Los Angeles Football Club revealed on Thursday morning at the Los Angeles Union Station the official colors and crest for the team that will make its debut in Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2018.
The colors for LAFC will be black and gold. On www.lafc.com they explain the reason why these colors were chosen: “Strong, powerful, achievement, triumph. Black and gold embody the success, glamour and urban texture of Los Angeles.”
As for the crest the letters “LA” are written in an art deco style. The one-year-old club did not just write “LA” in a different style then most sport teams in the city do, they also added a wing to the “A”. The wing is supposed to pay tribute to the Los Angeles long time nickname: the City of Angels.
However, the purpose of the wing goes further than just paying homage to LA’s nickname. On LAFC website they elaborate more on the purpose for the wing: “The wing represents power, strength, and speed and is universally recognized across cultures.”
It goes on to say: “With the wing in out crest, we seek to unite our team and our fans under a recognizable and relatable symbol, with ties to the diverse culture of Los Angeles.”
The letters “LA” are place smack in the middle of the crest, with the words “Los Angeles” on top and “Football Club” on the bottom. All this is inside a shield which is from the seal of LA.
The club owners Henry Nguyen, Peter Guber, Tom Penn, Ruben Gnanalingam, Vincent Tan, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Nomar Garciaparra, Mia Hamm-Garciaparra, Chad Hurley, Tony Robbins and the other 15 owners have stated from the get-go that they want this club to represent the City of LA, and it appears that they are off to a good start. The fans present at the announcement seem to approve of the logo. With cheers and chants after seeing their clubs crest for the first time.
LAFC now has a symbol and colors for the rest of MLS and the world to know them by. However, the club still has work to be done before they play their first game in MLS. Their next big project will be securing a site for their 22,000 stadium. Most recent news were reported by the Los Angeles Times reported in May of last year, that the owners have shown an interest in having the stadium built in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
However, it has not been finalized yet so the search continues. But at the moment LAFC has an identity, or as LAFC managing partner Nguyen said at the event:
“This is more than just a crest; this is more than just a logo. It’s really a symbolic representation of what we stand for. In what we stand in terms of how we represent this city. And what this city means in terms of: freedom, diversity, innovation and creativity. This is Los Angeles and this is what this symbol and our connection to it is bounded to.”