At Cannonball, we helped bring a Major League Soccer franchise to St. Louis. But now came the real assignment: Building the club’s identity from the ground up. We worked alongside club ownership to make every strategic and creative decision, including developing the club’s name, narrative, vision, purpose, colors and crest design, plus launched the campaign that introduced this new identity to the world.
The Name and Narrative
St. Louis is a city that is more unified than it often realizes, as evidenced by the civic, busines and cultural renaissance happening in the region. As a club committed to being at the heart of that renaissance, our name needed to be bigger than soccer. So we opened it up to our fans, resulting in over 6,000 name submissions. CITY was a favorite amongst fans, ownership and Cannonball, as we saw the opportunity to redefine what “city” means in our region – stretching beyond state, county and municipality lines. Our vision was that CITY would represent the whole of St. Louis, in totality. Generations young and old. North, south, east and west, standing up for one another. The spirit of a new St. Louis. Our CITY. St. Louis CITY SC.
The Crest and Colors
For our club’s visual identity, we wanted a modern aesthetic that was still undoubtedly “St. Louis.” The crest features STL’s iconic Arch, standing as a gateway, open to all. Two lines representing the Missouri and Mississippi rivers combine to form a proud, united symbol of our city – and our spirit. Our colors were inspired by the St. Louis flag, a bold interpretation for a new generation. To show the versatility of the crest/colors, we created both 3D and 2D motion graphics packages for consistent usage in video/social content, at events, etc.
Livestream Announcement and CITY Fleet
Due to the pandemic, the club name, crest and colors were announced via livestream to a “sold out” room
Fans were invited weeks prior to submit photos which became their cutout avatars, putting them in the room vicariously. Meanwhile, a parade of custom CITY-designed AUDI vehicles (MLS sponsor) hit the streets and gave fans their first taste of CITY swag.
