The New Badge: The designer
The design. The designer. The designing process.
After growing up with the original crest on his living room wall and studying at Wigan’s School for the Arts, the man behind the new Warriors design is more than aware of the Club’s heritage and history.
Following Sunday’s unveil of the new Wigan badge, Stuart Watson – partner at London-based brand agency Nomad – explains the process of designing the new badge.
Watson, one of the founders of Nomad, was the man behind the finished look and admits that he felt a considerable weight of pressure to create a new emblem that the fans can be proud to wear – not least from within his own family.
He said: “I’m from Bolton and I studied in Wigan and this [existing] crest is on the living room of my parents’ home. I know exactly what it means – to not just the Club but to the community as well. For any club, it’s not actually about how it looks, it’s what it means.
“Clubs are always a challenge – you’ve got to be very delicate and rightly so. The word ‘brand’ is a dirty word – these are not brands – this is so much more than a brand to fans. This is part of their life.
“I think Wigan’s brand crest will live on forever in some ways. It’s embroidered in the carpet – it has a special place and we will treat that respectfully. We wanted to bring all that heritage in but make something that’s super progressive for the future.”
Design company Nomad work around the world, covering sports, media and technology. Their previous work includes notable rebrands such as the Premier League, Sky Sports and Super League.
After graduating at Nottingham University with a design degree, Watson started has been working with Sky for 20 years.
Explaining the need for change, he said: “It’s been a fascinating journey. You have to take a step backwards to when we created the Super League brand and we personally, as Nomad, have a very close relationship with Sky. I’ve been working with Sky for 20 years and one of the key things was making a radically modern product for broadcast.
“We know fans love the sport but we want to get those casual fans – the fans who just love sport in general – we want them to crossover, and when they do interact with it, it feels as modern as the Premier League or other sport properties that they’ve watched.
“I think there’s a general consensus that this is good for the sport. Let’s move the sport forward. We have to marry two things: something that is very personal and very meaningful, with the commercial realities of what we’re trying to do, which in essence, having a better product on TV and having fuller stadia.
“This new badge is about trying to capture the success on the pitch off it – to be more commercially successful and to be more engaging to younger audiences.
“The world has changed, and we need to be much more digitally focused. Everyone is watching things on their phones; the way clubs interact with their fans is through social media. Those icons [on traditional detailed crests] become really small and they don’t hold up. It’s not the fault of any old logo, it’s just that the world has changed, and we’ve gone digital.
“When you have this massive change immediately it’s a shock. I would encourage people to sit with it, be patient and it will grow – I’m very confident about that. I hope it will become a huge part of Wigan’s success and future.”
To experience a full interactive display of exciting content that helps to bring the new badge and its story to life, visit our badge microsite now.
Be among the first fans to get your hands on the new look by checking out our new 2021 hummel training kit and travel wear in our online store.
