Monopo ushers in vivid rebrand for world’s oldest badminton tournament

No need to adjust your TV screens, sport branding is just looking louder than usual at the moment. Following some equally unconventional cricket branding from Happy Ending last month, Monopo London has delivered a vibrant brand refresh for the world’s oldest and most prestigious badminton tournament, Yonex All England.

The new brand will be unveiled to a global audience of more than 350 million, who tune in across 155 matches and 50 hours of live badminton a year. Monopo wanted to distil the experience of a match for the revamp, particularly the “lightning-fast speed of the shuttlecock”. This felt particularly relevant after a new world record for fastest badminton shot was set just this April by Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, at 565 km/h.

“Badminton is one of the most exciting sports to watch live,” says creative director Mélanie Hubert-Crozet. “It was important for us to create a visual identity that is as expressive in person as it is online, so that fans tuning in remotely from around the world can experience the tournament as if they were there in person.”

This aim can be seen in a range of patterns suggesting a shuttlecock flying past with feathers splayed out. This is paired with a masking technique for an “ownable graphic strip” for the tournament. Monopo also uses a bold italic sans serif to create the feeling that viewers are “leaning into the action”, a press release explains.

But the agency hasn’t trodden over heritage in the effort to create an exciting brand. The neon colour palette riffs on the signature brand colours of the tournament (blue and green) and the logo reworks the roundel format Yonex All England audiences have come to know well.