The Story Of The HAC logo
The story behind the Hackney Aquatics Club logo started with a competition the coaches asked our swimmers to enter in 2012, the year of London’s Olympic games. They had to come up with a design that was bold, simple and distinctive from all the others. One of our young swimmers, Luca Minale, went home and told his parents.
His Dad, who just so happened to be a designer, decided to take the challenge on himself, doodling down a few sketches. Luca showed his coach, and then presented the drawings to the committee. The rest is history.
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The designer-Dad is Marcello Minale, whose own father, an award winning Italian designer, co-founded Minale Tattersfield in 1964, with Englishman Peter Tattersfield, four years after picking up a silver medal rowing for Italy at the Rome Olympics.
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With his son Marcello now at the helm, Minale Tattersfield continue to provide brand strategy and identity design for companies all over the world.
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A logo is a distinctive design, mark, or symbol that uniquely identifies an organisation. A corporate logo is a powerful corporate identity tool and, as the symbol by which the public recognizes us.
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So when Marcello gave us his HAC logo design as a gift, we were thrilled. As a corporate logo it stands alongside its predecessors. As a club logo, it stands apart from the rest as distinguished and professional. Using unique simple letterforms, the three geometric shapes connect as triangles and squares, to read HAC in colour, whilst creating an aquatic creature complete with tail when used in black (positive) on white (negative). Changing the club’s name from unfamiliar Clissold to historic Hackney during the Olympic year, was a no-brainer, being the borough to host the games. Suddenly we were in the limelight with a sharper focus on being part of the bigger picture in terms of sport and the significance of swimming within that vision.
The HAC logo provides us with a strong and clear identity that we will continue to use to maximum advantage. So when we shout loud and proud “Go Hackney”, the logo is there to reinforce that pride and remind us how fantastic it is being part of Hackney Aquatics Club.
