AJAX for the future
Amsterdam Football Club Ajax, commonly referred to as Ajax (and outside the Netherlands as Ajax Amsterdam) was founded in 1900, and is one of the major and most iconic clubs in Dutch football history and known for its emblematic red and white colours.
Back in 2019, Ajax commissioned 310k, Amsterdam-based creative studio, to refresh their brand identity without loosing their core characteristics.
From 310k’s website:
The new identity revolves around the club statement “for the future”. The new word mark and extensive design language was created to accommodate and unify the many departments within the AJAX organisation. Obviously the crest and club colours are not to be messed with but everything else was fair game. Flexibility and variation was a key factor in this identity.
The main fonts used for AFC Ajax’ identity are Suisse Int’l and Gridnik, from the late Dutch legend Wim Crouwel, often used in combinations. Suisse Works is used sporadically and independently as a third font to convey messages, slogans and historical facts from the club. Additional fonts used in the club’s branding are Lexia Advertising (not shown here) and Kurversbrug, used between 2017 and 2021 for the jerseys.
Suisse Int’l and Suisse Works are available on Swiss Typefaces website.
For one day in December 2024, the Ajax players wore an ellipsis (…) on their backs, instead of their own surnames. From Ajax: “As a call to silence social hate, the Ajax Men's and Women's teams are playing with three dots on the back of the jerseys. The three dots are a symbol for silence social hate and reporting these hate messages.”
