Andco Studio were approached by the Football Association of Wales (FAW) to submit a proposal to create the new visual identity for the Wales men’s national football team.
This visual identity would determine how the Wales team, the players, the fans and the FAW would be visually represented on the World Stage from 2024 to 2026. A prestigious client, with a global reach in the many millions, and with a passionate support here at home, the approach proved quite a coup for Andco Studio, launched in 2023.
The Client
The Football Association of Wales
Background
The Cymru Men’s national team has achieved more in the past decade than at any other time in its 150-year history. On the pitch, a golden generation of players showed that, despite being a country of just 3 million people, Wales can compete at the highest levels of world football.
Off the pitch, the Football Association of Wales harnessed the power of that golden generation to galvanise a fractured football community, uniting it, and positioning football as an integral part of Welsh cultural identity.
As the Cymru national team embarks on a new era with a younger team, a new manager, and adjusts to life after Bale, the way the team is positioned visually is more important than ever.
Creating the Brief
There was no initial brief, so, as with any creative project, Andco sat down for an in-depth scoping session with the client to get a deep understanding of their goals and objectives. From this scoping session, we created a concise brief that would determine how we approached the project.
The Brief
To develop a bold new campaign creative that deepens the Red Wall’s connection with the Cymru men’s national team while providing a platform for content that engages with new, younger, audiences.
The campaign will focus on us, passionate Welsh people, but won’t alienate ‘those that wish they were’. It will focus on Football, and the unique experiences supporting Cymru facilitates.
It will position the players as being as passionately Welsh as the fans they represent. Young men with their own stories, but united by a collective purpose. Standing for something more than their contributions on the pitch.
It will position The Red Wall as a culturally vibrant and inclusive community with an infectious love for their country, their team… win, lose or draw.
Because without the lows, the highs wouldn’t feel quite as high.
Y Wal Goch and ‘Cymru’. Together Stronger.
Goals and Objectives
- Deepen Connections: Cymru and The Red Wall
- Be unmistakeably Welsh.
- Celebrate Cymru fan culture
- The joy of Cymru
- Breathe new life into Together Stronger
- Be bold, vibrant, and reactive.
Related: For Us. For Them. For Her. Immersive Case Study
Messaging
This creative will go back to basics, stripping back complex and varied messaging that has been a feature of more recent Cymru campaigns. Together Stronger will be evident throughout, but treated in a way that makes it feel new and exciting.
It will position the Welsh language as an integral part of Cymru fan culture. It should be prominent throughout the visual system, used in a way that encourages and empowers non-Welsh speakers to have confidence in its use.
The creative will reference Cymru fan culture, and position it as the ultimate expression of Welshness. It will celebrate the moments that make supporting Cymru so unique. The joy of Welsh football and the experiences it facilitates, home and away.
We’re at our best when we’re together, but every brick in the red wall has its own story. This campaign will tell those stories, hero individual contributions. Celebrate the diversity in our collective.
Messaging will change alongside the narrative of the campaign. Our visual system will allow messaging to be dialled up or down depending on the audience, proximity to match day, or how the campaign is progressing.
The Creative Concept
This campaign concept celebrates fan culture. It puts the creative in terraces, in the pubs, in the hubbub and chaos of the away end, in the WhatsApp group chats, in the lounges where families are tuning into the game.
It focuses on fan terminology, fan banter, Red Wall language, the in jokes that Cymru fan’s own, the lyrics to chants they sing. We use stylised type to celebrate fan-led language, positioning imagery within those phrases – uniting players and fans. A new way of representing Together Stronger.
In 2024, the Cymru team will wear a new retro inspired kit, reminiscent of the iconic admiral kits of the 1970s. It’s this 1970s kit that has inspired much of the current Cymru fan fashion.
The aesthetic of our campaign is inspired by those iconic kits, it celebrates the colours in the stands home and away. The “fits” that have made Cymru fans so recognisable in world football. The bucket hats, the beanies, the pin badges, the patches.
All this forms the vivid tapestry on which our players and fans are presented.
In essence there are three main graphic devices in play:
- Fan Phrases – Fractured text that celebrates the terminology created by the Red Wall. It references the moments that surround the matchday experience. It creates a sense that this phrase represents a moment in time, an experience. These phrases are often referencing moments outside of the 90 minutes of football. They tell the story of the Cymru experience through the eyes of the fans.
- Player Numbers – We have a new, younger squad of players. We will profile these players by heroing them and their shirt number. The number backdrops are used when communicating factual information about a specific player – a moment in the game, a goal, a first cap, a squad announcement. The number is simply a backdrop on which to hero the player. It is simple and doesn’t take any time to decipher. Allowing the player to be the focus.
- Fan Fashion – The campaign aesthetic, the patterns and frames that provide the rich canvas on which we build our campaign assets. It celebrates iconic kits of the 70s and the fan fashion that makes The Red Wall so unique.
Photography
This campaign is all about the Cymru experience, pride four our nation, the personalities of the Red Wall and the personality of our players.
Flexibility is key with our approach to photography. This campaign features a combination of studio player imagery, match imagery, and fan content. This allows us to be flexible, selecting imagery that communicates, engages, or tells a story. It’s fun at times, serious at others. It showcases the personalities that make up the Cymru squad, and the fans in the stands.
Andco directed a photoshoot with the entire Men’s squad back in March ahead of the opening UEAF Euro 2024 Play-Off matches against Finland and Poland. In addition, Andco created a set of guidelines to help designers select appropriate in-match and fan-focused imagery from the FAW’s extensive archive.
Animation
A digital first campaign, looking to target a younger Welsh audience, needed to incorporate animated elements. We worked with motion designers to create a suite of assets including match marketing assets and animated words that can be utilised both within the creative, and handed over for fan-use via a set of social media stickers.
Deliverables
Our approach with a project of this scale, is to hand over all the tools the client needs to be able to work with the brand. The FAW has a talented internal design team who we knew would be able to create beautiful assets if we ensured they had all the composite elements at their disposal. To that end, not only do we supply a detailed brand guidelines document, we also create an online directory of all composite parts, including backgrounds, fonts, cut-out player imagery, word marks, animations etc.
Further, due to the vast number of assets the FAW needs to produce in the build-up to a Wales match, and all the in-match social media assets, we created and supplied a full suite of editable templates. This allows the client’s digital team to update these assets in real-time during a game for match events like goals, team line-ups, substitutions etc.
Our pre agreed list of deliverables were…
- Initial client scoping session
- Creative development
- Photoshoot style guide and brief
- Player photoshoot direction
- Brand guidelines supply
- In-match templates supply
- Promotional templates supply
- Suite of animations supply
- Design support for launch
- Team environment branding design (hotel, stadia, training ground)
Want to See More?
Take a look at our immersive case study to find out more about the design process, and to see this new visual identity for the Wales Men’s National Team in action.
Find out more about who we are, our previous projects and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to discuss how anything mentioned in this article could help your business.
