The first thing at do at the beginning of every new project is to look at the club's badge history. It allows me not only to see how often - and radically - the brand image has changed and what graphic elements could make a comeback.
Looking at Shakhtar's visual history, there's more than enough to create a badge that looks like almost nothing in the football world. The outer shape of the current badge is quite unique, the simplified color palette (that ditched the green used from 1989 to 2007) is bold and the energy inspired flame is flexible enough to be moved to the sides, leaving the center open to take elements from another iconic badge: the one used from 1960 to 1989.
That badge, the third in club's history, featured two elements that I want to put in the center stage: the crossed hammers and the baseball style calligraphy used for the word "Донецьк". The first does a great job at communicating one of the key features of Donetsk's identity: its mining tradition; the second is a very rare element in football badges, something always welcome when it comes to creat a distinctive look.
For the hammers, all I did were small changes to make them fit better in the badge; meanwhile, a font similar in essence was used for the word "Шахтар", the only featured in the logo, like it happens in the current one. To round up and balance the whole visual, the year of foundation is displayed in the bottom.
