The Meaning Behind The Badge
Maybe you have seen this badge design before, or maybe this is the first time you have seen it. If you purchased a copy of 'Wandering No More!' by club statistician Pete Goringe before it sold out in 2024, it was included on the back cover. Pete, and those of us who collaborated with him on that publication, felt that the book needed something different to reflect the club's historical past. If you have a copy of that book, but you haven't noticed this badge design, just turn the book over to the back cover and all will be revealed.
Although this badge has not been officially adopted by Cray Wanderers FC, it depicts the early days of the Wands back in Victorian times, to when the club was established in 1860. When I pieced this design together, club Chairman Gary Hillman had recently requested a simplified version of the Wands' crest. What transpired was a revamp, by someone, of the badge I had created in around 2003 after I was requested to do so by the club. Before the version I created in 2003, which was the old Orpington Urban District Council shield that was commandeered by Mick Slater when the OUDC was disbanded in the 1960s, the club just displayed the shield in black line art but in its original format on matchday programmes and sometimes on players' shirts. To bring the badge more up-to-date, I enclosed the shield inside a circle, with the club's name and 'Founded 1860' around the circumference of the circle. In colour.
In more recent times, however, my 2003 version of the club badge has been superseded by something that hardly represents the original badge at all. In fact, that version of the badge looks like it was badly created by artificial intelligence (AI). Fortunately, examples of the 2003 version of the badge still exist in places and long may that remain so.
Not wishing to include the latest official, 'simplified' version of the club crest on the back cover of Pete's book, I undertook to produce something completely different and which can be considered more simplified than the original crest. So, I jumped onto my trusty laptop computer and dived into the image design software that I favour and got cracking on a new design that I am quite happy for the club to adopt in place of the current badge they are using. The end result is what you see above.
To talk you through the design, it includes the railway viaduct that spans the Cray Valley where St Mary Cray meets St Paul's Cray. This represents the fact that the club was formed between itinerant workers on the London to Dover railway line and villagers from St Mary Cray. The wavy line at the foot of the viaduct arches represents the River Cray which runs through the village. To complete the design, I added an old-style football with the founding year of 1860 included either side of it, the club name and the fact that the club is London's oldest. The design is simplicity itself and far less 'involved' than both the shield the club has only used since the 1960s and the current 'simplified' version that suspiciously looks like an AI product.
No AI was used in the construction of my new badge. Nor was Canva, or any of the other online design apps of that ilk. Everything you see in the badge above was designed and created by me on my computer. The tricky bit was lining up the viaduct and wavy line representing the River Cray so that they didn't overspill outside of the circle that was encasing the design. I adopted the 'Ways and Means' approach to the design, which basically means if there's a way I can do it, I've got the means (and know-how) to do it. And I think the design works. It is fresh, it is clean and it is simple. What more could the club want? In fact, once the club matchday programme editor Phil Babbs saw the design, he requested a black and white version for inclusion in the header of his club notes page. There it was displayed for most of the 2024-25 season, albeit a squashed up oval version to fit the limited space available in the programme.
Will the club ever adopt my design as shown above? Probably not, as I designed it getting on for two years ago (as I type this) and it was presented to the club as a possible replacement for the current badge shortly after Pete's book went to press; I never heard back from the club, so I took that as a 'no'. I have been involved with graphic design work for around 40 years now, a fact I believe Gary H is aware of, yet neither he nor any of the club directors chose to investigate the possibility of me designing a new, properly simplified badge for the club. But, the offer will always be open to the club if they wish to take my design on board, if and when the directors feel the time is right.