F37: Typing Football

Could you introduce the agency and explain your particular relationship with football?

Rick: F37 is an independent type foundry, designing and releasing our own fonts, as well as working on bespoke custom typefaces for brands.

As for football, it’s less of a professional thing and more just a part of life. I support Bolton Wanderers, which probably tells you everything you need to know.

How do you perceive the evolution of football typography between the 90s, the 2010s, and today?

Rick: The 90s started off heavily influenced by the NFL lettering in the US. It was more functional, not over-designed, sometimes a bit awkward, and often breaking design ‘rules’ like stretching fonts to fit the space. But I suppose looking back, that’s part of the charm of that era. It just needed to work for its purpose and that’s it.

In the 2000s, things started to become more polished and systemised. You started to see more consistent league-wide typefaces and a push towards cleaner design.

For me, the sweet spot is probably mid 2000s to early 2010s, when a lot of respected designers were brought in. That’s where you start to see more considered and creative approaches.

Nowadays, it’s still a mix. There’s some really strong work and some less so, but more clubs are recognising the value of having a distinctive typographic identity. Clubs like Chelsea FC and Spurs, who we’ve worked with recently are good examples. And there’s more of that coming through now, including another project that we can’t talk about just yet.

How do you approach a football brief compared to a classic corporate brief?

Ryan: Unlike most corporations, football teams are brands where people are really invested into how the brand changes and what it says about them. We often like to reference the brands history, key architecture and other familiar visuals as a way to help fans buy into the new look, and since most teams have at least 100 years of operation there is often a lot to draw from.

Could you walk us through the genesis of the Chelsea typographic rebrand?

Ryan: Working with Uncommon was key to the rebrand. Together we were taking the brand from a football team to a global London icon. The serif forward approach was a risk but also a bold and brave move. Much of the football typographic landscape is tough, shouty and sans-serif. The high contrast serif first approach made Chelsea stand out.

What did you want to express through this typeface?

Ryan: The Chelsea lion crest was core to the rebrand. Creating a hero style that felt sharp and stylish to reflect the crest was key, we did this with delicate elongated serifs, high contrast and hard edges. Since we created 4 distinct styles for Chelsea each for different uses (Sharp=display, Serif=headline, Flared=body, Sans=captions) we had to make sure the sense of Chelsea we had built in the Sharp was visible no matter the size and style uses. Finally, translating all of these Latin-centric elements into Arabic was a delicate challenge. Our inhouse Arabic designer did a fantastic job at creating Arabic that matched the feel, without parodying the Latin features.

Should a football typeface be designed primarily to be “seen from afar,” or “read up close”?

Ryan: A custom typeface with as many styles as Chelsea should permeate throughout a brand. From shirts to billboards to tickets, in this sense football type should be worn, felt, seen and read aloud.

What role does experimentation play, especially with numbers, historically a core playground in football typography?

Ryan: Designing jersey numbers can allow for more graphic and less typographic experimentation. For Chelsea we designed a condensed serif for the jersey, another rare and bold in the sea of sans serif jersey numbers.

Rick: Numbers have always been a bit of a playground. They need to be legible from lots of angles and distances, but beyond that there’s usually more room to experiment. You can bend the brief a bit more and push towards something more distinctive. It’s often where you can make something truly memorable. A good example is the shirt lettering we design for Major League Soccer which was inspired by the Penrose Triangle.

What does the future of shirt typography look like?

Ryan: The future is not defined. One feature we are proud to have contributed to is the use of Variable fonts in jersey names. Usually when players with long names are printed on the back of kits, they squish the type or use a single condensed style. With variable fonts we have allowed for teams and leagues to perfectly set the width of every name.

Is the rise of extreme personalization, custom typefaces for each team and sometimes each drop, a positive direction?

Ryan: I’m not sure it has gotten to an extreme level. For fans, type designers, graphic designers and anyone else who appreciates a diverse visual landscape I would say distinct identities for each team a positive.

If you had to design the “ideal football typeface of tomorrow,” what would it look like?

Rick: It’s hard to define an ‘ideal’, because every brief is different. For me, it’s more about having a strong idea behind it. Some of the best examples come from that, like Puma Gaffer by GBH (2012) and my personal favourite, the two-tone red lettering for England’s Euro 2012 kit. Named Vaughton, this typeface by Paul Barnes of Commercial Type was designed to match the collar trim of the kit.

What I like about football typography is the diversity. There isn’t one right answer. Different clubs, different leagues and different cultures all bring something unique to the table. So if anything, the variety and creativity is the ‘ideal’ and making something that is truly memorable.

Which club or nation, in your view, most deserves a complete typographic overhaul?

Rick: I’m not sure I have a specific club or nation in mind, but I’d love to see some of the lesser-known brands (ones that aren’t Nike or Adidas) do some more creative work using specialised respected design studios. Hopefully then we’d get some really memorable, considered and distinctive typographic work.

And finally, if you had to summarise the F37 philosophy applied to football in one sentence, what would it be?

Rick: Our approach is the same for every project: good design is built on a strong idea, which makes it memorable and a better addition to the visual landscape. We apply that philosophy to football just as we do to everything else.