Friday, September 25, 2009

Fancy some Fudge with your Squash?

Have you seen the new logo and identity package that England Squash and Racketball Association has just rolled out? Hold on to your racquets all you squash association executive directors cuz this is something new and progressive: No yellow dots or racquets in this brand.

This is fresh and it smells like Fudge. The creative team of Fudge Studios (Bolton, UK) are behind the brand and website. The England Squash and Racketball association selected the agency as a part of a marketing drive to promote these otherwise conventional sports as 'vibrant, modern, and professional'.

David Eccles, managing director of Fudge, (quoted in The Drum) said: "It has been a fabulous project. Squash is experiencing a major resurgence, as England's national teams are now considered World and European Champions, while the growth of racketball has seen thousands of people step on court for the first time.

The new brand is also known as "English Rose":












And the website? No problems navigating to your current ranking here. It's slick and beautiful and it even has rotating background images and various player profiles. Right now they have one of Squash Republic's favs - Darryl Selby.



























Nicely done Fudgies. Gives us squash playing graphic designers out in the trenches some hope.

Now, come on Squash BC and Squash Canada! The bar has been raised so let's get busy on your new website. You know how to reach us:)

Postscript - October 5th:
We've received an anonymous quote from a reader who feels that the ESRA site is suffering from a "case of style over substance" (But it looks SO good!). They point out that while the site looks wonderful and promises boatloads of content, the truth is the ESRA site is not really there yet. Just a small example: Adrian Grant wasn't born on January 1, 1981, but
October 6, 1980. So, one wonders, is it Fudge Creative's fault the correct content isn't there or is it the ESRA's?

I would be interested in hearing from anyone in the UK using the site: Have you experienced any issues? Is it working for you?

Thanks for the comments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry Robert, but it looks to be a case of style over substance from here.

They've been working on it for months, and there's still precious little actual content ... strange how when you choose a player profile you get a background of a different player ... stranger still that they're all born on 1st Jan, how hard is that!

Unknown said...

Absolutely agree, the functionality of the ES site is hopeless.

The Premier League has started, and in two days I've done the previews, reports, added a functional blog, etc etc to the PSL site.

As a designer you'll hate www.pslsquash.com, square, blocky, ugly, but as a user it provides what you need.

After several weeks, no months, the ES site is incapable of even providing a simple link to their most prestigious event ...