Soccer Club Crest Maker for Sunday League and Fantasy Teams

Why so many club badges look like coats of arms

Football badges and heraldry share a family tree. Coats of arms began as bold symbols that told friend from foe at a distance, and when clubs started putting badges on their shirts, many borrowed elements of their town's coat of arms to give fans a sense of place. A badge also had a practical job: before floodlights, it helped players pick out teammates on a dark winter afternoon.

Many clubs did not adopt a badge at all until the 1950s, and the earliest ones were often simple shapes that could be stitched onto a jersey. The Maltese cross and its close cousin the cross pattee were popular in those early years because they stood for the knightly virtues clubs liked to claim. Crest Studio has a Maltese cross emblem if you want that old-school look.

That history is good news for an amateur club: a shield, a strong animal or symbol, the club name across the top and a motto on a ribbon is a format everyone already reads as "football club".

Designing a badge that works on a shirt

Start with your club colors

Your shirt color is the obvious field color. Then pair it with gold or silver for the emblem. That is heraldry's rule of tincture (a metal on a color), and it is also what keeps a badge readable from the far touchline. Blue and gold, red and white, green and gold and black and gold all follow it.

One emblem, chosen for a reason

• Lion or bear: courage and strength, the classic choice. See the lion coat of arms guide.
• Eagle or raven: speed and sharp eyes. See the eagle coat of arms guide.
• Wolf: a team that plays as a pack.
• Tower, anchor or ship: a nod to your town, harbor or home ground.
• Lightning or a star: a fast-attacking side, or a fantasy league that likes a bit of drama.
• Your initial: the simplest badge of all, and very hard to confuse with anyone else's.

Keep the name short

Two or three words fit across the top of the crest at full size. "Riverside Rovers FC" works; a full legal name with "Amateur Football Club" does not. Put the founding year or a short battle cry in the motto ribbon instead.

Make your own, do not borrow

Professional club badges are protected trademarks, so do not copy one, even with the colors changed. An original badge is also simply better: it belongs to your team and nobody else's.

Files your printer or embroiderer will ask for

Shirt printers and embroiderers almost always ask for vector art, which is what the SVG in the $9 set is. Embroidery has a few limits worth knowing before you finalize the design:

• Small text gets lost. Custom Ink, for example, recommends embroidered text at least 0.25 inches tall and lines at least 0.05 inches thick. On a small chest badge, the club name and motto may need to be dropped or sized up.
• Thread cannot do gradients or metallic shine. The embroiderer will pick the closest solid thread colors, so a gold emblem becomes a yellow or gold thread.
• Use the shield on its own for small spots. The $29 Crest Logo Kit includes a shield-only mark as a transparent PNG and SVG, which suits a chest badge, a cap or a sock tab better than the full crest with its ribbon.

Beyond the shirts

• Fantasy leagues: a crest for the whole league, plus one per manager. The 1080 px profile picture in the $9 set is square, which suits most apps and group chats.
• Club socials: the Logo Kit's banners are sized for X, LinkedIn and YouTube, and its icons work for a club website.
• Trophies and awards: print the crest on end-of-season certificates or engrave it on a plaque. The SVG scales to any size.
• Let the squad vote: click "Copy link to my design" in the studio and share it in the team chat. Everyone who opens it sees the same design and can suggest a version of their own. The same trick works for gaming clans and guilds.

Design your club crest

More free heraldry tools