AJAX Logo PNG
AFC Ajax (Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax) has been around since 1900, and now it is among the most successful football clubs in the world. Since its inception it has won numerous titles.
Meaning and history
The visual identity of Ajax, one of the most successful clubs in the history of European football, has always been very consistent: the portrait of one of the Greek mythology heroes, Ajax, has been with the club since the middle of the 1920s.
1900 — 1911
Though the first versions of the club’s visual identity had nothing in common with the club’s name and mythology. The original logo, designed for Ajax in 1900 depicted the club’s player on a rounded badge, enclosed into a thick red frame with white lettering on it. The player was wearing a white uniform with a wide red vertical stripe of the jersey.
The wordmark was placed around the perimeter of the emblem, on its red part, and was composed of “Amst. Football Club Ajax” lettering in all capitals. The name of the team was written in a bigger size with more space between the letters, and had three horizontal lines from each side, in order to separate it from the rest of the wordmark and to make it more visible.
The typeface of the inscription was a clean and traditional sans-serif, which looked strong and professional in red and white color combination.
1911 — 1928
The logo was first redesigned in 1911 after the uniform of the team was slightly changed. The main difference between this and previous logos was in the color palette of the player’s image. Now he was wearing black pants and a red and white striped jersey.
Another thing that was changed was a wordmark. The name of the club was now written in a fancy custom sans-serif with interesting contours and curved vertical bars. As for the horizontal separating lines, they gained delicate white dots between each other.
This was the last logo without the Ajax portrait in the history of the famous Dutch football club.
1928 — 1991
The portrait first appeared in the Ajax logo in 1928. It was a profile of the hero, turned to the left, drawn very detailed and ornate in black and white. The “Ajax” inscription in all capitals was placed on the left of the portrait, around the emblem’s perimeter. On the right side from the hero’s profile, there was a small and delicate white and red crest placed, in order to celebrate the football club’s background and history.
The wordmark of the club’s emblem was executed in an extended sans-serif typeface and made three-dimensional by using a gradient black and gray. So the lettering looked as if it was metallic.
This elegant and classy badge stayed with the team for more than 60 years and is instantly recognizable across the globe as the logo of one of the strongest European teams.
1991 — Today
In 1991 the portrait was redrawn in a modern and abstract manner. The hero’s profile now boasts bold contouring and has no extra details. The composition remained the same, but all the lines got simplified.
The same is with the wordmark, which is now placed not inside of the badge, but right on a thin red framing. The inscription featured a modern and bold sans-serif typeface and is written in black, being clean, and stylish.
Another change in the team’s visual identity is the addition of the “Amsterdam” inscription to the logo. It is placed opposite of the main wordmark, executed in small size capitals.
The Ajax logo in black, red, and white is minimalist and abstract, yet shows the club’s connection with its roots and its value of the history and heritage. The contemporary emblem looks fresh and elegant, being a perfect graphical representation of the reputable football club.
Shape and colors
The new logo design is based on the previous one. It features Ajax’s head, which is contoured in eleven lines to represent the eleven players. Introduced in 1990, this logo version has proved more commercially consistent. Actually, the designers have returned to the red-and-black color palette that appeared in the 1900-1928 logos. The red color stands for energy and passion, while the black color emphasizes perfection, strength, and elegance. Not unlikely, the colors were chosen because they are present in the flag of Amsterdam.
Ajax Colors
RED
PANTONE: PMS 711 C
HEX COLOR: #D2122E;
RGB: (210, 18, 46)
CMYK: (11, 100, 90, 2)
WHITE
PANTONE: PMS P 1-1 C
HEX COLOR: #FFFFFF;
RGB: (255, 255, 255)
CMYK: (0, 0, 0, 0)
BLACK
PANTONE: PMS BLACK 6 C
HEX COLOR: #000000;
RGB: (0, 0, 0)
CMYK: (0, 0, 0, 100)
