New Club Crest: By fans for the fans!

Over the last 18 months, we have been working with Frome Town F.C. and June this year saw the launch of the clubs new crest. Our inclusive approach has seen the club and fans come together positively over the change of one of the clubs most influential assets.

The club have been working alongside SF Sports Marketing in the rebranding process over the previous 12 months. A process designed to ensure the club could reflect the modernisation and changes being undertaken within the club, whilst remaining true to the club heritage and Robins nickname.

GETTING OUR FANS AND PARTNERS FEEDBACK

The process began back the previous summer where the club committed to a five year aspiration to become off the field "The Best Non-League Club in the Country”, lofty ambitions designed to ensure that any activities undertaken must be performed at a high level, to allow the club to drive on and off the field success.

The first stage was to gauge the desire to retain the old crest and manage modernisation changes through short surveys and feedback gathering. However, this revealed that many supporters and local residents thought of the crest as “ugly” and “poorly created”, with many citing the Frome Town Robins as a much improved version of a Robin Crest. This was met with a spectrum of other comments around Ornithology, with the Robin being seen as a lone bird, with the inclusion of two Robins would often be seen as antagonistic.

LEADING WITH FANS DESIGNS

The club gave our younger fans that attend matches, the chance to draw a new crest and to submit these to the club. With only one exception the children had all drawn new crests in various guises that featured a single Robin (The other had a single eagle). This was followed by a call out to the local community over the Christmas period for anyone to submit their Crest suggestions to the club and that any support would be credited to the individuals. However, the designs received were strong but not necessarily the meeting the final desired outcomes. So the the fans comments were refocused our brief. What ran true again was the need to focus on the past and to create a modern approach that allowed the Crest to be replicated in a positive way without any constraints.

The design process was managed by local Frome-based designer Kane McGuiness with SF Sports Marketing, with the aim of creating a design that could be easily used across all club communications. The importance was largely focused around the clarity of being able to present the Frome Town wording and a newly stylised Robin, in a manner that could be replicated on merchandise as effectively as online. The process underwent design iterations being reviewed by the club, selected fan groups and players to gauge the thoughts and to provide any insights.

Scott Fitzgibbon (SF Sports Marketing) added “Across the club we are looking to modernise and change misconceptions across the local community. This is well underway with the clubs ‘We are #BA11’ campaign which has been running for 10 months and now the club has a new modern feel to showcase this progress."

THE FINAL DESIGN

We were able to create an identity that the new direction of the club can get fully behind. The club is looking forwards to the future, whilst understanding and respecting its past. It finds the perfect balance.

MATCHING OFF THE FIELD AMBITIONS

Jeremy Alderman, Frome Town Chairman said:

"We are delighted to see the club continue to evolve and lead the way for sport in Frome. Whether that’s Mens, Womens, Childrens or ability teams. We now have a new identity to represent this development. The club continues to grow daily. Now our supporters have a real opportunity to show their pride in the club, especially it’s tireless work in the community to help make Frome Town FC a real asset to the town itself.”

The new season has seen the launch of merchandise and replica kits as the club looks to gives the fans more options to show their pride in their everyday activities for the first time in a long time.