by abduzeedo
The Danish women's football league new branding for its visual identity and branding to elevate the sport and focus on the game.
Globally, women’s football is growing in popularity. In 2024, it was deemed to be the most valuable women's sport in the world with an estimated global yearly revenue of €500+ million. Danish clubs also benefit from this international trend. So much so, the association behind the Danish women’s football league decided to embark on a rebrand to support this national growth and ambition.
"Our most important task is to further accelerate the development of elite women's football in Denmark. This requires a significant amount of money. Therefore, our success depends on making elite women's football much more attractive, not least to sponsors. In this context, we decided to do something about the names of our leagues and our visual identity, so that we could better match our product and ambition," says Marie Greve, director of the League Association, formerly the Women's Division Association.
To help with this rebrand, NORD ID’s Copenhagen team was brought on to explore and develop the new chapter for the association.
New focus, new name
Despite increasing global interest, NORD ID had to understand the local context and perception. Through market analysis and interviews, the team and association understood they had to reevaluate how they wanted the league to be perceived moving forward.
“For too long, Danish women’s football has been standing in the shadow of men’s football,” explains Frederik Sommer, COO at NORD ID. “Not intentional, but because of how it’s been framed. We built a naming system that is intuitive and helps elevate the entire league. The focus should be on the game, not the gender.”
The result was to remove the gendered part of the name. The entire division has been renamed from “Women’s Division Association" (in Danish, Kvindedivisionsforeningen) to “the League Association" (Ligaforbundet). Each division has also been renamed from “Women’s League” (Kvindeligaen), 1st division and 2nd division to now being called “Division A”, “Division B division” and “Division C” (A-Liga, B-Liga, C-Liga).
“We don’t want to position the Danish women’s soccer league as a derivative of the men’s league. It’s the complete opposite of The Champions League and The Women’s Champions League. We deliberately chose to move away from a gendered name to ensure that the league stands on its own, that it’s an independent and proud brand,” Frederik Sommer sums up.
Motion and emotion in a modular system
Each and every match is an epos, emotions playing out on the field. NORD ID brought this intensity and passion into a new visual identity for the association and league.
“The lines and angles on the pitch inspired a new symbol, an asterisk,” explains Michael Mandrup, Design Director at NORD ID. “It serves as a recognizable focal point in a simple and modular design system that unifies the look and provides flexibility in use.”
The straight lines also inspired the typeface, custom-made for A-ligaen. Together with Danish type designer Trine Rask, NORD ID developed a monospaced typeface which unites functionality and character. A brand element that will help build consistency and identity across all touchpoints, like websites, social media and TV.
The new identity is live across websites and social media, implemented by the association itself.
