boston instead of Legacy FC – an instant shortcut of the city’s culture as a whole, but it also seems to be half the club’s promise. Critical work now, said Epstein, is building relationships and confidence with the Boston community and the largest area.
“This is just the beginning. We want to see this pride and long-term loyalty of our fans in the city as a whole, in what we are building. It is always at the center of what we are doing-thinking about the community and how we can bring them.”
(Upper photo: Boston Legacy FC)
