英格兰橄榄球的品牌形象焕然一新，它的目标是将这项运动的吸引力扩大到更广泛的观众，使品牌现代化。
英格兰橄榄球联盟(England Rugby)，在历史上被称为橄榄球联盟(Rugby Football Unio
n)，是“英格兰草根和精英橄榄球运动的全国性管理机构”。它最近改名为英格兰橄榄球。据design studio公司称，这一品牌的更新正值人们将大量关注这项运动之际，2019年将举行橄榄球世界杯(Rugby World Cup)，明年初将举行一年一度的六国锦标赛(Six Nations Championship)。该公司联合创始人格雷姆•库克(Graeme Cook)表示:“橄榄球拥有广泛而多样的观众，因此我们意识到，我们必须迎合所有类型的人。”“我们想让这个身份感觉更年轻、更新鲜，但我们意识到，我们仍必须让它对那些目前正在打橄榄球、对橄榄球有多年了解的人有吸引力。”努力达到那种平衡。工作室专注于创造一种新的外观，可以适应不同的接触点，从数字渠道和社交媒体到大型印刷图形，例如在特威克纳姆体育场(Twickenham stadium)。尽管之前的品牌“非常一致”，但库克表示，该公司选择“追求连贯性而非一致性”，以实现更多的“灵活性”。新品牌的核心是图形和文本块，其中一些是动画滚动，在一个图形系统，工作室称为“时间轴”。这已经被用来保存不同类型的内容，从排版到照片。库克说:“我们曾与英格兰橄榄球队合作，他们认为橄榄球是‘我们生活中的游戏’，所以我们在研究如何将其视觉化，并制定了一个符合这个想法的图形化时间表。”他补充说，这个想法概括了“橄榄球如何影响你生活的不同部分”。他说:“这不仅仅是一项运动，而是它能为你做些什么，比如教会你自律和尊重，而这在其他一些运动中是没有的。”他补充说，新形象的目的是“反映每个在英格兰打橄榄球和支持橄榄球的人的多样性”。根据设计工作室的说法，虽然橄榄球曾经被视为“精英”，但现在它正在“进化”;英格兰男子橄榄球队已经变得更加“多元文化”，一支“精英”女子橄榄球队正在世界舞台上比赛，英格兰橄榄球队正在支持在全国推广橄榄球运动。时间轴内的图像旨在展示这种多样性;它涵盖了从女子专业团队的照片到“社交媒体上的草根形象”。一种称为Tusker的无衬线字体在整个标识的权重和样式范围中使用。库克说:“我们选择了非常大胆的字体来反映游戏的物理性质，然后使用不同的纹理来引入更多的触觉元素。”除了在品牌和沟通方面提供“灵活性”之外，他还补充说，在“不同的重量和尺寸中使用字体反映了玩家的一些特点——所有的形状和尺寸都可以玩，所以我们喜欢这个想法。”“英格兰玫瑰的标志没有改变，包括红色和白色在内的调色板基本保持不变。”advance一直与英格兰橄榄球的内部团队合作，在一系列触点上推广该品牌，包括隧道图形和数字通信。在今年的秋季国际比赛中，它已经被用在了特威克纳姆的隧道中。该工作室还与英格兰橄榄球队合作，为将于2019年9月20日至11月2日在日本举行的世界杯造势。
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nwards has refreshed the brand identity for England Rugby, which aims to widen the appeal of the sport to a broader audience and modernise the brand. England Rugby, historically known as the Rugby Football Unio
n, is the “natio
nal governing body for grassroots and elite rugby in England”, according to the organisation. It more recently changed its name to England Rugby. The brand refresh comes at a time when there will be a lot of attention on the sport, according to design studio Onwards, with the Rugby World Cup taking place in 2019, as well as the annual Six Nations Champio
nship starting early next year. o
nwards co-founder, Graeme Cook, says: “Rugby has a wide and varied audience, so we are co
nscious we have to cater for all types of people. “We wanted to make the identity feel a bit younger and fresher, but we were aware we have to still make it attractive to people who play the game currently and have been knowledgeable a
bout rugby for years. It was a
bout trying to strike that balance.” The studio has focused on creating a new look that could be adapted to different touchpoints, from digital channels and social media to large printed graphics, for example at Twickenham stadium. While the previous branding was “very consistent”, Cook says the studio has chosen to “go for coherence over consistency” to allow for more “flexibility”. The new branding is centred around blocks of graphics and text, some of which are animated to scroll, in a graphic system the studio refers to as “the timeline”. This has been used to hold different types of content, from typography to photographs. Cook says: “We were working with England Rugby, which had the idea of rugby being the ‘game of our lives’ so we were looking at how to bring that to life visually and came up with a graphic timeline that aligns with the idea.” He adds that the idea encapsulates “how rugby can affect different parts of your life”. “It’s not just a
bout the sport, but what it can do for you in general, such as [teach] discipline and respect, which you just don’t really have with some other sports,” he says. The new look aims to “reflect the diversity of everyone who plays and supports rugby in England”, he adds. According to the design studio, while rugby may o
nce have been seen as “elitist”, it is now “evolving”; the men’s England rugby team has become more “multicultural”, an “elite” women’s team is competing on a world stage and England Rugby is supporting outreach rugby initiatives nationwide. The imagery within the timeline aims to show this diversity; it ranges from photos of the women’s professio
nal team to “grassroots imagery from social media”. A sans-serif typeface known as Tusker has been used in a range of weights and styles throughout the identity. “We chose quite a bold typeface to reflect the physical nature of the game and then used various textures to introduce a more tactile element,” Cook says. As well as offering “flexibility” across branding and communications, he adds that using the typeface in “varying weights and sizes reflects a bit a
bout people who play the game – all shapes and sizes can play, so we liked the idea of that.” The England rose logo has not been changed and the colour palette, which includes red and white, has been kept mostly the same. o
nwards has been working with England Rugby’s internal team to roll out the branding across a range of touchpoints, including tunnel graphics and digital communications. It has already been used in the tunnel at Twickenham for this year’s Autumn Internationals. The studio is also working with England Rugby on its campaign for the World Cup, which will take place in Japan from 20 September to 2 November 2019.
