On Thursday morning the announcement came that Major League Soccer had unveiled their new logo.
The new logo, pictured right, wasn’t what most were expecting as one of the most forward-thinking leagues in the world have taken an entirely new approach to the league’s logo.
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Although the logo on the right will act as the overall new image of the league, each team will have their own version of the MLS logo which will be branded in their team colors and slot in with their own club crest.
See the image below for exactly what I mean. For some more explanation on all this, here’s what MLS had to say via MLSsoccer.com, where you can download the new logo or your own teams logo.
“It means each club will get a version of the league crest, which better reflects their clubs identity and local market. This is not a replacement for the club brand; instead the new league brand compliments and allows the club to be the real hero. We want to reinforce the ethos of the new brand, which encourages clubs to “own” and adapt the crest to match the colors they and their fans associate with and support.”
So, there you have it. More will be revealed later on Thursday, as the MLS re-design pushed the boundaries of traditional league logo’s across the global soccer community. The famous soccer cleat and ball logo is gone after nearly 20 years in existence. MLS also explained the design aspect as “the slash begins outside the perimeter and drives upward at a 45-degree angle to illustrate both the nonstop nature of our game and the rising trajectory of our league. It bisects the crest to create a ‘first half’ and ‘second half.'”
As for getting rid of the traditional logo, here’s what MLS had to say.
“The new brand’s design is intended to say “soccer” without the literal ball and cleat. In the end, we decided that the inclusion of a ball and cleat is unnecessary as it dates us very quickly (due to the fast pace of innovation in our game) while many other ways exist to signal we are a soccer league.”
The dropping of the new MLS logo comes in line with FIFA 15 being launched in New York City on Thursday. Below is the color scheme for each individual club logo, as the designs will be dropped officially by January 2015, with the New York Red Bulls and Orlando City set to sell their jerseys with the new MLS logo on it by the end of this year. You will see the new logo on the rest of MLS teams’ jerseys during ‘jersey week’ in March.
