PEC Zwolle, the Dutch professional football club based in Zwolle, has carried a distinctive crest since 1990 that combines the city’s civic heraldry with a four-leaf clover layout. The current badge, which has remained largely unchanged for over three decades, is instantly recognizable in the Eredivisie and among supporters known as the Blauwvingers.
Design and History
The current PEC Zwolle logo was created in the summer of 1990 by graphic designer Eric van de Wetering, who designed it using a Macintosh SE computer and the MacDraw program. The logo was developed in the context of the club’s restart as FC Zwolle, following the bankruptcy of PEC Zwolle ’82 and the founding of FC Zwolle on 1 July 1990. Van de Wetering was asked by Gaston Sporre, who later became an honorary chairman, to quickly produce a new logo for the name change. After a brainstorming session, Van de Wetering combined multiple small coats of arms of the city of Zwolle into a four-leaf clover arrangement. Since all equipment at the time was black-and-white, the logo was printed in black and white on a board about one meter high and then colored in with adhesive foil. Van de Wetering later sold the rights to the logo to the club for one euro. [1]
Former technical director Bert Konterman explained the design concept: the logo is a “four-leaf clover” of Zwolle city coats of arms, chosen because the new FC Zwolle of the 1990s could use some good fortune after the decline of the late 1980s. The horizontal bands were borrowed from Celtic, which also plays with a four-leaf clover motif. [1]
The club switched from its familiar green-and-white to blue-and-white, the colors of the city, as part of the fresh start needed to erase the negative image surrounding PEC Zwolle ’82. The light blue background against which the blue shields appear symbolizes this clean slate. The red bar at the top, containing the club name, is a reference to the crown of the old logo designed by then-coach Georg Kessler, preserving something of the old PEC Zwolle in the restart. [1]
In 2012, following FC Zwolle’s promotion to the Eredivisie, the club announced it would revert to the name PEC Zwolle. According to the club’s official announcement, the letters FC in the existing logo were replaced by PEC, while the rest of the recognizable and accepted logo remained unchanged. [2] The name change was officially approved by the KNVB and went into effect on 1 June 2012. [3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The crest features four identical dark-blue squares with bold white crosses, arranged in a clover-like pattern around a central point. These squares repeat the simple white cross on blue from Zwolle’s coat of arms. [1] The blue-and-white palette, adopted in the early 1990s, comes from the city flag and replaced the club’s earlier green-and-white identity. [1] The club’s official history confirms that the blue-and-white colors are those of both the city and the region. [2]
Typography and Design
The club name appears in white uppercase lettering within the red bar at the top of the crest. The wordmark currently reads “PEC ZWOLLE,” following the 2012 change from “FC ZWOLLE.” [2] The logo was originally constructed using the MacDraw program, a simple drawing application available on the Macintosh SE. [1]
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