PFA Rebrand: The Client’s Challenge
The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the world's longest-standing trade union for sportspeople. For more than a hundred years, the organisation has made supporting players its top priority.

The union's century-old brand identity and dated image had resulted in limited engagement from players. While other football stakeholders were prioritising their image, the PFA brand was often overshadowed.

Working with the PFA's Comms team, we identified several significant comms challenges, including the functional limitations of the logo mark, which the PFA's brand relied solely upon. There was a lack of brand coherence with no deliberate consistency applied to other visual identity elements, nor differentiation between the approach to digital and print output.

At a time of significant change for the organisation, Jérrard Wayne developed a new, ownable visual identity for the PFA that supported the organisation's transformation and intended direction.

Our Approach

Our branding process considers internal culture as important as an external image. Both are intrinsically connected, and one impacts the other. We help clients marry these two experiences to create a cohesive brand.

We engaged PFA employees in our Immersion process to discover where they felt the organisation was excelling and where improvements were needed. In candidly shared their views in a series of workshops, staff enabled us to understand their experiences and the input they'd received from members. They each recognised that their jobs could be made easier with a strong brand, a consistent suite of brand tools, and greater priority given to their comms output.

The membership were also invited to contribute to the process via an online survey, providing valuable insights to shape the direction of the new brand.

Our initial Immersion process was conducted over several weeks and revealed strong brand attributes and core values that would form the foundations for the new brand identity.

The Process of Change
As part of the rebranding process, at least one staff member from each department was assigned as a 'Brand Guardian'. They attended workshops with our team to provide valuable feedback on brand decisions and design direction.

We presented identity concepts to each of the organisation's stakeholders, including Brand Guardians, department heads, the senior management team, the Management Committee and current PFA members.

Three teams – Arsenal Women, Sheffield United and Charlton Athletic (under 23s and the first team) – attended workshops to share their perception of the PFA and feedback on the new brand concepts.

A New Direction

The PFA was keen to retain some of its heritage while creating a new visual identity that reflected a modern organisation. The previous logo was heavily detailed, over-complicated and dated. This complex design made it challenging to use and meant it wasn't memorable.

The new visual identity concept was a contemporary evolution of the previous logo. By simplifying aspects of the PFA's previous emblem, we created something much cleaner, more memorable and iconic. This fresh take on the logo retained the original emotion and elevated it into a distinct, recognisable signifier that could be delivered consistently.

The visual identity and brand tone of voice were developed and applied to numerous audience touchpoints, including hero imagery centred around PFA Award winners each season. Strong, diverse visuals of players complemented the primary image style to ensure the brand properly reflected the membership.

The rebrand included redesigning the PFA website, which had become bloated with information, making navigation frustrating. Following thorough exploration of the user experience, we restructured the website's logic, design and content to create a more user-friendly experience.

To support a powerful launch for the PFA's rebrand, we created a poignant brand film communicating the union's strength and vision for the future.

The Outcome
The PFA's new brand signifies a new era for one of English football's most prominent organisations, improving their external image, communication and, most importantly, engagement with members. The consistency of its visual language will enable the PFA to maintain valuable brand equity when working with other football stakeholders, increasing its brand influence.