How to Make a Club Emblem

What’s in a name? The Chelsea Pensioners football (soccer) club asked that question 100 years ago, when organizers first created a club badge to symbolize the team. Chelsea footballers felt their emblem was important enough to re-design it four more times over the years—a testament to the power of a club symbol. If you’re in charge of creating an emblem for your club, save yourself from having to reinvent it repeatedly by designing a classic that looks just as great in 100 years as it does today.

Instructions

    • 1

      Consider the name of your club. Think about symbols that best represent what you do and how you do it. Ask club members to bring to a meeting pictures that visually describe your club (e.g., a cougar, lightening bolt, etc). Compile a master list, and have members vote to choose the one they like best.

    • 2

      Peruse emblems and logos to see how graphic designers use colors and shape to interpret the names of organizations. Find those that would work for your club emblem based on the length of your club’s name, your club colors (if any) and the symbol you chose.

    • 3

      Obtain a copyright-free drawing that fits your needs from an Internet stock studio. Download a high-resolution version of the image (at least 300 dpi). Import the image into a word processing, draw or page layout program, and type the name of your club over, under and across the picture to create several design options. Submit the finalists to this test: Take each down to 1-inch by 1-inch on a copier, and eliminate the unreadable versions.

    • 4

      Take several versions of your club emblem design to the membership and ask for feedback. Expect one of these outcomes: Everyone is crazy about one design; members reject all of them (at which time you turn the project over to someone else); or the group recommends a compromise, mixing an element from one, the typeface of another and the color palette of the third. Make revisions to the design, and return to the group for sign-off.

    • 5

      Decide where your emblem is going to be used: uniforms, caps, shirts, all of the above? Call companies that embroider, screen or print designs to gather prices. Also check prices on the Internet. And don’t hesitate to negotiate with local merchants, especially if the club prefers to keep the business in the community.