Australia’s A-League’s newest expansion team now has a name and a logo: Melbourne Heart FC. The name was the suggestion of a fan in a name-the-team contest.
The team will play at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, the brilliantly named venue we featured here recently.
The Heart already face a challenge from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation of Melbourne, who are claiming the name and logo infringes their trademark rights.
Personally, I think the logo strikes just the right note: the angular cut of the heart and the M inside gives it the feel of a traditional shield, toughening up the identity a touch whilst still being a bold choice. The red and white colours match the flag of Melbourne.
I am, though, no graphic design expert, nor an authority on logos and team identity: so what do you think of the Melbourne Heart and their new logo?
Love the colors as they are under reppresented in the A-League. I also like the logo, but only because the rest of the A-League is filled with garbage identities. Two Thumbs up!
Not only is it a heart with an M, but there is also a red H underneath the white M. Kinda reminds me of the old Hartford Whalers logo where you could see the H and the whale tail, but if you took your eyes out of focus a bit, you could see the W too.
Prison Mike — man, I read in the description there was an H as well, but I’ve always been terrible at spotting things that need a specific visual focus. Now I see it!
Very clever logo, but uggggh, I hate the name! Several of the A League team names seem like 80s indoor soccer rejects, but this is terrible! It is even worse than the Cleveland Crunch!
ghey name, pretty cool badge/logo, amazing stadium, great city. three out of four isn’t bad. hopefully the football matches it.
What a terrible name. What a goddamned fantastic logo.
It also aligns with the new Melbourne civic identity (also goddamned fantastic).
http://www.landor.com/index.cfm?do=ourwork.casehistory&cn=6493&bhcp=1
When you have teams named “Roar”, “Glory” and…wait for it…”FURY”, then Heart doesn’t sound so bad after all. The logo is easily the best and most unique in the A-League.
Cleveland Crunch? Seriously? That’s a breakfast cereal, not a football team!
Meanwhile my long range scanners from here in the UK have been watching the developing Melbourne Victory / Sydney FC rivalry develop into something pretty special, it’ll be interesting to see how ‘the Heart’ fit into the mix, especially as both clubs are centrally based rather than say one East Melbourne one West Melbourne etc. It’s just a crying shame that reports from Aussie fans on the UK Ultras site seem to show authorities even more Orwellian than those here in the UK, with 5 year bans being handed out willy nilly and many without any rea evidence and a near impossible appeal procedure.
Laid back Australia seems to be turning too right wing for my liking, they did the same at this years Bathurst motor race, banning spectators and limiting the amount of alcohol you could take on to the site. New South Wales uber alles? Let’s hope not.
What a great logo.
It looks like a company who would build cyborg Robo Cops logo.
Terrible badge, terrible name.
Reminds me of Pumas.
Awesome logo!!
The typography is fairly dull, but the negative space in the graphic element works well.
If the Lord Mayor’s challenge is considered, I’m going to be surprised. I don’t think he will stand a chance in terms of copyright infringement.
As a Victory supporter, I love seeing a inter-city derby. Both club logos are fantastic. What would really make things interesting is that Heart’s W-League side is doing better than the Victory and is challenging the Brisbane Roar for supremacy. Hmmm…
Millions of dollars down the drain, and now a legal battle for the name, Melbourne Heart? If the a-league wants to become more respected, then at least put some respectable logos and names out there to promote the league. I mean, i thought it couldnt of gotten any worse then NQLD Fury, but come on, a team that is named after an organ? sigh. Please scrap this whole team name and badge.
Something like South Melbourne Strikers, Melbourne City FC, or even the proposed Sporting Melbourne FC name would have been a million times better then Heart, lol. Thank god there isnt a team like that representing my city.
If they want to go with heart so bad why not hearts of melbourne, Has a much better sound to it for me.