England Cricket wants to attract new audiences through a refreshed identity that unites the men’s, women’s and disability teams.
The new look, which was created by The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)’s in-house team and sports branding agency Matta, is rolling out this summer. It can be seen on digital platforms and social graphics, print, merchandise and in-stadium graphics.
The move was driven in part by the swashbuckling style, known as Bazball, that the men’s team play – just yesterday they lost a nail-biting match to India, widely seen as the best Test series since the 2005 Ashes.
“We’re in an incredibly exciting time for England cricket,” says ECB marketing director Jen Vile.
“We’ve got the men’s team playing really dynamic and attention-grabbing cricket, we’ve got the women’s team about to play in a World Cup on home soil next year, and we’ve got disability teams that are increasing in profile, and playing in ever more high profile stadia.
“We wanted to make sure we had an England brand that reflects this moment in time.”
Vile says the ECB wants to build on the current momentum and attract new fans to the game.
She says the new look had to reflect how the teams show up off the pitch – “their interactions with fans, their personalities, the causes they support and the work they do to promote our brilliant sport.” That meant finding ways to “showcase our players as individuals” which is an important part of engaging younger fans in particular.
But she and the team were also conscious not to alienate existing fans, or overlook the sport’s proud history.
“I don’t think it’s either/or,” she says. “We wanted to bring new audiences into the fold, but we also wanted continuity, because we have built a lot of brand equity. It’s all part of this rich fabric of a living, breathing brand.”
The aim, she says, was to “revitalise” rather than rebrand.
And ECB marketing manager Hayley Reed explains that research shows new fans are more drawn to sports that have deep-rooted traditions.
“They want to have a story they can get behind and learn about,” she says. “The design team has done a great job of remembering what we stand for, and ensuring that we pick the right bits and move them forward.”
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
The project started with a huge consultation exercise, gathering input from fans, players, coaching staff and other stakeholders.
One of the key challenges was to create consistency for the overarching brand, with enough flexibility to be adapted to three different teams, explains Matta’s executive creative director, Matt Campbell.
And there was more complexity, because there are also three formats – Test, limited-over and T20 – which each have slightly different personalities.
“So the women’s Test visual language is slightly different to men’s T20, versus the disability limited-overs,” Campbell says. “You’ve got to show a little bit of distinctiveness, and it pretty quickly becomes a matrix structure.”
The design system is inspired by the technical aspects of cricket, from the structure of the pitch, like the field and the middle, to the wagon wheel diagrams commonly used to visualise individual performances, or specific passages of play.
“Cricket is one of the most heavily infographic-ed sports, so there was quite a lot to bounce off,” Campbell explains.
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
But the team wanted to balance this data-inspired visual language with a more emotional brand motif. “We were missing an element of passion, pride and energy – from the players but also from the crowd, and how involved they get,” he says.
Inspired by the lion in the crest, the team developed a visual representation of a lion’s roar, built around the actual wavelength created by that evocative sound.
That visual device also changes according to its context, so in Test graphics it is used in quite a formal way, while for T20 it has “more immediate, explosive energy.”
The tone of voice also flexes depending on the use-case. The team built what it calls a “tones of one voice” document, and Campbell likens the TOV to a “graphic equaliser” that can be dialled up and down.
While maintaining overall cohesion, the language used should reflect each team’s specific objectives – more heritage-conscious for the men’s team, more celebratory and promotional for the women’s team, and bringing an education layer to the disability teams, without watering down the focus on skill.
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
There are two typefaces used in the new identity – Gotham as a sans serif and Beaufort as a serif, which speaks more to the traditions of the game, although it’s used in dynamic ways.
Reed explains the design team studied how Premier League football clubs have been leaning into serif fonts in recent rebrands, but that didn’t feel like the right direction for England Cricket.
The aim is to create a “modern classic” feel with the type – so, for example, there is a clear hierarchy with Beaufort as the secondary font, and the brand guidelines dictate that the word “England” should always be shown in Gotham.
Vile explains that as a “long-term play to grow the fanbase,” the impact of the new branding won’t be clear for a couple of years.
But, Reed says, the early indications are encouraging. Popular former players like Stuart Broad have welcomed the new branding.
And the ECB has already seen “significant improvements” in how the 19 county cricket organisations they work with are adopting and promoting the new identity.
“That was a really key measure for success, to have those counties onboarded and aligned to our vision,” Reed says.
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket
MATTA’s refreshed visual identity for England Cricket