Some clarification (part one)
28 July 2010
Okay so the site has been up for a few days now and we're happy to say that by and large, people get what we're talking about. What's amusing is some of the abuse that's been thrown our way with people trying to undermine our motives and question our knowledge of the club. Some to their credit are just after some clarification on what we're trying to achieve. Of course we will publish responses which tackle the questions/abuse we've received.
The first subject we're looking at refers to our comments around the current crest cannon, and our own choice of crest design. We appreciate a lot of it may be going over old ground for knowledgeable Gooners, but judging by some of the e-mails we've received, some people do need a bit of a history lesson.
The cannon
We've received some e-mails which told us that our cannon is the wrong way around... that the original club crest had it pointing the other way and because of this, the current club crest is correct in its cannon orientation. Apparently this means our whole raison d'etre is flawed and thereby these people refuse to give us any credit.
Okay then, let's just look at the history of the crest and the design we created...
Firstly, the original club crest never had a cannon pointing left or right. The first recognisable crest as such had three northward pointing cannon barrels, referencing the military links with our original home in Woolwich. The 'crest' some have referred to was never really a crest as such - it was a drawing on club programmes and stationery for three years in the early 1920s, an illustration of a cannon facing east (well, more east north east if you look more closely).
In the mid-20s, after three long years of the club's history in which we had an east north east facing cannon drawing, our programme and stationery was changed to show a westward facing cannon. Around the same time, Herbert Chapman commissioned a new brand identity and the famous 30s 'A-football-C' crest was born. However, despite this classic piece of artrwork appearing all over Highbury and on the team's shirts in that era, the club today don't really consider it to be part of our crest history. It's just referred to as an art deco crest/symbol and doesn't feature in their crest 'timeline'.
The westward facing cannon which was introduced in 1925 stayed facing that way until the club introduced our current crest in 2002. And that cannon orientation of course featured in our world famous "Victoria Concordia Crescit' club crest, which was introduced in 1949. Westward facing cannon, gothic styled typeface and the Islington coat of arms. That's the crest loved by almost every Arsenal fan.
So back to the original point... the original crest didn't have an eastward facing cannon and to be honest we wouldn't really care if it did. If you look up the definition of tradition it will tell you it's "the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice". Our club had a westward facing cannon for over 75 years and the iconic crest from the 1950s onwards is the one that was in place the longest. It's the one the vast majority know and love.
Of course we know that the iconic crest from the 1950s, the club's longest serving crest, had copyright issues - but any marketeer worth his salt knows that creatively there's more than enough scope to feature a big element of Arsenal's traditions in a design process.
That's why we wanted a westward facing cannon on our very own crest.
More to follow...
Okay so the site has been up for a few days now and we're happy to say that by and large, people get what we're talking about. What's amusing is some of the abuse that's been thrown our way with people trying to undermine our motives and question our knowledge of the club. Some to their credit are just after some clarification on what we're trying to achieve. Of course we will publish responses which tackle the questions/abuse we've received.
The first subject we're looking at refers to our comments around the current crest cannon, and our own choice of crest design. We appreciate a lot of it may be going over old ground for knowledgeable Gooners, but judging by some of the e-mails we've received, some people do need a bit of a history lesson.
The cannon
We've received some e-mails which told us that our cannon is the wrong way around... that the original club crest had it pointing the other way and because of this, the current club crest is correct in its cannon orientation. Apparently this means our whole raison d'etre is flawed and thereby these people refuse to give us any credit.
Okay then, let's just look at the history of the crest and the design we created...
Firstly, the original club crest never had a cannon pointing left or right. The first recognisable crest as such had three northward pointing cannon barrels, referencing the military links with our original home in Woolwich. The 'crest' some have referred to was never really a crest as such - it was a drawing on club programmes and stationery for three years in the early 1920s, an illustration of a cannon facing east (well, more east north east if you look more closely).
In the mid-20s, after three long years of the club's history in which we had an east north east facing cannon drawing, our programme and stationery was changed to show a westward facing cannon. Around the same time, Herbert Chapman commissioned a new brand identity and the famous 30s 'A-football-C' crest was born. However, despite this classic piece of artrwork appearing all over Highbury and on the team's shirts in that era, the club today don't really consider it to be part of our crest history. It's just referred to as an art deco crest/symbol and doesn't feature in their crest 'timeline'.
The westward facing cannon which was introduced in 1925 stayed facing that way until the club introduced our current crest in 2002. And that cannon orientation of course featured in our world famous "Victoria Concordia Crescit' club crest, which was introduced in 1949. Westward facing cannon, gothic styled typeface and the Islington coat of arms. That's the crest loved by almost every Arsenal fan.
So back to the original point... the original crest didn't have an eastward facing cannon and to be honest we wouldn't really care if it did. If you look up the definition of tradition it will tell you it's "the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice". Our club had a westward facing cannon for over 75 years and the iconic crest from the 1950s onwards is the one that was in place the longest. It's the one the vast majority know and love.
Of course we know that the iconic crest from the 1950s, the club's longest serving crest, had copyright issues - but any marketeer worth his salt knows that creatively there's more than enough scope to feature a big element of Arsenal's traditions in a design process.
That's why we wanted a westward facing cannon on our very own crest.
More to follow...
