Arsenal Logo

Arsenal Logo PNG

The Arsenal logo is symbolic in everything: even its colors reflect the football club’s history. What can we say about images that are directly related to the name and origin of the brand? But the modern design is evidence that the team strives to keep up with the times.

Meaning and History

The club was founded in the London area of Woolwich in 1886, where the Royal Arsenal, the Royal Artillery Regiment, and many military hospitals were located. For two years, the Arsenal played without a logo, and then they took the coat of arms of Woolwich, where guns were depicted. When the club moved to Highbury in 1913, the guns were left as a brand on the logo. At first, the barrel pictured on the Arsenal logo was directed to the east, then turned west. Today the gunpoint is directed to the east again. Why? No one knows.

The image of this weapon remained the club’s main symbol in the following 17 seasons when the “western gun” was slightly changed and took shape in a new emblem with the Latin expression “Victoria Concordia Crescit.” The image has existed in this form from 1949 to the present day.

Dial Square was the club’s first name due to the eponymous park located nearby. Then it was called Royal Arsenal, and when moving to the fashionable, Highbury executives decided to leave only the Arsenal as a tribute to the area where the club appeared.

The coat of arms of Victoria Concordia Crescit was the official image of the club from the first match of the 1949-50 season when the public saw it on the pre-match program.

Two years later, the club’s management decided to implement the related Latin phrase, which became the official motto of the Arsenal in the season of 1949/50. The new Arsenal logo also included the inscription “Arsenal” in the Gothic style, turned to the west, and the coat of arms of the London area of Islington.

Over the next 53 years, the first coat of arms of the Victoria Concordia Crescit remained unchanged, having undergone several cosmetic repairs. In the beginning, more colors were added to the logo, and the decorative motif of the Victoria Concordia Crescit motto was replaced with a more modern one. Also, after a while, various colors of gold were added to the coat of arms, too.

Thus, for more than half a century, the football club Arsenal almost has not changed its traditions according to the official emblem respect. Still, in 2002 the leadership decided on a real revolution of the primary symbolism. The decision to almost wholly modernize the Arsenal logo was made for two reasons. Firstly, the coat of arms of Victoria Concordia Crescit includes several elements, in which there are some disagreements, due to which the club management cannot be fully responsible for copyright. Secondly, the club’s promotion in the future has always been a fundamental idea of leadership, and due to the construction of a new stadium and the change of millennia, it was decided to create a new Arsenal logo.

The team’s T-shirts samples of the season 2011/12 were released with a new coat of arms in honor of the club’s 125th anniversary. The new Arsenal logo was a combination of the modern and first versions of 1888. Fifteen oak leaves symbolize 15 founders who first met at the Royal Oak Pub. Another 15 sheets of the laurel were depicted on sixpenny coins, which the 15 founders put in the general treasury in 1886. Forward is the motto, connected with armament and battles. This military draft was previously used in the army.

The symbolism of Arsenal FC traces the historical heritage. Most logos depict guns that, for unknown reasons, are deployed either east or west. The only exception is the club badge of the 1930s: the abbreviation AFC in art deco style.

1888 – 1922

Two years after the debut, the club began to use a logo inspired by the coat of arms of the London district of Woolwich. Three columns decorated with lion heads are guns. They are related to the fact that the team was founded by the workers of the Royal Arsenal factory.

1922 – 1925

After changing the name in 1913, the club took nine years to develop a new logo. This time there is only one logo in the form of a gun. The gun stands on large wheels inside an inverted oval. Gun barrel looks to the right. On the left is the team’s nickname, The Gunners, obtained from a connection with the Royal Arsenal factory.

1925 – 1930

On the emblem of 1925, the gun is deployed to the left. This option was used over the next five years.

1930 – 1936

Designers placed artillery weapons on a white shield with a red outline. The lower part is occupied by the inscription “A. F. C., 1930.”

1936 – 1949

In 1936, Herbert Chapman’s manager proposed a new art deco logo: a monogram hexagon. The letters C and A intersect together with the soccer ball form the initials of the AFC club. The same sign adorned the stadium in Highbury for several decades.

1949 – 1994

In the late 1940s, a gun appeared on the logo again. The cannon is in the middle of the heraldic shield. Above – the inscription “Arsenal,” made in Gothic. Under the horizontal line is the coat of arms of the Islington area with the Latin dictum “Deus Per Omnia.” Even lower is the tape with the motto “Victoria Concordia Crescit.” Use this phrase suggested by the editor of the pre-match program Harry Homer.

1994 – 1996

Designers painted the logo and placed it inside a blue quadrangular shield with a round base. In the upper part is written the nickname of the club: “The Gunners.”

1996 – 2001

Minor details of the logo have changed: the thin frame in the middle has disappeared; a broad golden outline has appeared around the large shield.

2001 – 2002

The 1949 emblem returned. The symbol is painted the same way as the small shield on the 1996 logo.

2011 – 2012

The team celebrated its 125th anniversary with a new logo used for the 2011/2012 season. Designers supplemented the shield with elements taken from the emblem of 1888. Fifteen oak leaves symbolize the creators of the club. Fifteen bay leaves – coins that the founders put together as a sign of unity.

2002 – today

Arsenal FC could not patent club symbolism, so it was forced to replace it. The gun remained, but now it looks to the right. Above it is the word “Arsenal.” The coat of arms appears convex due to the specific coloring. The range includes five colors: red, burgundy, white, blue, taupe.

Font and Colors

The main element of the Arsenal FC emblem was and remained an artillery cannon. It first appeared on the logo in 1888 when the club decided to use the Woolwich crest as a graphic sign. But then, the weapon did not look like it does now: it was directed upward, and its lower part was decorated with lions’ heads. Over time, artists have modernized the design, making the cannon two-dimensional and turning it sideways to the viewer.

The military theme, reflected in the name and emblem of the football team, is due to the proximity of two strategically important sites – the Royal Artillery Regiment and the Royal Arsenal, which were located in the same area the club was based. Another traditional part of the emblem is the heraldic shield in a triangle with rounded sides.

The Arsenal FC logo is written in a sans-serif typeface reminiscent of Clearface Gothic Roman. The designers adapted the original typeface, created in 1984 by Morris Fuller Benton, and redesigned individual characters.

The developers paid no less attention to the graphic part. The club sign appears three-dimensional due to the successful color combination. In the middle of the shield, burgundy and red are combined along the edges – white and blue. The word “ARSENAL” is also white. The outlines of the letters, the cannon, and the frame around the shield are gray-brown.

Arsenal color codes