I haven’t been a fan of football for that many years, but I thought it would be a great topic to write about since they say you should write about the things you love. So I decided to dive into the history of football logos. And what better way to start than with the football club I’m fan of, Arsenal.
It all started in October 1886 when 15 men from the Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory decided to form a football club. They called themselves Dial Square as a reference to the sundial atop the entrance to the factory. Their first game was played on 11 December 1886 against Eastern Wanderers and they won with 6-0. Shortly afterwards they renamed their football club ‘Royal Arsenal’.
The club’s first crest in 1905 was based upon the Woolwich Borough coat of arms. It featured three cannons with lion heads and a Latin motto written underneath meaning ‘Our weapons clash in the King’s quarrel’. The cannons were a reference to the military influence in Woolwich and they maintained this theme over the years. By then the club was known as Woolwich Arsenal which would later be changed into Arsenal FC when the club moved to Highbury in 1913.
In 1949 a new crest was unveiled with the Latin words ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’ written underneath, meaning ‘Victory grows out of harmony’. This crest remained largely unchanged for the next 53 years (with the exception of a few variations).
The logo that Arsenal uses today was designed in 2002 with the upcoming plans for a new stadium, Emirates Stadium. It’s a modernised version of the previous logos with a cannon pointing to the east this time. I'm not sure why they changed the cannon from pointing to the west to pointing to the east since they only used an eastward pointing cannon once before in 1922-1925. But I guess a little change doesn't hurt 😉
This was in a nutshell a bit of history about Arsenal's logo! If you want to find out more you can take a look at Arsenal's website for all the interesting facts about their club's history and more. I'm planning on writing more posts about the story behind football logos, so any suggestions on which logo I should write about next are always welcome ❤️
😃 Hoi Sara ! Reminds me of an old friend of mine whom I didn’t see for e very long time. He was a big fan of Arsenal too.