Iran Football Federation
Football is Iran’s most popular sport. Its governing body is Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran. The missing proposition in the official English name is the perfect metaphor for the incompetence it is typically associated with.
Despite this, Team Melli –the national team which the Federation is responsible for organizing– has achieved moderate success in recent years. This has largely been thanks to the leadership of coach Carlos Queiroz who has instilled a great team spirit since taking the helm in 2011.
But he is also perpetually frustrated by the federation’s lack of planning, and has threatened to resign several times. His main ask, which he often repeats on social media, is an appeal for unity within the Federation’s governing bodies.
Interestingly, Team Melli itself is an extremely powerful uniting force. For the Iranian fans, no matter their ideology or political leaning, the love of Team Melli is universal.
Unity as brand value
Focusing on unity as the brand value for IFF seemed like the most authentic approach. While for the Federation unity can only be described as an aspirational value, for the fans, it is truly realized. And therein lies the Federations’ gift. But first, a little bit of brand history.
The origins
The Iran Football Federation was founded in 1920. Its pre-revolution emblem was quite graphic. It was made of three elements: the overall form inside the frame is a ف, or a Persian letter “F” rendered in a curved paisley form, which is a traditional Iranian motif. The letter’s dot is split into a Football and a latin “F.” The crest shape — the union of a square and a circle — feels modern and universal.
The post-revolution logo is much less stylized. It keeps the semi-round frame — which I appreciate — but gone are the graphic elements and instead we have straightforward renderings of a flag and a football, along with bilingual titles.
Design
Unity as a graphic theme for an Iranian audience presents a particular challenge; Iran is a society where almost everything from the name of the country, to the symbols on the flag, to pre and post-Islamic artistic styles can be a topic for divisive arguments. My requirements for this project were:
- Incorporate flag colors
- Make it clear it’s about football
- Inspire pride and unity and avoid religious/political references
When it comes to symbols of national unity, Iran’s geographic map is as non-controversial as it gets. The map of Iran also has its distinct ‘cat ears,’ which can be used as a graphic element. While trying to simplify the map’s shape, I discovered that it can be recognizably constructed out of a simple hexagon grid if I modified only one of the hexagons. This was great because hexagon grids are also reminiscent of soccer ball patterns. However, I struggled to make this work, as you can see in my early explorations.
I was about to give up and move on to a new concept. As a desperate last try, I introduced the crest shape of the current federation logo, and that seemed to make it work a lot better. The rest fell into place after that.
Outcomes
Thanks for reading. If you like this series you can follow the Redesigning Iran publication here on Medium, or follow me on Twitter.
About the author
Pendar is a former amateur blogger, ex-dabbler in web comics, serial clothing line creator, and featherweight influencing champion who gave up the glamours of the expat blogging social scene for a career in interaction design. He now lives with his wife and two cats in sunny California. Outside of corporate slavery he watches Netflix and runs IranianApparel.com.
