Major League Soccer side New York City FC will kick off their 2025 season with a new look.
The club announced on Monday, September 9, that they’ve updated their primary crest and their color palette, with the changes officially taking effect for the 2025 MLS season. It aims to build on the brand NYCFC has established since joining MLS in 2015 “while making thoughtful refinements without radically changing course.”
The centerpiece of the new badge is a new “NYC” monogram that has thicker letterforms and flared serifs rather than block. The monogram is designed to stylistically match the text in the roundel surrounding it. That surrounding text now fills more of the roundel and is set in a new custom-designed typeface based on pre-unification New York City Subway tile signage.
The white circle around the monogram has been eliminated, and the light blue and orange outer rings of the badge are thicker. The new lighter light blue and darker dark blue “allow for greater contrast between the lights and darks and allow the club to introduce a modular system of club wordmarks in which the NYC monogram is prominently incorporated.”
“The outgoing versions of the club logos will forever be a part of our story, but we are incredibly excited by the new iterations of these same marks which have engendered so much enthusiasm for this team to date. At its essence, the badge remains effectively unchanged: our NYC monogram anchoring a ring of City blue and orange in which our club’s name is proudly emblazoned. But it is also decidedly bolder and more confident than before — ready to lead us into a future full of ambition and promise.”
— Milo Kowalski, NYCFC senior creative director
The updated badge follows on the heels of a refreshed visual identity that was rolled out prior to the start of the 2024 MLS season. That visual identity mostly deals with graphics used on social media and merchandise, and “aims to strengthen (the club’s) connection to New York while sharpening an already strong brand, providing more vibrancy and excitement for fans across the five boroughs.”
Take a closer look at the creative process that went into the new badge in this video that New York City FC posted to social media:
