The Montréal Impact logo underscores the team’s deep connection to the city. It reflects pride in Canada, Montréal, and the people who support the club. It represents unity, identity, and love for the game.
Montréal Impact is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Montréal, Quebec. The team competes in Major League Soccer. It was founded in 1992, when Saputo established it on the ashes of the former team “Montréal Supra” from the dissolved Canadian Soccer League. Since then, the team has changed leagues several times: in 1993, it joined the United Soccer League; in November 2009, it joined the North American Soccer League; in 2010, it was forced to move to the USSF Division 2 Professional League; and in 2012, it joined MLS.
The “Saputo” company owned the club until 1999, when Giuseppe Saputo sold it to a group of shareholders. In the 2001 season, the club went bankrupt, and investors turned away. That fall, Giuseppe announced the revival of the “Montréal Impact.” The club was reestablished in 2002 as a non-profit organization owned by the Quebec government, Hydro-Québec, and Saputo.
In November 2009, Impact announced its intention to leave the USL First Division and co-found the new North American Soccer League. The United States Soccer Federation had not yet sanctioned the league, so Saputo tried to obtain an MLS franchise for Montréal. He succeeded: on May 7, 2010, Impact owner Joey Saputo received the Major League Soccer franchise.
Although the Montréal MLS expansion team is legally a separate entity, it bears the name “Impact” and retains the MLS team’s legacy. They also kept the old roster and the blue-and-white color scheme. Its full name is written as Impact de Montréal. This is because Quebec is a French-speaking province of Canada. The only change was the logo adopted after the 2002 relaunch.
Meaning and History
The club had two logos. The first Montréal Impact logo was used until the team joined MLS, and the second one was used after a partial rebrand. They are similar in style and color palette, but their messages are different. Both share one symbol: the stylized fleur-de-lis, a universally recognized symbol of French heritage and a prominent feature on Quebec’s flag.
What is Montreal Impact?
It was the former name of the Canadian soccer club CF Montreal, established in 1992. It is a member of the Eastern Conference and has represented it in MLS since 2012 as an expansion franchise. The team has won Canada’s most prestigious sports trophy, the Voyageurs Cup, eleven times. The team plays its home games at Saputo Stadium. The team adopted its current name in 2021.
2010 – 2021
In August 2011, Montreal Impact opened a new chapter in its history. The team’s move to MLS was marked by a new emblem, first presented at a match against the Minnesota Stars. The agency Pigeon developed the visual style to bring the club’s look closer to European football giants.
The logo shield draws on French architectural traditions. It is strict and triangular, with a pointed bottom and a silver outline. The shield’s blue color is associated with the flag of the province of Quebec and the waters of the St. Lawrence River, on whose banks Montreal is located. A gradient transition of shades adds volume and visual depth.
In the upper left corner of the crest is a heraldic fleur-de-lis, a historical symbol of France and Quebec’s official emblem, reflecting the region’s francophone culture. To the right of the fleur-de-lis are four silver stars commemorating the four communities that founded modern Montreal: French, English, Irish, and Scottish.
The lower third of the shield features black and blue stripes. This tribute reflects the club’s history and reminds viewers of the team’s first championship title in 1994. A wide black diagonal band crosses the shield and bears the inscription “Montreal Impact.” The lettering is set in the strict geometric Bank Gothic typeface and appears in uppercase. At the top of the shield is the team motto in French, TOUS POUR GAGNER, which translates as All for victory and expresses the spirit of unity between the club and its supporters.
2021 – 2022
At the beginning of 2021, the Montreal club announced a rebrand and presented a new name and symbol. The team became known as Club de Foot Montréal, or CF Montréal, and replaced the previous shield with a concise circular emblem.
The circle’s outer edge is drawn in bright blue. The blue outline symbolizes the St. Lawrence River, which surrounds Montreal. Inside, the entire surface is filled with black, creating a rich background for the text and the central snowflake.
The club name CLUB DE FOOT MONTRÉAL is set along the inner edge of the circle and mirrored at the top and bottom. The text is uppercase and set in a modern typeface closely related to Eurostile.
On the left and right, a pair of small fleur-de-lis symbols separates the text blocks. The silver-gray color emphasizes the historical connection to Quebec and the region’s francophone culture while maintaining compositional symmetry.
At the center is the emblem’s key symbol: a large snowflake. Eight arrows form it, pointing toward a single center. This motif is borrowed from the Montreal metro map, highlighting the club’s connection to the city. At the very center of the snowflake are four letter M shapes that also form a circle and reinforce the reference to the team name.
The CF Montréal brand relaunch took place on January 14, 2021. The new club logo, inspired by urban symbolism and local identity, replaced the previous version’s heraldic style.
2022 – today
The CF Montréal football club logo changed again. Less than two years later, the club introduced another design. The 2021 version did not gain traction with supporters, and in May 2022, the club updated it for the following season.
The refreshed emblem retained its circular shape. A medium-thickness gray line surrounds the circle’s edge. The upper half is filled with a rich blue color, with the club name CF MONTRÉAL displayed along the arc. The white letters use a clean sans-serif typeface that resembles Futura or Avenir.
At the bottom is the club’s founding year. The numbers 1993 repeat the font and color of the main inscription. The lower section has a striped background, with evenly spaced vertical lines alternating between blue and black.
At the center of the composition is a shield with a slight outward curve on the sides. Inside, the shield also features vertical stripes in the same blue and black. A gray outline surrounds it. Over the stripes is a fleur-de-lis rendered in white and gray tones. The petals are elongated and gently curved outward, emphasizing the club’s historical connection to Quebec traditions.
The new CF Montréal logo is executed in a flat style, without volume effects, shadows, or highlights. The emblem officially appeared at the start of the 2023 season and emphasized the club’s connection to its original history dating back to 1993, to the era of the first Impact.
Font and Colors
The Montréal Impact soccer club has had two emblems over its existence, both created by the design company Pigeon. Perhaps this explains their obvious similarity, as the 2005 style has hardly changed. Even the 2012 redesign didn’t affect the emblem’s overall appearance.
The logo looks presentable and modern, partly because the developers combined several graphic techniques, such as 3D effects and gradients. As a result, a protruding shield transitions from dark blue (on the edges) to light blue (in the center).
A wide black band with the inscription “IMPACT MONTRÉAL” runs through the entire shield. Both words use Bank Gothic, created in the early 1930s by typographer Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders studio. It’s a square sans-serif font that shouldn’t have serifs, but the logo developers still added them. The original version of Bank Gothic appears at the top of the shield, where the motto “TOUS POUR GAGNER” is located.
Regarding the color palette, the emblem appears minimalist. This misconception stems from the fact that it comprises five distinct shades: blue (#2B63AD), dark blue (#28477D), black (#373536), dark silver (#929397), and light gray (#BBC3C6). Some create a gradient, giving the image a three-dimensional look.






