{"id":15436,"date":"2025-10-20T19:30:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/bossing-it-nomad-creates-new-identity-for-football-manager-franchise\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T19:30:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:30:05","slug":"bossing-it-nomad-creates-new-identity-for-football-manager-franchise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/bossing-it-nomad-creates-new-identity-for-football-manager-franchise\/","title":{"rendered":"Bossing it \u2013 Nomad creates new identity for Football Manager franchise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nomad<\/a> has created a new visual identity \u2013 inspired by the manager\u2019s technical area \u2013 for Football Manager. The hugely popular game makes its much-anticipated return next month, after its original 2025 launch was postponed.<\/p>\n

Nomad has been working with the Football Manager team since 2021, evolving the brand through slight tweaks year-on-year.<\/p>\n

But Sports Interactive \u2013 the studio which makes the game \u2013 wanted a bigger rebrand to mirror the major changes coming with the new release.<\/p>\n

Football Manager 26 has new licenses with FIFA and the Premier League, includes women\u2019s football for the first time, and is now built on the Unity engine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very much a strategic moment for us, so we didn\u2019t want a soft refresh,\u201d Sports Interactive\u2019s marketing director, Alan Granger, explains. \u201cWe felt for a while our brand has lacked distinctiveness. It made sense to align the new brand around this new era for us, and this next-generation product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nomad\u2019s new identity for Football Manager<\/p>\n

While Granger and Football Manager brand marketing manager Kamal Miah challenged Nomad to push boundaries and take a \u201cholistic look at everything,\u201d everyone involved knew that they had to be mindful of the franchise\u2019s huge and devoted fanbase.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople absolutely love this game, and so change was not something we treat lightly,\u201d says Nomad co-founder Terry Stephens.<\/p>\n

Their existing relationship emboldened Nomad to challenge the client and make suggestions, such as the need for a new logo, which wasn\u2019t initially part of the brief.<\/p>\n

As the game continues to grow with international audiences, many of whom don\u2019t speak English, Stephens says that \u201ca universal symbol that sits at the heart of the system felt like a smart thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the new mark, Nomad worked with designer Miles Newlyn<\/a> to create a symbol inspired by a three-panel football, with \u2018F\u2019 and \u201cM\u2019 rendered in a fluid, abstract style.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can adapt to these different markets, but it also to the future ambition, to create a short-form symbol that will hold up in 20 or 30 years,\u201d says Nomad design director George Edwards.<\/p>\n

\n
\nhttps:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FM_CASESTUDY_HEADER.mp4<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Miah says they considered many iterations of the design, and every tiny detail was considered. \u201cWhere we landed is very intentional in showcasing the movement of the ball,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s tilting forward to show progressive energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The way the logo is used actually changed between the aborted 2025 release and the new one. Granger says they reviewed all the design decisions made last year \u2013 because both \u201cfootball and gaming are constantly changing\u201d \u2013 and they wanted to ensure the work was right for the new context, 12 months on.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the key learnings was that we weren\u2019t being confident enough with the symbol in isolation,\u201d Miah explains. \u201cIt was actually impacting the legibility because we were shoehorning it into places where it didn\u2019t really work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main building block of the new visual system is inspired by the managers\u2019 technical area \u2013 the two rectangles either side of the half-way line where bosses direct their players, berate the officials, celebrate goals and bemoan defensive mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a gift,\u201d Stephens says. \u201cIt was one of those things where we were like, \u2018Why didn\u2019t we think of this before\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FM_CASESTUDY_TECH_AREA.mp4<\/a><\/div>\n

Nomad used the rectangle as a design device to bring \u201cfocus and intensity\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s used in both static and motion assets, vertically and horizontally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a manager\u2019s domain, and where their destiny is defined,\u201d Granger explains. \u201cIt\u2019s so simple, but that\u2019s when branding\u2019s at its best. It\u2019s a really ownable symbol for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also influenced the motion design principles, as a starting point from which the visual assets could flex. \u201cThat\u2019s where the game is won and lost,\u201d Miah says. \u201cSo the motion principles open up from that device, transitioning from there so it doesn\u2019t feel enclosed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards says other parts of the motion design were inspired by the ebb and flow of football matches. \u201cThey are built around anticipation \u2013 these longer, drawn-out build-ups with sudden drops of excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FM_CASESTUDY_MOTION_BEHAVIORS.mp4<\/a><\/div>\n

And the technical area also shaped the new key art for the game\u2019s packaging. Managers \u2013 both male and female \u2013 are shown in their technical areas, with the action unfolding behind them, \u201cso that our USP as a management simulation was clear from the artwork,\u201d Miah explains.<\/p>\n

For the typeface, Nomad commissioned the Pangram Pangram<\/a> foundry to create FM Universe.<\/em> Edwards says the new type had to \u201cdo two jobs\u201d \u2013 riffing off the sharp edges of the technical area, while also reflecting the \u201ctapering nature, smooth curves and pinches\u201d of the symbol.<\/p>\n

The type was an integral part of increasing the confidence and ownability of the new brand. \u201cWe used to throw logos literally everywhere, on every asset,\u201d Miah says. \u201cWe wanted other visual assets that could represent the brand, and the new font helps a lot with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brand\u2019s use of purple was one of the only things that had to remain \u2013 usefully purple is not associated with any big football clubs, which might enrage rival fans. But the shade of purple was updated, and it\u2019s used in different combinations in the new identity.<\/p>\n

Nomad\u2019s new type for Football Manager, created with Pangram Pangram<\/p>\n

Miah says that previously, their designers sometimes hit what they came to call \u201cthe purple wall,\u201d when they had to use lots of brand colour in place of imagery from licenses they didn\u2019t yet have. With the new agreements in place, a refined colour balance will work across the much wider range of imagery they now have access to.<\/p>\n

With the launch of the new game now just a couple of weeks away, Granger says the new identity is already proving its worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest compliment I can pay is that normally at this point, us brand marketers are absolutely fed up with seeing the brand,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we don\u2019t feel like that. We haven\u2019t really scratched the surface yet of how we can use it, and how we can flex it. And that\u2019s tremendously exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

That long-term ambition is why the project became so broad, Stephens explains. \u201cIt\u2019s about putting the component parts in place so the brand can communicate coherently for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FM_CS_TYPE_OUT_HERO_16-9.mp4<\/a><\/div>\n

Nomad\u2019s new identity for Football Manager
\nNomad\u2019s new identity for Football Manager<\/p>\n

https:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FM_CASESTUDY_UI.mp4<\/a><\/div>\n
\nWhat to read next: <\/strong>How PALS\u2019 Eurovision refresh points towards a different design studio model<\/a> | Dusted\u2019s billion-dollar brand for Mahindra\u2019s new electric cars<\/a> | Angel & Anchor\u2019s multi-mark system for WELD shows more is more<\/a> | Uncommon Creative Studio\u2019s pigeon-based identity for London Museum<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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