New badge?

After the disappointment of the 125th anniversary badge and the boring previous badge, is it time for a new badge? Personally, I would love something with a proper Roman design, maybe in sillhouette, nice and simple. Whatever, I think that something that isn't overly fussy - like the last one - or boring and just repeating the stripes - like the one before - would be good.

I rather like the previous one. I'd call it simple rather than boring.

I don't mind the simplicity of it as such but I can't see the point in badges that replicate the strip. Also, we are the only team in the UK to have Romans as a nickname so why not have a Roman on the badge.

Roy D Hacksaw wrote:I rather like the previous one. I'd call it simple rather than boring.

Ditto. Minimalist

Yeah I like the previous logo too, very easy to mould into different things and transfer onto merch with ease. Much like the Big Bath City Bid logo!

Whilst I am perfectly happy with the current badge I can see that if the community bid succeeds a new badge could be on the agenda.

If it was the case I would like to see the 60s badge (that formed the main part of the 125th badge) used, rather than a new design.

yuffie wrote:Whilst I am perfectly happy with the current badge I can see that if the community bid succeeds a new badge could be on the agenda.

If it was the case I would like to see the 60s badge (that formed the main part of the 125th badge) used, rather than a new design.

100% agree with that Yuffie. City have had three badges already, the best of which is the coat of arms badge that was used in the 60s. Strip away the laurel and ribbons from the 125 badge and we have it ready, and looking good.

Marc, a Roman was used on the "lozenge" (not sure what else shape to call it) badge, although by silhouette of a Roman, are you imagining a helmet and more similar in style to the Blyth Spartans badge? (Acknowledging that theirs is clearly a stylised Spartan helment, rather than Roman).

yuffie wrote:Whilst I am perfectly happy with the current badge I can see that if the community bid succeeds a new badge could be on the agenda.

If it was the case I would like to see the 60s badge (that formed the main part of the 125th badge) used, rather than a new design.

This would be the one for me minus the clip art wreath and 125 banner. It incorporates the City of Bath arms but isn't overly fussy, still has stripes round the side and harks back to the heyday when City were a non league force with big crowds. I think it would be perfect to launch in conjuntion with a successful community bid.

I like wierd mystique of the 1980s Roman but I don't think it could realistically be brought back and I can't help worrying that a modern design of a Roman helmet or soldier would look a bit tacky..

Jon_BOA wrote:Marc, a Roman was used on the "lozenge" (not sure what else shape to call it) badge, although by silhouette of a Roman, are you imagining a helmet and more similar in style to the Blyth Spartans badge? (Acknowledging that theirs is clearly a stylised Spartan helment, rather than Roman).

Yes,good shout, I suppose it would be a Roman version of the Blyth Spartans logo but also could be a silhouette of a centurion. The 80s one is weird to me as it looks like me getting up off a chair when my back is bad. I really like the 60s badge but, again, don't like the repetition of the stripes on the shirt especially as they are diagonal on that one. Take away that and it is a really nicely designed badge that is easy to reproduce.

As yuffie suggests, it would be good to have a new badge for the community takeover but I fear that by the time it is all done and dusted, it will be too late to change anything on the kit. Perhaps next season, we could have a competition for a short-list of new badge designs, put them against previous ones and have a fan vote.

Marc Monitor wrote:
As yuffie suggests, it would be good to have a new badge for the community takeover but I fear that by the time it is all done and dusted, it will be too late to change anything on the kit. Perhaps next season, we could have a competition for a short-list of new badge designs, put them against previous ones and have a fan vote.

Leave it until the 2016-2017 season.  I'm sure if the community takeover happens there will be more pressing things than the badge.  Competition short-list and fan vote sound an excellent idea.

Marc Monitor wrote: we could have a competition for a short-list of new badge designs, put them against previous ones and have a fan vote.

you mean member vote!

Our current badge is awful. Absolutely awful. It says nothing about the club except the fact that we wear black and white stripes. Which you'd be able to tell from the shirt it was sewn on to anyway.

Here's the caustic view When Saturday Comes gave it when they made it their Badge of the Week two years ago. The last line says it all really :

Badge of the week ~ Bath City
Bath City's badge represents a shocking dereliction of duty. It is one of the most tedious designs in the entire canon of club crests. It is on the same level of banality and dullness as the reluctant banter between Ken Bruce and the young lady who provides the traffic reports on Radio 2, although perhaps not displaying the same level of underlying self-loathing.

And yet surely the designers might have chosen from a whole range of interesting features of this ancient city. In the large space where we see here only black and white stripes, there could have been Roman soldiers, a nice aqueduct perhaps, the famed Circus of Georgian houses surely, a bath, some tourists staring at a student playing a viola for small change – anything, in fact. They have a wonderful children's playground there, with three large slides.

It is really quite incredible to think the club has settled for black and white stripes with this rich selection of images at its disposal. One can only assume that Bath City have taken the unusual option of creating an icon in order to register modesty and keep the club's profile low

Jon_BOA wrote:Marc, a Roman was used on the "lozenge" (not sure what else shape to call it) badge, although by silhouette of a Roman, are you imagining a helmet and more similar in style to the Blyth Spartans badge? (Acknowledging that theirs is clearly a stylised Spartan helment, rather than Roman).

I think a roman helmet image on our badge could be done well. Think of how Arsenal's cannon looks.

We have a great nickname, and the local history to justify it. In my view, we should make a lot more of it.

Juventus have a striped badge on a striped shirt... I don't hear many people complaining about that one, as does the BBC bid logo which I think has a subtle coolness about it.  

The BBC bid is creating a brand around the club which no one has moaned about.... so I don't think we should go too far from that. Give the people who have never been before something simple to identify the club by.

marc's ramones / romans badge is by far the best.
lets go for it!

It's not mine. I just had the original idea and my mate and partner in crime Martyn designed it. Because of this, I am not being biased by saying it would make a great badge.

Steve (White's), I actually think that the Juve is very boring for exactly the same reasons and don't particularly like the repetition element of the Notts County, Atletico and especially the awful Stoke City badge for the same reasons.

I like the idea of the children's playground.

If memory serves when the current badge was introduced in 1998 the designers (students from Bath College?) used the Roman wall in Bath as the inspiration for the top. So there is some Roman influence, although I admit it is fairly well hidden.

Given that most teams badge contains their colours it doesn't seem that odd to me that ours includes stripes. We've now had three badges and all have included black and white stripes. And as most of the time you see the badge it is not on the (home) shirt I don't see that it is relevant to saying it doesn't need stripes.

As that I like our badge, I also like Juventus and Notts County's. They are all clear and simple, and it is immediately obvious which team's they are. Likewise Stoke City's (who another parent at Charlie's school mistook my City hoodie for) and I think you could use it as a basis to include the Romans nickname* in our badge, just in place of where they have The Potters.

As for the WSC's 'review', I guess they think they are funny.

*Though that does open the can of worms whether The Romans is in fact our nickname.

yuffie wrote:If memory serves when the current badge was introduced in 1998 the designers (students from Bath College?) used the Roman wall in Bath as the inspiration for the top. So there is some Roman influence, although I admit it is fairly well hidden.

If they did use the city walls then they didn't use anything Roman as the remaining ones aren't Roman but medieval. I have been told that Roman walls didn't have crenellations as well.

I think this calls for a badge designing project for local schools next year, with members voting on their favourite from a shortlist drawn up by forum members.

Marc Monitor wrote:

yuffie wrote:If memory serves when the current badge was introduced in 1998 the designers (students from Bath College?) used the Roman wall in Bath as the inspiration for the top. So there is some Roman influence, although I admit it is fairly well hidden.

If they did use the city walls then they didn't use anything Roman as the remaining ones aren't Roman but medieval. I have been told that Roman walls didn't have crenellations as well.

Fair enough, I bow to your superior knowledge on these things. Though it does show that some part of Bath's history was used in the design.

Oh, it's not me. A Roman history obsessed fellow supporter told me and I checked it out.

by comrade powell Today at 5:30 am
I think this calls for a badge designing project for local schools next year, with members voting on their favourite from a shortlist drawn up by forum members.

The perfect solution. An emoticon holding up its thumb.

What's he hold his thumb with?

To me the badge is striking because of its simplicity. It demonstrates a quiet confidence rather than the overwrought plaintiveness of an ornate badge. People know about Bath's history. We don't have to get it all on one badge. Our reputation proceeds us.

Black and White Army.

I agree with you that, on its own, its simplicity is good but there are elements, such as the stripes, that are just bland. I am not sure that we can rely on people knowing about Bath and our history.

From an objective point of view, I remember badges like the smiley face Leeds badge, the Forest tree, the Derby ram etc.