Bethlehem Steel FC have had their official supporters group for a few months now. Back in December we did a pretty good interview with their President. However their logo left something on the table. Fear no more East Enders, you have something to be pretty excited about now. I'm very passionate about the club, but admittedly don't know much about the city. Below is the branding of the new Crest straight from Telly himself.
As I began to research and sketch ideas, I felt like I should explore doing something that resembled a military patch. As I looked further into it, I noticed that many of the military patches/emblems could easily pass for a soccer crest. So from there I wanted to create a spacious crest that could comfortably house the elements that I was told must be included in the final branding (the Star of Bethlehem, "2016", and the SG’s adopted motto "Unitas Fratrum"), along with a couple other elements that I intended to work in.
The Star of Bethlehem is so very symbolic of our city. It sits facing north, high atop South Mountain in South Bethlehem. On the other side of the mountain is where we have our home pitch, Goodman Stadium. I wanted to place the star towards the top of our crest. Adding the shape of the mountains beneath the very large star worked out well…and in turn left me some black space to place my keystone/H-Beam creation. This is a combined symbolic homage to both the state of Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, and Bethlehem Steel, creators of the H-Beam. They ended up working as a strong graphic when unified.
Also in that black space is where I placed the SG motto "Unitas Fratrum". This Latin phrase meaning "United Brotherhood" stems from the Moravian Church, which has very deep historic roots in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. This is our tribute to the history of our city, while simultaneously defining our supporters group as a growing unity.
As the crest was coming together, my intent was to be able to pull any of the individual elements out to use on their own for future purposes. This is part of the reason for the very graphic look of the branding. There will be plenty of opportunities to do this with tifo, memorabilia, apparel, and such.
The final element of this crest is the hammer and fist graphic. This is a graphic that I wanted to create and incorporate to show strength. Strength via a symbol that loudly represents our forefathers who shed blood, sweat, and tears to help build the early infrastructure of our country with the products forged on the grounds of Bethlehem Steel. And at the same time, acknowledging the strength of Bethlehem Steel’s contribution to our country’s rich soccer history.
So there it is. Go give East End Army some love on Facebook or Twitter (@EastEndArmy), and definitely keep an eye out for them on game days. I'm sure they have something big planned for the home opener - April 3rd at 3:00 PM.