AC Milan, the Italian football club founded in 1899 as the Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club, uses an oval crest that combines the club’s red and black stripes with the red cross on a white field, the historic emblem of the city of Milan. The current version of the badge, introduced in 1998, places the club acronym “ACM” at the top and the founding year “1899” at the bottom. [1]
Design and History
The club’s official history page explains that the red cross on a white background is the oldest element of the emblem. Before its use on the English flag, the red cross on white was born in Italy, where the Republic of Genoa used it as its emblem before it was chosen to represent the Carroccio, a symbol of the Milan commune opposed to imperial forces. Since its first appearance in 1160, the cross has been linked to Milan, with red representing nobility and white representing the people. [1]The club’s first official logo, dating to 1899, featured a circle with the team colors and the emblem of Milan, formed by a red cross on a white background, all enclosed in an oval with the acronym MFBC (Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club) at the top and the year of foundation at the bottom. The acronym changed as the club’s name evolved: to MFCC in 1907, MFC in 1919, and ACM in 1939, when fascist authorities imposed the Italianized name Associazione Calcio Milano. [2]In 1945, after the constraint no longer existed, the logo bore the word “Milan” at the top with a gold oval edging. The badge as it is known today first came into being around 1960, with a version featuring a silver outline and the word “MILAN” rather than “ACM”. It changed to a gold outline ten years later, and then to a version with ACM from 1975 to 1979. [3]In 1979, after Milan won its tenth championship, the club presented a new logo featuring a star and a stylized red devil, a mix of fire, face, body and tail, designed by the Zeta agency in Milan. This devil symbol coexisted with the Rossoneri letter M. In 1986 the logo was simplified with a black frame, and in 1998 the logo received a black and red oval edging with the acronym ACM returning at the top. [2]The 1998 version, which remains the club’s current crest, was designed with thinner lines than its 1995 predecessor to make the emblem effective across different applications, from offline communication to player jerseys, and the red color became more vivid. [4]Meaning and Symbolism
The red and black colors were chosen by founding partner Herbert Kilpin, who said the colors would be “red like fire and black to invoke fear in our opponents”. [5] The club’s official logo history page confirms this interpretation, noting that the choice of colors was not linked to the colors of the city but to the fire of the devils and the fear of opponents. [2]The red cross on a white background, which appears on the right side of the crest’s central circle, is the emblem of the Milan commune, representing unity between the nobility (red) and the people (white). [1]Typography and Design
In September 2019, AC Milan launched a new visual identity developed by London-based agency DixonBaxi. The rebrand, introduced under the “Sempre Milan” banner, was built around the distinctive oval shape of the crest, which the agency used “to focus, frame and tell stories”. The typographic system was updated with a redesigned bespoke typeface, and the colors were refreshed into a consistent vibrant red across the board. [6] The red, black and white colors were kept to create a “unified system”. [7]The Diavoletto (Little Devil), a stylized devil formed from three flames first introduced in the 1980s, remains an emblematic symbol of the club. It returned on the 2025/26 away kit, described by the club as “one of the Rossoneri’s most iconic symbols”. [8] The Diavoletto also appeared inside the 125th Anniversary kit in December 2024, alongside the inscription “AC Milan 125”. [9]Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
