Design Museum Trip

To help with our research for our dissertation (mine being based around the aesthetics of football clubs) as a class we took a trip up to London to visit these research locations that we chose (mine was to the Emirates Stadium) but we also visited the design museum as its located near London where a lot of the class members research locations were based and its very influential to our creative work and inspiring for future projects.

But the main purpose was for our dissertation, visiting the Emirates Stadium gave

me an insight on a football club, the branding and styles used, the variety of football kit designs ranging from classic to modern day kits as well different kits used for different purposes. For example, goalkeeper kits are style and coloured differently to tell them apart from standard football kits to have the audience identify which player is which e.g. identify a goalkeeper over an outfield player. The gloves they have, the numbers on a goalkeeper's kit, which is usually no.1, making sure the colours don’t clash with the other teams' kits as well as their own team kits.

Everywhere you looked you would see ‘Arsenal’ or a significant icon related to the football club. They would show posters around the stadium and the shops of current and legend players wearing the kits to show them off and to get people to buy them this makes a huge effect on the sale of the kits because if the kits were placed on anyone it would less likely attract the audience, using very good aesthetics to attract the audience. Using different race/people from different backgrounds/culture and different genders to balance equality within the football club as well as attract many platforms of audiences they can. These posters would be placed in big scale size almost double the size the actual kit. They would also include luring text e.g. ‘We Are The ARSENAL’ to attract the target audience. These posters also include ‘Arsenal’ branded footballs and boots by one of their sponsors ‘Puma’ to get the audience to buy them as well. The imagery includes a website address for the consumer to look at and potential buy the product on show, the club's logo/badge and a description of the kit and the names of the footballers show in the posters along the side. The cannon’s used around the stadium are very significant factor in representing the club as ‘arsenal’ as this word is related to armaments (used in the army and navy etc.)

They also use ‘Highbury’ for the name of one of the shops as this is a very historical part of the club and it used to be the name of the old stadium where it grew a huge historical and legendary status. And became very well-known across the country by football supporters. There are two shops located at Emirates Stadium one called The Arsenal, Highbury and The Arsenal Armoury both located north and south of the stadium. The Armoury shop is bigger, has more facilities including the entrance to the stadium tours, more merchandise and till operators. The merchandise inside the Highbury shop has a high range of clothing such as the classic JVC kits to the current 2018/19 season kits as well as training kits. General clothing including polo shirts, hoodies, t-shirts, jackets, joggers. These clothing items have their own brand and name; ‘AFC’ the colours used in the items vary but stick to a similar guideline using black, white, red, classic yellow, burgundy and navy.

These items all relate to the kits used on the football field with their colours closely related to them, the items include the classic arsenal logo ‘Art Deco’ crest of the 1930s. The famous ‘cannon’ some include ‘EST.1886’ which is when Arsenal Football club was first founded. Originally named Royal Arsenal based on the location of the original stadium and Royal Arsenal being an armament before the club was founded. Then they changed the name of the club in 1893 to Woolwich Arsenal upon becoming a liability company they also won the second division gaining promotion to the first division in 1904 and in 1913 they reduced the

name to simply The Arsenal after being relegated back down to the second division but in 1919 The Football League voted to promote the Arsenal, instead of relegated local rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Later that year The Arsenal removed ‘The’ in official documents and gradually shifting its name for the final time towards Arsenal.

They also do modern day brand twists like they’ve used a similar style text/logo as Superdry or like American baseball logos e.g. Goldeyes, using the text in the logo. The coloured stripes used around the collars and sleeves. Discounts are shown around the shops on the products this is a good way to grab the audience and produce sales. They also include photography of current Arsenal players wearing the kits with ‘Your Name’ printed on the back of the them (located where the players personalised name is).

The design of the shop has a huge influence on the target audience and the people working there, some examples are that they add quotes from famous/legendary players within the club e.g. “When you are a gooner you will always be a gooner. This club is in my heart and will remain there forever” (quote by Thierry Henry- one of, if not the biggest legend at Arsenal Football Club who joined Arsenal in 1999-2007 making 254 appearances and made a return in 2004 on loan making 4 appearances in a season). The shop also adds little touches like a miniature 3d football supporter hold up a football scarf used as a door handle and studs added on the front of the tills for good interior design

The football shirt printers are displayed behind the tills and allow the customers to see how the customized shirts are done, which potentially increases sales. Above the printers show different varieties of custom shirts with different names, kit numbers and different kits e.g. home, away and alternative kits, different players names including goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and strikers.

The reasoning of having home, away and alternative kits stops confusion of which player is on what team, say if one team had an all red kit and the other team would have to have a different colour that doesn’t clash. Colours of kits are very important because teams are known for their colours where Arsenal’s is red and white typically but would never change to the same as Tottenham Hotspur’s kit colours (Arsenal’s football rivals) because this would cause an up raw with both sets of fans and would be slated for using the same colours as their rivals.

The kits also include varieties of badges such as different cups, leagues and competition badges. Historical figures and historical themes were a common occurrence in the shop. With black and white photography around the walls, classic FA cup team photos. After the shop I walked round the stadium about 1 mile long and come across old artefacts like station numbers across the bridge where train stations used to be, statues of old players at the club, along the north bank is a terrace of stones with fans of the club and remembering all of the them as part of the arsenal family.

Overall this trip to the Emirates Stadium was a very good resource filled with information, history around the club, design within the club, advertising and branding, clothing and merchandise, the styles and techniques and cultural elements used around the club.