I have been bouncing around the globe for the last few years, the most recent corner I have called home is Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Being born and bred in Liverpool, UK, football is life for many brought up there, and I am no exception.
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
- Bill Shankley, former Liverpool FC manager
Liverpool FC will always be my first and only love in the beautiful game of football, however I had a rare chance to be part of the beginning of a new team, right here in Atlanta. Major League Soccer had announced the team would begin playing in 2017 so I decided to create some concept kit ideas that sent local fans in to a bit of a craze! The official kit will be released in November so I wait to see what they have come up with, but the overall experience of completing some concept designs got my creative juices going. I moved into teaching many years ago after falling out of love with the design industry, not so much for the creativity, but the industry itself wasn't making me happy.
My recent foray back into designing brought me across a image someone created around 2010 which showed a concept MLS league system by 2020, consisting of 32 teams across 4 leagues. The league currently consists of 20 teams over 2 leagues. The idea of future teams intrigued me, so I have gone about developing my own MLS 2024 Project, including teams that have/will enter the MLS system in the next few years (Atlanta, Minneapolis, Los Angeles F.C. and David Beckham's Miami franchise), and also some teams of my own choosing, both existing and new.
Over the next few weeks, I will be providing case study's on my new MLS Franchises, some will be re-brands of existing lower league US teams, whereas several will be brand new brand identities featuring some rumoured future MLS franchise locations. So please take a look and enjoy.
MLS originally announced the expansion franchise for Miami back in February 2014, 2 whole months before Atlanta gained their own expansion. Atlanta are now 5 months away from playing their first MLS game and just 9 months away from moving into their new home at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Miami seem to have left fans wondering what is going on, they have yet to make any announcements on an official team name, colours, kit, or stadium. Whilst land has been bought which will be for the stadium, it is still on going, and I felt Miami should be my first team to brand as their already die hard support groups are looking for a direction.
When I began research for this project, I cam across the amazing case study presented by the fantastic Diego Guevera. Please go and check out his in-depth case study here. He gave me some good insights to into some aspects of Miami to look at, having never visited Miami myself, sometimes research on the internet isn't quite enough!
I take a great interest in the branding going on in the MLS at the moment, from Columbus Crew's recent rebrand in the last few years, to the fantastic Minneapolis crest which will enter MLS, created by the wonderful folks at McCann Minneapolis. I believe the club brand should really embrace the culture and style of a city and most clubs seem to have achieved that. I looked at the local teams of Miami to get some feeling for their styles, but it's a very mixed bag or styles and designs. The only team who have some sense of a 'Miami' style are the Miami Dolphins, but even their work isn't quite on the nose for Miami.
By far the most challenging part was working out a good name for Beckham's Miami team. Rumours have bounced around for the last two years, names such as Miami Vice, Miami United and Miami Current. There has been a trend recently in MLS for teams to look towards Europe for inspiration for both names and crests, Atlanta United has a heavily inspired European look to it, and to some degree so does Orlando City and New York City. There has been more of a focus on teams becoming 'FC' or 'United', and less on the embrace of the personality of cities characters and industries, which I have long believed is a strength of the MLS branding. The likes of the Portland TIMBERS, Chicago FIRE and LA GALAXY, really give the clubs a unique sense of identity not only in the football world, but to their fans.
Miami United, whilst it maybe apt with Beckham's history, felt overkill for me with their now being three 'United' teams in the MLS. Miami Vice, whilst it would be a lot of fun for designers, isn't an appropriate name for the team and for the city. Miami Current struck a chord with me though, it has a sense of modernism whilst also linking to Miamis beach culture without being tied to other Miami sports franchises.
My colour choices already had a solid direction once I had settled on Miami Current. I wanted to pull out some of the seawater blues and greens from the coastline of Miami, as well as looking at some of the golden sand and sun oranges and yellows. I also reviewed the original photographs of the MLS Miami franchise announcement to look at the base colours they worked with to get some early ideas of the schemes they like the look of.
With my colours nailed down, it was onto the club badge. Probably the single most important item for the new franchise. I wanted to bring back that MLS style of unique identity but in a clean and slightly retro inspired look. Bringing in the cultural influence of Miami was a big part of it for me, especially aspects such as the Art Deco architecture and the ocean life of Miami including the sun, sea and sand. The logo also too some inspiration from some of the work of Stefan Kanchev, whilst a lot of his work was done 50, 60, 70 years ago, it is timeless and still works today.
I wanted to follow a similar theme with the logo, clean and slightly retro. I decided to take the shades of blue from the waves of the club badge and bring them into the home and away kits. They are subtly implemented into the home kit design on the sleeves to give a bit of flair and style to a traditionally clean modern kit. The shading is much more apparent in the away kit as they focus on the main pattern of the kit, providing a modern minimalist alternate kit. For the sponsor I decided to go with a local Miami based company, in this case Ryder, a major company who may look to support a local MLS team.
