By FRANCO PANIZO
Out with the old and in with the new.
After nearly two decades with essentially the same look, the Columbus Crew are set to unveil their new logo and brand on Wednesday night. The Crew’s name will remain the same, but much of the rest will change as the club attempts to capture a bigger audience in Columbus with a brand evolution.
The club will live stream the event on its website at 7:45 p.m.
The Crew have been promoting this new launch for weeks now, doing so through street ads, digital billboards and social media campaigns. There has been much speculation as to what the new brand will look like, but the club is hoping it helps to usher in a new era that builds on the success achieved in the first 18 years of its existence.
Columbus is currently try to cement its place in the postseason. The club holds a three-point lead over Toronto for the fifth and final playoff spot in the East.
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Are you excited for the Crew’s new brand launch? What do you think the new logo should look like? Do you see Columbus making the postseason this year?
Share your thoughts below.
Yeah site changed for me too
They’re gonna keep the 3 dudes in the logo, but give them beards to make them more ‘hip’
Probably changing their name to the Ohio Crew, if they’re looking for a more regional brand appeal.
Anyone else having trouble with this site on an iphone6? It’s gone all text no picture for me.
Not phone specific. If you want the picture version, scroll to bottom and select desktop. You are looking at the Mobile version.
The logo now looks like a Depeche Mode album cover..
http://www.aerialnoise.com/2012/04/28/bobby-cooper-nicky-romero-vs-depeche-mode/
The worst logo in all of professional sports. Literally, anything they introduce will be better. A blank space would be an improvement.
Any updates on stadium upgrades for them?
New logo, OK. And the name and colors stay the same. Given that, what is “rebranding” suppose to mean?
“Rebranding” refers to changes made to the organization’s ethos, mission, goals, approach to how they will operate their organization etc. Everything that surrounds the graphic identity or the organization is considered to be the “brand”, so “rebranding” is a change in direction, whether that includes simply marketing and communications, or it’s entire structure as an organization.
Whatever the crest/logo looks like, it should be adorned with an Indian headress to honor The Village People logo of the past.
I have seen the logo and its very impressive – lets just say it is a dynamic change to the US’s worst logo and has a large influence in the city’s german roots….
just so long as they stay with the yellow and black color scheme. Love that.
One last time…
Young man, there’s no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, ’cause you’re in a new town
There’s no need to be unhappy.
Maybe they’ll have all 5 on the logo this time.
I get the idea the color scheme stays. That is good. But the name was dumb and the logo cringeworthy. Though there have actually been some solid nicknames coming in recently, Dynamo (there’s now a Delhi Dynamos) and the various former A-league teams (Impact, Timbers, Sounders), I expect a bland Eurostyle “SC” or some such, which would be an improvement if a missed opportunity. Good name > bland Euroname > 1996 era junk.
they’re not changing the name per the article
We’ll see if it’s exactly the same.
New logos can be fun. Talk of “brands” and “branding” bores me. Winning attracts people better than “brands”.
Rebranding sounds like you are complicit in a corporate exercise. A board decision was made and you can pay for it. A logo change sounds more consumer oriented. The old logo stunk and was replaced. It’s semantics but yeah terming it branding to the public is a tad offputting.
I hear what you’re saying but look at how SKC “rebranded” after being the Wizards. It worked wonders for their perception in the KC metro area. New colors, new name, new stadium = rebranding. IMO Columbus should upgrade their stadium too
Rebranding is to franchises/clubs as “story lines” are to sports journalism. It might be what’s actually happening, but they’re not what brings the fans in or catches their interest. Using the terms is a frank admission that they are manipulating you.
semantics….getting you shyte together is what will bring fans, that is what KC did
I think you can take a sort of transition period, like a stadium change, or something like that, and change the team’s look and the way it comes across is we’re fixing what we can think of that you don’t like about the team, in a sweeping way. Colorado did something similar around when they moved.
I think that’s one reason Chivas is taking time off. Trying to reboot it somewhere else with a new name, etc. Witness protection program of sorts. [Another reason may be putting Old Chivas’ financials to bed before starting anew.]
But Columbus is staying put, so there is no organic transition. If the witness is changing their identity, they just did it in front of the mob’s social club they are trying to hide from. In that context, the new logo might help but it can also come across as old wine in new bottles, if it’s just a little bit of aesthetics. Calling it re-branding makes it sound like the board made a decision independent of the fans and here let’s see if you like it. Cardiff FC re-branded. The Astros here in Houston keep changing their look and have not yet quite found their feet logowise (or more broadly with the fans, in light of plenty of other issues) since.
A “brand” is not the graphic identity of a given organization or company, it’s the emotional representation of the identity evoked in people based on many elements of the identity. So to say “rebrand” suggests more than a simple logo re-design or identity re-design.
Actually, to the average person the brand is what the corporation owns and hones, their visual/identity strategy vis a vis the consumer. Top-down.
I can’t control directy how Corporation X wants to brand. I can tell them the logo is dumb and I don’t like their aesthetic. I can stay home from games or not buy shirts with dumb logos. With Houston 1836, I can tell the team to jump in a lake because I think it’s vaguely racist (people forget they weren’t the Dynamo to start). But they control that we’re going to brand as neo-cowboy in bright orange, etc. That everything is going to fit an image. I just get to decide if I’ll buy end products, which is more about logos and the tangible manifestations of the team, reflecting but not being the brand.
FC Dallas was re-branded. New logo, new name, new stadium… going from an American-style name to an international style name. Same with Sporting KC.
If the name stays, this is just a graphic redesign. I have a feeling it is going to be a Garber-face OBEY graphic with ‘CREW’ above it.
Change for the sake of change? I liked the name and the logo. The logo is a reminder of the working class roots of the game. What will they replace it with? Probably a crew of yuppies drinking craft beers at the local micro-brew.
Yeah, because the generic white boys in the current logo look so hardcore working class.
Hey, what’s wrong with microbrews? (answer: nothing at all)
I don’t have a problem with the name Crew. It actually sounds pretty classic.
I’m glad they’re getting a new logo and brand up date. That needs to happen. Let’s hope it’s better than MLS 2.0!