Beady-eyed football fans will likely have spotted the launch of EA Sports FC’s new branding in stadiums around Germany, England, and Spain over the weekend. The launch comes after EA Sports and FIFA announced last May that they would be ending their 30-year partnership. This was reportedly due to a failure to agree on a licensing deal, with rumours of FIFA asking for a billion-dollar sum. At the heart of three decade tie-up was the bestselling EA Sports FIFA game franchise, which proved so successful that, for many audiences, FIFA is now more synonymous with the video games than the footballing organisation itself.

The game became so culturally prevalent that it has been used to host a spate of campaigns over the years. In the UK alone, these include Stevenage Town FC’s tie-up with Burger King and FIFA, or the option to now play as Wrexham AFC, which would normally be unavailable as a national league side if it weren’t for the club’s multi-year partnership with EA Sports – another clever move by the club since it was bought by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

It has also been used to create awareness and change when it comes to important causes with real-world implications. Kiyan Prince, a promising young QPR footballer who was killed at the age of 15, was included as a virtual player to raise awareness of knife crime and the charitable work done in his name. Campaigners have also been behind the gradual introduction of women’s clubs to the video game, in line with rising interest in women’s football.

EA Sports and FIFA announced that EA Sports FIFA 23, released last September, would be the last game under the FIFA banner and that, as of July 2023, the game franchise would be known as EA Sports FC. EA Sports’ Cam Weber pledged to keep much of the game the same, alongside promises to “meaningfully” reinvest in the sport, namely in community-level football initiatives through its FC Futures programme.

The brand has said that EA Sports FC marks the “next chapter in the World’s Game”. However, the brand name itself is an interesting choice given that ‘FC’, while a globally recognised term, is more commonly used by European – particularly British – clubs. The description of EA Sports FC as a “platform” suggests that it has ambitions to move beyond the video game it built its name and reputation on, with talk of plans to “create, innovate and grow new football experiences”.

Ahead of July’s launch, EA Sports FC has revealed its new branding created by Uncommon Creative Studio. Alongside the presence at stadiums around Europe over the weekend, the new brand world was launched with the help of iconic footballers like Beckham, Zidane, and 2022’s Ballon d’Or winner, Benzema.

The logo sees the letters ‘FC’ arranged in a triangular design, which nods to the triangle symbol used to indicate players in the video game, as well as the triangles showing player ‘chemistry’ in FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT). Triangles also play a crucial role in formation and shape in the physical game.

“Football comes in many colours, but only very few shapes,” says David Jackson, VP brand at EA Sports FC. “Through set pieces, formation design and elegant possession patterns, the language of the beautiful game is often communicated in triangles.

“The shape has also been deeply embedded in EA Sports football games for decades; from the isometric angles of our very first 8-bit experiences to the iconic player control indicator that appears above every athlete in every match – triangles play an essential role in the building blocks of EA Sports football experiences.”

Strong angles have an important part to play in the typographic system, which includes the introduction of two custom typefaces developed with the help of F37 Foundry: Cruyff, inspired by the Dutch football icon, which comes with hefty inktraps, and Marta, named after the Brazilian footballer, an elegant serif that will be used for editorial communications and “elevated brand moments”. With colours being such a big part of individual club identities, the team was wise to opt for a universal palette of Boot Black, Chalk White, Pitch Green, and Forest Green.

The entire brand system has been brought to life with motion design by Buck – an all-important facet of the identity given the brand’s connection to digital spaces. “We see the motion design system as an integral piece of the puzzle in the launch of the EA Sports FC brand,” said Buck creative director, Jon Gorman. “Our goal was to imbue the visual identity with the energy of the game itself – its structure, dynamics, forward momentum – to evoke how football feels, both as player and fan.”

The EA Sports logo regularly appeared next to the FIFA wordmark during their partnership, and this side-by-side arrangement can be seen in the rebrand to present the EA Sports and FC logos. However, a new lock-up has also been created, in which the EA Sports wordmark is embedded in a horizontal bar above the main FC logo, creating an extension of the main triangular design.

Squeezing the ‘FC’ into a triangle potentially compromises legibility, and there’s an additional wing to the left of the logo, presumably in order to complete the triangle shape. Nonetheless, the branding certainly feels in tune with the design language that’s spreading across the increasingly competitive esports category.

Many people would argue there was nothing wrong with the approach to branding during the EA Sports FIFA years. After all, it had become a global phenomenon cemented in the minds of millions. Yet the boom in esports has triggered many other gaming brands to launch contemporary redesigns, while football clubs large and small are churning out new crests and identities all the time. With EA Sports FC at the cross-section between these two worlds, it was likely only a matter of time before the brand made its own move, with or without FIFA by its side.

uncommon.london