Sandecja Nowy Sącz is a Polish football club based in Nowy Sącz, founded in 1910. The club’s visual identity centers on a quasi-heraldic crest that was refreshed in 2018, returning to a design based on the club’s historical emblem used before 1989.
Design and History
The current Sandecja crest was presented in October 2018 during a press conference called by club president Tomasz Michałowski. The club stated the change was a response to supporters who had long demanded the restoration of the historical emblem, which had been replaced in 2004 without fan consultation. Work on the new emblem ran from July 2018. The project was led by Polish designer Kuba Malicki, who also developed the club’s slogan “Duma Krainy Lachów” (The Pride of the Land of the Lachs) and prepared brand guidelines and corporate identity templates. [1] [2]
Before this refresh, the club had used an emblem created around the turn of the century, built on a Corel Draw clipart shield with an added black crown. That mark survived through the club’s first promotion to the Ekstraklasa in 2017; after relegation in 2018, club officials decided on a change. Malicki analyzed dozens of pre-1989 versions of the club’s coat of arms as part of the rebranding process. [3]
The 2018 crest references the historical sign of KKS Sandecja, the club’s earlier name before it became a city club. The design consists of a shield resembling a medieval French form, divided into two fields: an upper chief containing the word “SANDECJA” and a lower field filled with four white and three black stripes. The founding year “1910” is inscribed between the stripes. [4] [5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The club’s official communication describes the emblem’s construction as quasi-heraldic. The mark is designed to appear only in a one-color form, and it maintains its legibility on any background thanks to a white outer outline around the shield. The club’s stated brand attributes include local character, courage, expressiveness, asceticism, and classicism, with symbolic references to the Land of the Lachs and the Beskid Sądecki region. [4]
Typography and Design
The word “SANDECJA” in the upper chief is set in a simple two-element typeface. The crest was precisely drawn with proportions established on a modular grid, referenced to the thickness of the vertical stroke of the glyphs. The module “X” of the grid is four times wider than the stroke thickness of the letter “D,” and the entire crest has proportions of 11 by 13 modules. The glyphs in the chief and on the striped field are vertically aligned to maintain compositional balance, and the shield is symmetrical with an outline thickness of 1.5 modules. [4]
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