Pitch to Pro
Pitch to Pro is the official podcast of Ozark United FC. This will be our platform to tell our story about the club and the special place that we call home, Northwest Arkansas. This is a journey. We want to bring you along for the ride. We'll share what's going on behind the curtain, help educate the community at large about soccer, Our league, and give updates on the progress of the club along the way.
Together, we'll explore and unpack our journey to professional soccer, the magic that is NWA, our community, and talk all things soccer from on the pitch to behind the scenes, telling the story of our club.
Pitch to Pro
Stoppage Time Special: Crests & Identity
Check out this Stoppage Time Special from Ep. 18: What Makes a Good Soccer Crest?
What's the difference between a forgettable logo and an iconic football crest that fans proudly tattoo on their bodies? Our latest Stoppage Time segment dives deep into the art and science behind the badges that represent the world's most beloved clubs.
A truly great crest tells a compelling story that resonates with supporters on a visceral level. It's not just about aesthetics – though shapes, colors, and symbols all play crucial roles. The most powerful badges serve as visual ambassadors for a club's mission and values while simultaneously celebrating the unique character of their local community.
We explore how traditional shield designs pay homage to medieval heraldry while modern circular badges create a sense of unity. The psychology behind color choices reveals fascinating insights: reds and oranges convey aggression and passion, blues represent loyalty, greens connect to nature, and occasionally, a club like Inter Miami boldly embraces pink to establish a distinctive identity. From Chelsea's lion to Barcelona's bull, symbolic elements enrich each crest with deeper meaning, often drawing from regional folklore or landmarks that ground the club in its hometown.
This segment sets the stage for the full exploration of iconic crests from Europe's top five leagues in Ep. 18. Whether you're a design enthusiast, football history buff, or simply curious about the visual identities that inspire such passionate devotion, you'll gain a fresh appreciation for the badges that transform sporting organizations into beloved cultural institutions. Subscribe now and join our journey through football's most meaningful symbols!
Want to hear more? Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.pitchtopro.com/episodes/what-makes-a-good-soccer-crest/
Welcome to the Stoppage Time edition of the Pitch to Pro podcast. This is a highlight reel of some of the best moments from the show so far, and every other week we will be bringing you a special five to seven minute segment featuring the best stories, tales and moments of the podcast.
Speaker 2:One of the most important things about the crest yes, design is important, some of the symbols are important colors but really what people will tell you, and I think can align to and agree with, is it needs to tell a story. You need to be able to connect with the crest as a fan and understand the different pieces and components of it and how it comes together to tell and paint a bigger picture, and so I think that that is probably, for me, one of the most important things when we think about what makes a good crest. Secondarily, I think and these aren't necessarily in any particular order, by the way, but I think it also really needs to connect with the club's mission, vision, values. It needs to be representative of the club itself, and what does the club say that it stands for? And so when see that crest, they identify it with the club and it is an ambassador for the club wherever it is worn or shown throughout the world, and sometimes you know that's, that's what's seen. In and of itself, on its own, uh, on different pieces of merchandise or or print, or whatever the case may be, it becomes iconic and that's the thing that the club becomes known for, and so it really needs to be representative of what the club stands for, and so I think that again, it needs to be able to paint a picture, tell the story and connect back to those mission, vision, values and those key tenants of the club. Just as importantly, it needs to represent the area. It needs to be relevant to the area where the club is located. I think that all of the great crests around the world and different clubs around the world and different leagues they connect back to the community and that has to be, I think, of any. That's so important of any good crest or badge is it has to be representative and connected to some of the pieces that make that community an area special and great, and that needs to be part of the club itself and the ethos and its mission vision value. So I think if you've gotten the mission, the mission, vision values right and connected to the area, then that should hopefully translate over to the badge as well and the crest, um, and then all you know, obviously there's the, the design elements.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you have the overall design. What shape is it? Um, you know? Is it there? The circular badge is now pretty popular, uh, in some different, different leagues and clubs and teams, traditional crest or shield shape, again kind of that homage to more traditional kind of coats of arms, if you will. That's where that history comes in, to play a little bit there.
Speaker 2:And then, what colors you know you have. Certain colors mean certain things. You know your warmer colors, certain things you know, your, your warmer colors, your reds, your oranges, your yellows, um, they're a little bit more adventurous, aggressive, uh, domineering, um, you know hopeful a little bit with the yellows, and you know sunshine and that kind of thing, uh, or some of your cooler colors, like blues, are really into loyalty and greens a lot of times playing into nature and those kinds of themes. Pink is a little more playful, like Miami and inter-Miami and what they've done. I think David Beckham is one of the few that could pull off a pink kit for his club, but they do it well, they pull it off nicely. So anyway, those are the.
Speaker 2:And then you get into symbols a little bit too. You know different animals have different meaning, whether you go realistic, animal or sometimes there's folklore in the area. You know I can say this, you know, with example we just talked about inter Miami, they have the, the, the white storks there that are really popular in Southern Florida. So, anyway, you guys get the picture, symbols, colors, design, they all kind of come together and again tell that story and make a holistic conversation around what does the badge and crest stand for. So for me those are some of the main elements. Again, I think you know people can make arguments for others, but I think that that is pretty well encompassing.
Speaker 2:All right, guys, we've talked a little bit in terms of the history of good. You know the crests of the world and why are they called crest badges? How did they come to be? We also talked about some of the key tenants of what makes a good crest and tenants of what makes a good crest, and so what I think now is a good thing to kind of jump into is what I've done is I've put together a compilation of the top five leagues in Europe, from Spain, england, germany, france and Italy, and what are the most well-known clubs within that league that the badges or the crests would be well-known, and let's kind of take a look at them. Again, I think there's a ton of different research out there, a lot of different resources, and these are certainly not going to be all encompassing in terms of a breakdown on what they mean, but it'll give you guys a good idea of what kind of goes into these crests from some of the biggest clubs in the world clubs in the world.