WAKEFIELD AFC NEW CREST

WHY ARE WE UPDATING OUR CREST?

We received a lot of fan feedback to suggest our old crest simply wasn’t well liked! It is important to us that we listen to our fans and many were in favour of change. We recognise that our old crest isn’t fit for purpose. The old crest may make a big impact, but for all the wrong reasons. We wanted to update our crest to be simpler, but more striking. And memorable for all the right reasons!

Reasons for change:

• Because the crest was only designed in 2019, it does not hold historical significance.

• The large W, plus the Fleur-de-lis and the Yorkshire rose are too cluttered. Too much has been packed into the crest.

• The Yorkshire rose traditionally has five petals but the rose on our old crest only has four.

• The ‘Wakefield AFC’ font looks dated.

THE DESIGN PROCESS

We ran a competition via our website and social media channels for the public to submit designs for a new crest. Our requirements were simple. We wanted to leave the design process open to see what people came up with!

We are very pleased to say our new crest was designed by Graphic Design student Erik Winterburn from Wakefield.

THE CONSULTATION PROCESS

The club received many designs to choose from. The range of options were whittled down to a shortlist by our Wakefield AFC Committee. This process wasn’t quick. The Committee had many conversations until a final decision was made.

Once the Committee agreed on Erik’s design, they decided it was important for the club’s year of establishment to be on the crest. This feedback was communicated to Erik who duly complied. It was decided that the more modern Arabic numerals was preferable to Roman numerals.

Some Committee members also expressed concern over the Yorkshire rose on Erik’s design having six petals. Erik designed an alternative with five petals. The Committee were then happy to accept this as our new crest.

Erik also designed the crest with red coloured font, and just blue font. The Committee decided the blue font was more aesthetically pleasing.

OUR NEW CREST

Our new crest solves all the previous crest’s issues.

The colours mimic the traditional Yorkshire colours and the Yorkshire rose depicts our proud Yorkshire roots.

Though we no longer have the colour red to represent our traditional ‘red, white and blue’, these colours tend to be synonymous with Wakefield Trinity and other Wakefield clubs and we want to establish our own identity.

The new crest was the preferred choice of our Committee from a shortlist of ten designs.

The crest is made up of two main elements, the central white rose representing Yorkshire and within it, a five-pointed shape to symbolise the five towns associated with Wakefield. On the outside reside two crossed mining pickaxes resembling the mining traditions of the region. The blue used within the crest reflects the colour way of the previous badge.

– Erik Winterburn

LOOKING FORWARD

Our club has made great strides in such a short space of time. We have a First Team, Elite Football Programme, Development Academy and an upcoming Women’s Team. We now have a club crest that matches our ambition.

Our crest will be proudly displayed on all our footballing kits from the start of the 2021/22 season. We hope all our supporters wear our new crest with pride as we look forward to even more exciting developments in the coming months.

In response to a number of calls for our new club to adopt a more modern badge we have asked a number of people to contribute ideas. After much deliberation our hard working committee have decided that this badge meets our vision the best. It was a tough call because there were excellent options submitted. Many many thanks to all those who contributed. Let’s hope our performances this year match the badge.

– Mike Hegarty