Salford City New Logo: Before-and-After Evaluation
A practical before-and-after evaluation of Salford City’s updated club mark as vector artwork, covering construction, formats, rights and reproduction use.
Contents
What is under discussion
The subject is Salford City’s updated club mark: the incoming identity artwork compared with the previous crest, judged as logo artwork rather than as a marketing story. The practical question is whether the new mark is a cleaner, more usable vector original than the one it replaces, and what that means when you place, resize, recolour or hand the file to a printer, kit manufacturer or screen.
This brief does not include the official artwork, construction notes, colour values, type names, launch date or licence terms. No before-and-after measurement, path count, file test or visual inspection is claimed here. The evaluation below states what a vector comparison of the two marks should settle, and where those answers still have to come from the club’s issued files.
How to read a before-and-after in vector terms
A useful comparison is not whether the new badge “looks more modern.” It is whether the new drawing is simpler to reproduce at every size the old one had to survive: embroidered crest, knitted sock, LED board, social avatar, print programme and vinyl. Vector artwork is a set of editable shapes, strokes, fills and type. A raster preview of the same badge is a picture of those shapes. An embedded photograph or bitmap inside an otherwise vector file is still a picture. Those three states are not interchangeable when you need to change colour, cut vinyl, or scale the mark without a soft edge.
Judge the outgoing and incoming crests against the same checklist. Geometry: circles, shields, lions, letters and any ribbon should be closed paths with consistent curve handles, not traced bitmaps. Hierarchy: the device that must read at 16 pixels should still read at 16 pixels after the change. Colour: spot or process builds should be named, limited and even across fills. Type: lettering should be converted to outlines in the delivery file, or supplied with the licensed font and a outlined fallback. Lockups: stacked, horizontal and icon-only versions should share one construction, not three redraws.
- Outgoing mark: note complexity, fine strokes, overlapping devices and any photographic or textured areas that will not cut, stitch or recolour cleanly.
- Incoming mark: note what was simplified, aligned, thickened or removed so the crest holds at small sizes.
- Shared system: confirm the new mark still works as a full crest, a simplified badge and a single-colour knockout.
- File state: confirm you are looking at native paths, not a flattened preview exported as SVG, PDF or EPS.
What the change implies for everyday use
If the new crest reduces hairline strokes, nested detail and competing textures, it will survive embroidery, tonal kits and small digital crops more reliably than a busier predecessor. If it introduces tighter negative space, a thinner outline or a more intricate internal device, small-size use may need a separate simplified drawing. Neither outcome can be declared from the title alone; it has to be checked on the actual paths at the smallest size you will print or stitch.
Recolouring is the other practical test. A true vector original lets you swap fills for a one-colour print, a metallic foil, a dark-kit reverse or a sponsor-board white. A raster preview, or a vector file that only contains an embedded image of the badge, will not recolour cleanly and will pixelate when scaled. Do not treat a downloadable SVG, PDF, AI or EPS as editable vector paths on the strength of the extension. Open the file and inspect whether the crest is live geometry or a placed picture.
| Check | What “before” often hides | What “after” must prove |
| Artwork type | A sharp PNG of the old crest used as if it were a master | Live paths, not a bitmap wrapped in a vector container |
| Small-size drawing | Detail that only worked on a large print of the old badge | A version that still reads as Salford City when cropped to an icon |
| Colour | Unnamed RGB sampled from a photo of the old kit | Documented fills that match across print, screen and fabric |
| Single colour | A full-colour-only old lockup | A knockout and a one-spot version of the new mark |
| Type and symbols | Live font or a loosely traced wordmark | Outlined lettering, or a licensed font plus outlined delivery file |
Delivery files, previews and editability
Club identity packs usually mix masters and previews. A PNG or JPG on a news page is a raster preview. An SVG on a web page may be true paths, a simplified web redraw, or a raster image tagged as SVG. PDF and EPS can hold vectors, rasters, or both. AI and similar native files can be fully editable, outline-only, or locked. The format name tells you the container. Only the objects inside tell you whether you can edit the artwork.
For production, ask for a master in a vector container, with type outlined, unused spots removed, and a matching set of lockups: full colour, one colour, reversed, and a simplified small-size badge if the full crest fails at favicon or sleeve scale. Keep the raster previews for mock-ups and the web. Do not rebuild the new mark by auto-tracing a photograph of a shirt; that produces a third, unofficial drawing that will drift from both the old and new official geometry.
Download, modification and trademark
Permission to fetch a logo file is not permission to redraw it, combine it with other marks, sell merchandise, or present a modified crest as official. Salford City’s name, badge and related devices are protected as club identity. Editorial identification of the team is a different use from commercial reproduction or creating a “vectorised” unofficial version. If you need to print, embroider, animate or alter the artwork, obtain the current official master and the licence that covers that use. A fan-made outline of the new badge is not a substitute master.
What still has to be confirmed from the files
Until the issued artwork is inspected, these points remain open: the exact geometry of the new crest versus the previous one; whether the update is a full redraw or a refinement of the existing device; colour builds and spot names; whether lettering is custom, a licensed typeface, or converted outlines; whether a simplified small-size variant exists; and which lockups the club treats as current. Those facts belong in the official guidelines and master files, not in an evaluation written without them.
The working conclusion is therefore procedural. Treat the new Salford City mark as the current official crest for identification, compare it with the outgoing crest only on issued vector masters, verify that those masters are live paths rather than previews, and secure usage rights before you modify or reproduce the artwork. Anything beyond that—cleaner curves, fewer colours, better small-size behaviour—is a claim to test on the files, not a result this brief can record.