Logo Design · Brand Identity
A logo that’s also a number
The mark for a professional goalkeeper’s own gear brand: two letters, one shared stroke, and the number every goalkeeper wears.
Brand
AB1GK
Scope
Logo mark and brand identity
Year
2019
Worked with
Founder Asmir Begovic
The idea
AB1GK is the goalkeeper gear brand of Asmir Begovic, a Premier League champion with Chelsea. The brief was a mark that belonged to him rather than to the category, so instead of borrowing the look of established goalkeeper brands, I built the logo out of things that already meant something: his initials, and the number he wore.
We worked through moodboards and sketches together, almost daily, until one idea held: overlap the A and the B so that the stroke they share reads as a 1. It’s the goalkeeper’s number, and it’s his own.
How the mark was built
The construction sketches, in order. Pink is the outline still to come; white is what’s been committed.
01
Start with the 1
The number every goalkeeper wears, and the one Asmir wore through his own career.
02
The same stroke becomes an A
A single crossbar turns the 1 into the first initial without adding a new shape.
03
The B wraps around it
The second initial curves around the shared stroke, so all three forms overlap.
04
The A, on its own
The first initial has to read clearly without the B behind it.
05
The B, on its own
And the second one has to hold up without the A behind it.
06
The 1 is the spine
Isolate the number and it turns out to be the stroke both letters are built on.
07
The final mark
A hand-drawn stroke that reads as AB at a glance, and as a 1 once you know to look for it.
Stylized version
The same mark with a metallic finish.
The mark in play
The logo on real gloves, worn by goalkeepers at clubs and national teams.
Tom Heaton
Manchester United
Alexander Meyer
Borussia Dortmund
Sabrina D'Angelo
Arsenal
Melina Loeck
Brighton
Vanja Milinković-Savić
Serbia
Anthony Nunez
Dominican Republic