Following our previous work, Clan United was delighted to receive a project to work with the charity based Scottish team: Dukla Pumpherston.

The name was based on the fictional team “Dukla Pumpherston Sawmill and Tannery” created by Tony Roper in 1980s comedy programme Naked Radio; the name is a comic juxtaposition of the sophisticated European-sounding name of Czech team Dukla Prague with that of tiny Scottish village Pumpherston. Roper himself has also played for the team.

Building on from this identity, Dukla was formed officially in 1990 and has had a star studded lineup throughout the years.

The players have been described as a motley crew of former professional players and television personalities who tour the country – indeed the world – enjoying themselves while raising cash for worthy causes. They have been described as “a drinking team with a football problem”. The ad hoc roster (or that of similarly informal opposing charity teams) has, at various times, included football broadcaster Chic Charnley,^[1] politician Tommy Sheridan,^[1][2] boxer Willie Limond,^[3] airport worker John Smeaton,^[4] and footballers Ally McCoist,^[1]Neil Lennon,^[1]Jose Quitongo,^[4]Frank McAvennie,^[5]Gordon Smith,^[1][6]Gerry McCabe,^[7]Jim Duffy,^[1]Billy Dodds,^[8]Gerry Britton,^[1]Jim Chapman,^[9]Brian McPhee,^[9][2]Davie Irons,^[10] and Brian Martin.^[9][2]

Dukla wanted to adopt a modern day design that matched their foundation—namely that communicated the inspiration and original concept. As such, Clan United was tasked with redesigning their crest.

Their initial crest was a classic shield shape, with the tannery and sawmill represented clearly. However, the design displayed 1980 rather than 1990, and was in greyscale with a single red outline—the team felt it needed a refresh to upgrade their identity to stand alongside professional football teams.

Firstly, we wanted to reflect the Czech inspiration. We explored the Czech first league, and dived deeper into lower divisions to compare identities and general design themes. Dukla Praha was an obvious consideration, which has an unconventional style but followed the ideal colour palette that matches the local region flag colours.

Next we explored various leading clubs including FK Priham (whom champion a simplistic and direct style to communicate their roots in a minimal yet effective manner), and after some initial solution sketching, identified a strong meaningful route by taking inspiration from Sparta Prague.

The bold, modern style of the crest presented a clever opportunity. By recreating the crest shape upside-down, the outline is a subtle nod towards the Scottish Thistle shape. We retained the colouring from the ancient city of Sparta as Red and Yellow were adapted by the city of Prague, and used by Dukla Praha also.

As with Priham, we wanted the key ‘heritage’ items to be displayed boldly. We utilised the widely recognised saw blade and tannery symbols (leather hide) and placed a football clearly in the center of the design to make the crest instantly recognisable as a Football club.

During the design process we offered alternatives that followed similar routes:

Finally, we created kit prototypes based on proposed design directions from their Kit provider, Joma. All crest designs were placed onto our highly detailed mockup files, to give the Dukla representatives a chance to visualise how the finished design would look in action.

By creating prototypes of the printed kit, we were able to address key issues. For example, without a clearer border, the badge flag section may seem to ‘bleed’ into the maroon shirt.

To address this, we provided an alternative version with a crisp white outline, to ensure the badge is bold at all times.

This project was particularly satisfying as their was an instant harmony as both Clan United and Dukla were aligned with an ideal vision. In short, it meant that the design process was streamlined and after the initial direction presentation, there was only one round of edits on the final design.