5v5

TYPE

Rebrand
Campaigning

CATEGORY

Sports

YEAR

2018 - Present
Ongoing

SERVICES

Identity Design
Print Design
Web Design
EDM Design
Video Editing
Marketing & Advertising

TOOLS

Photoshop
Illustrator
Lightroom
Premiere Pro
Aftereffects
Meta Ads
Squarespace

BACKGROUND

5v5 organises competitive and social futsal for locals across Sydney. From humble beginnings of playing with mates at parks, to organising competitions, coaching, and ultimately building a community dedicated to the sport.

I was brought on the year after their inception, to redesign their logo and develop their print and digital campaigns. This turned into an ongoing relationship that has kicked off into helping them grow their sport offerings, products, and locations.

PROBLEM

Inefficiencies in Brand Identity

Technical errors in the Identity mark, including it’s linework, proportions, and the ‘5vs5’ having a grey stroke layer around it.

Underutilized visual language

Use of brand typography and colours were limited, hindering the effectiveness of its visual appeal and potential of the brand name.

First impressions and information

Touchpoints lacked brand distinction and portraying the fun nature of the sport across banners, social media collateral, and the website.

OPPORTUNITY

The new kid on the block

Competing against local clubs and sport organisations spanning decades in the industry, 5v5 could become the hub for a new era of players who longed for a community that represented them. This required 5v5 to become a brand that embodied the essence of youth, modernism, and a stark contrast to traditional and outdated branding of competitors.

Future-proofing Sport

With 5v5’s core ability to tender venues and running organised competitions, expansion into other 5v5 sports such as Basketball and Hockey are a no-brainer opportunity. This requires the brand visual system to be applicable across any future sports offerings, including designated brand colours, consistency in messaging, and an ecosystem where players can venture between them.

PROCESS

Local vs. global

I scoured through local and global sport brands, from top retailers to sports organisers, with a goal to differentiate from local clubs with design inspiration from global brands many of the players subscribe to. With simplicity and relatability at its core, the brand needed to stay distinctive amongst the saturated market of sport organisers and pick-up games.

Fine-tuning the founder’s vision

Their logo, designed by the founder himself in MS Paint (truly impressive), was to be remade in Illustrator and corrected with consistent line-weight, spacing, and a name change to ‘5v5 Sports’ from ‘5vs5 Futsal’. Brand colours and messaging were also collaboratively developed with the founder to ensure his deep connection to the brand remained.

Bringing a team together

Integrating design, marketing, and sales was a key element in acquiring and converting leads on a consistent basis. Seasonal competitions meant marketing required a system of collateral to be developed. Taking the form of a workflow, this outlined collateral and touchpoints in the sales funnel whereby team members were allocated roles, inputs, and outputs.

CHALLENGES & LEARNINGS

Internal communications

In my design and marketing role coordinating closely between the sales team and the managing director, we found Trello underutilized for our needs. We agreed and switched to Monday and Slack, further collaborating with the director to develop the Monday boards, new form systems, and workflows for current and future team members. A key takeaway from this, and in my other projects, working directly with founders often means developing the business and operations alongside them.

Long-term strategies

The decision the switch brand names came in the later years, somewhere between 2019 and 2021. Big decisions like this, in a small business where budget is kept at a minimum, was hard to make. Ultimately, we decided the transition had to occur sooner or later to solidify the brand’s long-term goal of becoming a multi-sport business. This drew inspiration and pride in the team from top-down, knowing the scope of the vision and identifying the viability of growth is important to each of our personal investment.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

From a handful to over 150+ teams

With new players and returning players every season, mainly thanks to the great work of the sales and in-venue teams.

Expanded locations and sports

We successfully expanded into a total of 4 permanent locations, with more on the horizon, as well as integrated Basketball at 2 of them.

Successful acquistion

Albeit not the goal, the brand of 5v5 was a key feature and selling point in a proposed and finalized acquisition from a large multi-sport and multi-venue organisation.