The logo of the Football club Bayern München e.V., more often called FC Bayern München, has gone through multiple modifications throughout its almost 120-year history.
The visual identity of one of the most famous Spanish football teams has a pretty intense history. It has been a really long and colorful way from the very first logo, designed in 1903, to the one we all know today.
Though for the most part of the time the club has been using the emblem, based on the one, created in 1917, there have been several experiments and redesign throughout the years.
The visual identity of the Bayern Munchen football club has been redesigned about eight times during the team’s history, but the style and concept of the logo haven’t changed much since the beginning of the 1960s. However, the first two versions of the club’s badge design were different but pretty good and actual for their times.
The very first badge of Bayern Munchen FC was designed in 1900 and only stayed active for several months. It was a modest flag on a flagstick, drawn in a blue and white color palette, with the body featuring a horizontally striped pattern and a roundel with a stylized geometric abbreviation in the center, executed in the same color scheme.
The original version of the logo was designed in 1923 and stayed with the club for more than thirty years, which is a lot. It was a blue circular badge, composed of four stylized letters “FCBM”, where the “C” replaced the frame, and “M” was placed under it, with its right bar merging into the bottom part of the “C”.
The badge had a thin and delicate golden-brown outline, which made it possible to place in on various backgrounds, though white was the one that was used more often.
The redesign of 1906 changed the color palette of the football club’s visual identity to red and white and made an interesting switch in the composition. Now, the “B” became the main character in the abbreviation, so it got enlarged, and all other characters were placed in the negative space of its bottom segment.
In 1908, the shade of red on the Bayern Munchen logo became darker, close to burgundy. The “B” was removed from the composition, so now the logo came back to its circular shape, as the intertwined “S” and “M” were placed inside the “C” again. This badge was used by the club for almost a decade.
A completely new logo design concept was created for the football club in 1919. The shape of the badge turned into a clean, strong octagon with a thick golden outline, and the stylized geometric lettering was written in straight bars of the same color and thickness Against a solid green background. The composition was completed by a small square, diagonally divided into white and red triangles.
The redesign of 1920 made the Bayern Munchen logo circular again. The color palette was changed to red, blue, and white, and the composition was completely reworked. The stylized white “Bayern” lettering was written on top of a solid red roundel and accompanied by a white and blue rhomboid pattern.
In 1921 the logo was completely changed. It was a pretty minimalist yet bright version, where the white “FC Bayern” lettering was placed on a solid red circle in a double white and red outline.
The color palette of the new logo symbolizes energy and patroon, while the clean and simple lines of the inscription pointed on the professional and fundamental approach of the team.
In 1924, the rhomboid pattern from the version of 1920 came back to the logo of the football club. Now, the rhombuses were glued to each other without any negative space between them. But the main change was made to the shape of the emblem — it grew taller and turned into an oval. As for the lettering part, it was written in gold stylized capitals, resembling the ones from 1920, but in a smaller size.
Another version of the club’s badge was introduced in 1931 and stayed active for the next four seasons. It was a logo, completely repeating the unique geometric monogram from 1901, but executed in a burgundy color and with slightly thinner lines of all elements.
The redesign of 1935 has turned the Bayern FC logo into a tall octagon in a thick black-and-white frame made of many small fragments. The central part of the badge was colored dark red and featured a blue and white roundel in its top part and a white uppercase lettering in a geometric sans-serif at the bottom.
Another experiment with the shape of the Bayern logo happened in 1938 when the octagonal badge turned into a tall oval with wavy contours. The color palette remained the same, however, the concept was slightly altered, so now the white lettering was placed above the blue and white rhomboid pattern.
The darkest logo in the history of the club was designed in 1938 and stayed active until the end of World War II. It was a roundel with a thick dark-red frame where the name of the club was written in gold sans-serif capitals, and a white central part with a gray image of an eagle, overlapped by the black swastika symbol, was placed.
In 1945 a very stylish logo was presented: the same oval and rhombus pattern, but the color palette was more interesting — the blue and white were replaced by two shades of blue, and the classic red — by a burgundy brown, a royal, and sleek color. The “Munchen” part of the wordmark was removed, and the “Bayern” was now executed in a unique and custom sans-serif with an art-deco mood.
The new era of the Bayern Munchen visual identity started in the 1950s, with the first logo drawn in 1955. It was a bright red vertically placed oval with golden lettering and a blue and white half-circle in the middle.
The blue and white part featured a rhombus heraldic pattern and was balanced by a modern sans-serif typeface of the “Bayern Munchen” inscription. The logo stayed with the club for only four years but became a base for all the following designs.
The prototype of the logo we all know today was created for FC Bayern Munchen EV in 1966. A circle with a white and blue rhombus pattern was placed inside a bigger red circle with a thin yellow outline. The nameplate was written in yellow sans-serif and placed around the perimeter of the emblem, on its red part.
The color palette of the Bayern Munchen football club logo got brighter and more contrasting after the redesign of 1967. The lettering around the perimeter of the badge turned white and became thicker, being rewritten in a more modern version of a geometric sans-serif typeface. The rhomboid pattern in the center got a slight inclination to the left, becoming diagonal.
The redesign of 1978 added distinction and style to the club’s badge by cleaning up the contours of all elements, darkening the colors, and using a new contoured sans-serif typeface for the lettering written around the perimeter of the circular medallion. Overall, the style and concept remained the same as on several previous badges.
The redesign of 1996 brought a new shade of blue to the rhombus pattern. It became lighter and added more freshness and a sense of freedom and speed to the whole image. Another night change was made to the nameplate — the typeface was switched to a bolder and come solid one. The whole badge is now outlined in blue.
The blue outline became a bit thicker and the color palette — calmer and lighter, as for the lettering, it remained the same, but the “EV” part was removed.
The current version of the Bayern Munchen visual identity was created in 2017 and it basically repeats the previous version but has it is color palette brighter and more distinct.
The red, blue, and white combination show the football club as a powerful and professional one, with rich experience and authority.
In 2025, the Bayern Munchen logo was redesigned again, but this time, it was all about the colors, which became brighter and more vivid. With the new intensified shade of red and blue, the white elements also turned to be brighter, and now they look like they are glowing from the inside. The shapes of all elements, including characters, remained untouched.
The emblem can be reproduced in a variety of size provided the proportions remain unchanged. In other words, the crest should retain its circular shape. Some of the examples of the sizes available can be the 512×512 logo or the 256×256 logo.
The letters featured on the Bayern Munich logo seem to belong to the Vectora Black font, which was developed in 1990 by Adrian Frutiger.
The palette comprises only three colors: red, blue, and white. Blue and white are the colors of Bavaria, the club’s native land, blue is the color of the team’s original crest.
BLUE
PANTONE: PMS 4151 C
HEX COLOR: #0066B2;
RGB: (0,102,178)
CMYK: (91,61,0,0)
RED
PANTONE: PMS 185 C
HEX COLOR: #DC052D;
RGB: (220,5,45)
CMYK: (7,100,91,1)