New York City FC Brand Identity
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Ten years since its founding, New York City FC asked itself what it would take to reach the upper echelons of MLS clubs and New York City teams.
An ambitious plan that included a new soccer stadium in Queens and significant investment in player development was in the works. But to continue building a devoted base of hardcore fans while inspiring new ones to join would mean reframing what the club stood for beyond the game.
Any team that seeks to stake its claim to NYC needs to live up to the city’s colossal character. Our approach was to develop a visual and verbal identity that embodied the relentless hustle and eclectic spirit of the city.
Creative Direction at Gretel
Role .................. Creative Director, Seal Type Designer
Team .................. Justin Au, Etienne Murphy
NYCFC team ............ Milo Kowalski, Director of Brand Marketing & Creative Services
Field ................. Identity, Type Design
Typefaces ............. NYCFC type family (Local & Express), concepted at Gretel and drawn by Frere-Jones Type.
Published ............. 2025
An ambitious plan that included a new soccer stadium in Queens and significant investment in player development was in the works. But to continue building a devoted base of hardcore fans while inspiring new ones to join would mean reframing what the club stood for beyond the game.
Any team that seeks to stake its claim to NYC needs to live up to the city’s colossal character. Our approach was to develop a visual and verbal identity that embodied the relentless hustle and eclectic spirit of the city.
Creative Direction at Gretel
Role .................. Creative Director, Seal Type Designer
Team .................. Justin Au, Etienne Murphy
NYCFC team ............ Milo Kowalski, Director of Brand Marketing & Creative Services
Field ................. Identity, Type Design
Typefaces ............. NYCFC type family (Local & Express), concepted at Gretel and drawn by Frere-Jones Type.
Published ............. 2025
Eight million interlocking stories
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To capture the spirit of the club and the city, we developed The Five Borough Bond — a creative platform that serves as the club’s core ethos and guiding metaphor.
The Five Borough Bond embraces contrast and juxtaposition, a wild mix of ever-changing local flavors and iconic legacies. The relentless hustle and colossal scale of the city — edgy, tough and resilient — enriched by the pulsing rhythm and poetic beauty of everyday life, interwoven with unexpected moments made possible through eight million interlocking stories.
From local club to global icon
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The club’s updated badge builds on its subway token-inspired predecessor crafted by Rafael Esquer. The overall structure was optimized for legibility at small scales, while individual elements were refined to work together harmoniously or be used independently as a suite of marks.
A refined monogram sits at the center of the badge, with enhanced balance and confident proportions. Its construction mirrors the geometry and flared serifs of the identity’s subway signage-inspired typefaces, featured in the outer ring lettering. The badge is punctuated by a pentagon on each side, a continued reference to the five boroughs. Developed in close collaboration between Gretel, Frere-Jones Type, and the New York City FC team.
The characters of the city
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The team’s custom typeface is a modern reimagining of the iconic pre-modernist signage of the Independent Subway System (IND), which has connected New York City’s five boroughs since 1932. Concepted in-house and drawn by Frere-Jones Type, NYCFC comes in two styles.
Local is built on the rectilinear geometry and petite serif flares found in monospaced tile lettering, still prominent in stations citywide. Express marries the same details with the bold and idiosyncratic proportions of the IND’s directional signage. Used interchangeably, together with inset details and companion pictograms, they reflect the voice of a team that represents all of New York City — loud, irreverent and cacophonous.
Weaving together NYC’s urban fabric
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The brand’s mosaic system is a visual representation of the Five Borough Bond — individual components of various shapes and colors, woven together into an interconnected tapestry. Modular by nature, mosaics build and scale into structural elements, camouflage patterns, and generative textures that portray the different neighborhoods across the boroughs, weaving together the countless stories that unite the club and the city, from the pavement to the pitch.
Next stop: Queens
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In tandem with the launch of the new identity, New York City FC announced a landmark campaign to construct Etihad Park, New York City’s first-ever soccer-specific stadium, in Willets Point, Queens — slated for completion in 2027. The stadium will serve as a permanent home for the club and a beacon for soccer’s future across the five boroughs.
