This 2018 redesign is not the first time I’ve attempted to redesign Dumbarton Football Club’s badge. The plain fact is that the current badge is excellent. To even consider redesigning it is a daunting task. Still, I thought of what was possibly missing from the current badge. Certainly, the year the club was founded is of note, being that Dumbarton are the fourth oldest association football club in Scotland, after Queen’s Park (1867), Kilmarnock (1869) and Stranraer (1870). And being that the elephant represents Dumbarton Rock (mounted by Dumbarton Castle), and given the fact that Dumbarton’s home ground is at the foot of the rock, I saw an opportunity to incorporate a football at the elephant’s foot.

Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to keep an elephant image of some sort. Apart from that image, I decided that I was going to depart fully from Dumbarton’s handsome badge. 1 FC Köln and Derby County FC, with their iconic animal badges, came to mind. But I wanted something yet more simple. Very intentionally, the elephant in my redesign is unbridled and more lively than the one in the current Dumbarton badge—and it’s ever-so-slightly more anatomically correct, while maintaining a light, minimalistic feel.

The home shirt I designed has a 1970s feel, with alternating vertical bars of two shades of gold. The away strip takes its colours and hoops from the 1881 to 1885 home strip used by Dumbarton Athletic Football Club (which merged with Dumbarton in 1889).

As ever, I am indebted to Dave at Historical Football Kits for some of the historical information used above.