Rangers Football Club is unusual among major football clubs in that it maintains two official crests simultaneously. One, the RFC scroll crest, appears on the team’s playing kit, while the other, the READY crest featuring a lion rampant, is used across club branding and communications [1]. The club was founded in March 1872 by four young men, Moses McNeil, Peter McNeil, William McBeath and Peter Campbell [2].
Design and History
The RFC scroll crest is the older of the two marks. It was notably featured on the club’s season ticket covers in 1881, when the team was still playing at Kinning Park [3]. The crest, which interlocks the club’s initials, is believed by some to have been originally painted by Tom Vallance, a figure important to the club’s early success [3]. The shield housing the crest has been a consistent feature throughout the club’s history [3].
The READY crest was originally introduced in 1959 [1]. In the summer of 2020, the club launched an evolution of its brand identity, unveiling an updated READY crest [2]. The refresh was designed with digital touchpoints at its core and accompanied the launch of a new club website and app [1]. The RANGERS letters were centred at the top of the crest, the lines of the ball and the lion were refined, and the font was changed to the club’s official typeface [1]. The iconic scroll crest on the team kit remained unchanged [1].
The 2020 brand evolution was led by design consultancy See Saw Creative [4]. The team restored precision to the READY crest and redrew the Lion Rampant in its existing position, presenting what the agency described as a more fierce and relentless quality [4]. The work also extended to developing a Lioness Rampant to give Rangers Women’s Team its own sub-identity for the first time [4].
For the club’s 150th anniversary in 2022, Rangers launched a commemorative crest. The ribbon featured below the anniversary crest design was influenced by decorative crests from the club’s earliest documented member books, which feature an ornamental scroll ribbon [2]. The ribbon design is synonymous with Ibrox, where it features in crests displayed on the side elevation of the Bill Struth Main Stand [2].
Meaning and Symbolism
The READY crest features a lion rampant, a classic leather football and the club’s motto “READY”, surrounded by the team name Rangers Football Club [1]. The word “Ready” derives from the club’s official motto “Aye Ready” [5]. “Ready” has always had significant meaning in the club’s history, and for the 150th anniversary, “Forever Ready” was adopted as the message uniting the club’s celebrations [2].
Typography and Design
As part of the 2020 brand evolution, typographer Craig Black crafted a custom typeface called Rangers Display [4]. The typeface includes serif kicks that echo those of the bluebells at Ibrox’s iconic gates and takes cues from the stadium’s entrance floor mosaic, as well as various letterheads used over the years [4]. The typeface is applied across all elements of the Rangers brand, from marketing and signage to players’ names and numbers on the back of football strips [6].
The 2020 identity also introduced a revitalised colour palette. The existing colours were replaced by a more vibrant “True Rangers Blue” and red tones, alongside a complementary secondary colour palette [4]. The club’s official communications describe the new identity as retaining the core assets and heritage of Rangers while modernising its visual style for a digital era [1].
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.
