Sports
Brand Identity, Photography, Motion, Web Design, Sound Design
Agency: Brand Potential
A New Era in Rugby
The journey to Gallagher PREM began with a radical rethink of what rugby could be. Through in-depth strategy and research, the opportunity was clear: amplify the visceral truth of rugby—its physicality, its drama, and its spirit of community.
The ambition was bold: to double the league’s weekly reach from 1.9 million to 3.8million viewers by reigniting the passion of loyal rugby fans and captivating new, casual sports fans seeking high-octane entertainment.
This transformation need is far more than a new name or visual identity. It is an ecosystem of experience design—shaping how matches look, sound, and feel in stadiums, across broadcast, social media, and through the stories of the players themselves.
A Ferocious Game Played on the Edge
Gallagher PREM is rugby reimagined: the most intense, relentless, and electrifying competition in the sport's history. Our brand positioning—“A ferocious game played on the edge”—isn’t just a tagline. It’s a promise. Every match is unpredictable, every second counts, and momentum can shift in an instant. This is rugby as theatre: fast-paced, full-contact, and utterly dramatic. Players push boundaries, heroes rise and rivalries ignite. The league’s sustained drama is built on moments that change everything—last-second tries, impossible comebacks, and clashes that become legend. Gallagher PREM is rugby designed to keep fans perched on the edge of their seats.
A Name That Speaks Like the Fans
The new name, Gallagher PREM, emerged from deep consultation with players and stakeholders—including England’s George Furbank and Bath’s Beno Obano. The brief was clear: the name had to sound like something fans would actually say, and it needed to “unashamedly celebrate intensity, physicality, grit, and extreme athleticism.” The result is a name that’s punchy, modern, and instantly ownable—setting the tone for everything that follows.
A Word Mark That Lives on the Edge
At the heart of the new identity is a wordmark that’s more than just a logo—it’s a visual metaphor for the game itself. Built from the bold, sporting typeface Druk, its manipulated italics become the literal expression of ‘on the edge’, slanting forward to evoke momentum and the relentless drive of the sport. The collision of the P and R in the mark is a deliberate nod to the high-impact, unpredictable nature of rugby.
Crucially, the logo unites PREM and Gallagher for the first time. The Gallagher globe, cleverly reimagined as a rugby ball in the counter of the R, creates a subtle but powerful link between the league and its sponsor—moving away from the old model of separate identities and into a new era of partnership.
Designing for Ferocity, Flexibility, and Fandom
The creative system is built around the pure energy and adrenaline of rugby. We drew inspiration from on-field action heat maps, using their dynamic forms to visualize intensity and movement. This approach allowed us ultimate flexibility when intergrating the Gallagher Blue alongside PREM’s Ferocious Orange, enabling us to dial elements up and down depending on the context of level of sponsor investment.—ensuring both brand and partner always have room to shine.
Team-coloured patterns are a key feature, giving every club a unique visual signature and bringing their stories to the forefront. These patterns aren’t just decorative—they’re woven into every asset, from digital to physical, helping to champion player and team narratives and drive deeper fandom.
A 16:9 grid underpins the entire system, providing structure and consistency across all touch points. Whether it’s imagery, pattern placement, typography, or even pitch markings, this grid ensures every piece of communication feels part of a unified whole.
Capturing the Game’s Unpredictable Energy
Motion design is rooted in the digital heat map concept. Pixelated, distorted transitions echo the games unpredictability and speed, shifting between different states—ambient to alarm—to mirror the emotional journey of both player and fan. This approach brings the brand to life in broadcast, social, and in-stadium experiences, always keeping the energy high and the audience engaged.
Gallagher PREM’s new design system is a showcase in modern sports branding: bold, flexible, and deeply rooted in the realities of the game. From a name that speaks the fans’ language, to a word mark that lives on the edge, to a visual and motion system that captures the ferocity and unpredictability of rugby, every detail is crafted to invite new audiences in and keep them coming back for more.
