French – ELIJAH WADE ARTEFACTS

Edusport Academy was established as a residential football academy in 2011 with the aim of developing young French players and giving them the opportunity to improve their English language skills. The purpose behind refining these skills was to give the young footballers an edge in entering into the professional game in Britain.

The academy continues to operate as such, but in 2014, applied successfully to become members of the South of Scotland League, the first private academy to participate in a senior league recognised by FIFA. The following season, Edusport applied to the Lowland League, but was rejected. This did not deter the club for long, as they were crowned champions of the South of Scotland League in 2017, gaining promotion to the Lowland League.

In 2018, club founder Chris Ewing launched ‘Our Football Club‘, an online membership scheme, giving supporters the opportunity to have a more democratic voice in the affairs of the club. With this, Ewing expressed the goal of establishing the senior Edusport team as a separate club in its own right with the ambitious aim of reaching the top tier of Scottish football by 2025.

The current badge employs the colours of the French tricolore and features a small Saltire within its central football, representing the link between France and Scotland. While I appreciate the aim of this badge, I find it somewhat difficult to see as more than a relatively weak corporate brand. For a start, the colour scheme of ‘Edusport’ is reminiscent of the uninspiring SportsDirect.com logo. Additionally, the current badge features text within a shield – a ‘no-no’ under ancient Scottish heraldic law. For my redesign, I went for a roundel which features the club’s name with the French definite article le (l’). I have also included the French name for Scotland, Écosse, which is recognised quite readily in Scotland. Also within the outer circlet are found laurel branches, which are found in the current badge. The centre of the redesigned badge features a stylised ‘EA’ monogram and a red circle representing a football.

The kits are based upon previous iterations of Edusport kits, with thick blue and black hoops on the home kit and red and dark red hoops on the away kit. To me, these seem simple, clean and dramatic.

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Brora Rangers Football Club was established in the village of Brora, Sutherland, in 1879. In 1933, the club became members of the Scottish Football Association and in 1962, they began to compete in the Highland Football League.

The club’s first taste of silverware came in 1981, when they won the North of Scotland Cup (a competition open to northern clubs from the SPFL, the Highland Football League and the North Caledonian League). Just a season earlier, Brora Rangers first qualified for the Scottish Cup competition by winning the now-defunct Scottish Qualifying Cup (North), though they progressed no further than the second round, losing out to Highland League rivals Buckie Thistle in a replay at home.

Brora Rangers repeated their 1981 North of Scotland Cup victory a decade later, and then again, four times in five years between 2014 and 2018. Their recent dominance in the Highlands is evidenced further by winning the Highland League in two consecutive seasons, 2013/14 and 2014/15, as well as winning the Highland League Cup in 2016.

The club’s badge is a play on their nickname, the Cattachs, a term relating to the ancient Pictish tribe of ‘Cat’ or ‘Catt’ that inhabited what would become Sutherland and Caithness (a Cattach is now a demonym for someone from Sutherland). In the badge, we find a white heraldic cat rampant. For the redesign, I did not wish to stray far from the current badge, as I find its broad red border very attractive. But I found the particular depiction of a cat rampant to be both confusing and somewhat innocuous. I decided to illustrate a close up of a cat rampant head, which, I hope, suggests both a cat and the ‘rampant’ attitude of the club ready to ‘attack’. I also included the year of the club’s founding, being one of the older clubs in the HFL, as well as the French motto of Clan Sutherland, SANS PEUR, ‘without fear’.

For the home shirt redesign, I was inspired by the Milan-Europe shirt worn by Brora Rangers for their 1993/94 season. The black in both the home and away kits represents the Flow Country, vast expanses of peatland in Sutherland.

ELIJAH WADE ARTEFACTS

Tag: French

ReBrand: Edusport Academy

ReBrand: Brora Rangers FC