As well as speaking to fans new and old, the football club is opening up to more commercial and cultural partners as it enters the Championships for the first time in 25 years.
London agency LoveGunn has collaborated with Oxford United on its new identity, designed to reach beyond football into new cultural and commercial fields (no pun intended) to help sustain the club’s on-pitch success.
The studio’s founder, Chris Gunn, was first introduced to Oxford United’s chief commercial & marketing officer, Adam Benson, through a mutual contact. One proposal later – alongside other agencies – Benson invited Gunn to a match against Bolton Wanderers to see the club’s ambitions in action. “Experiencing the atmosphere firsthand, we found a natural alignment between Oxford’s goals and our fan-led approach, setting the stage for a dynamic creative partnership,” says Gunn.
As with any rebrand, reaching and engaging with new audiences was part of the brief. However, Oxford United also clarified that it did not want to alienate existing fans and traditional supporters.
Established as Headington FC in 1893, Oxford United changed their name in 1960. More recently, and under new ownership, the club surprised everyone last season by winning the League One Play-Offs and moving up to the Championship for the first time in 25 years in the 24/25 season.
Despite recent successes, Gunn explains that the club understands “where they sit within the football pyramid” and accepts the reality of operating as a newly promoted Championship club.
“While they may not always compete at the highest levels on the pitch, the strategic vision is about leveraging this understanding to find new, innovative ways to engage with audiences and expand the fan base to sustain their success,” he adds.
Equally, LoveGunn didn’t have the same resources as a Premier League club, but that didn’t stop them from aiming for a level of branding worthy of top-tier ambitions, according to creative director Tom Love. He says: “Our goal was to reflect Oxford United’s forward-thinking outlook and attract new commercial opportunities without losing sight of what makes a football club unique.
“The world of football is intense, tribal, and fiercely loyal, and that sense of tradition and trust is paramount. We approached this project with the respect it deserves, ensuring every decision – no matter how progressive – honoured the club’s rich heritage and the deep cultural bond it shares with its supporters.”
Part of LoveGunn’s design philosophy is building brands from the inside out, and for this project, that meant putting the fans’ passion and perspectives at the core. The ambition involved Oxford United beyond its traditional football heritage and growing into a progressive lifestyle and entertainment brand while simultaneously celebrating the club’s cultural and community roots.
To achieve this, the agency had to push some boundaries, but speaking to loyal supporters and broader audiences helped them stay on track. However, LoveGun wanted to avoid large-scale fan forums, as they believe that they can often lead to conflicting viewpoints, ultimately diluting a club’s core identity and defeating the purpose of the brand refresh.
“Instead, we adopted a more focused and organic approach to engaging supporters – keeping our ears open to fan sentiment through everyday interactions, club staff (many of whom are fans themselves), and local fan-led media,” says Gunn. “By drawing on these more targeted insights, we gained a deep understanding of what matters most to Oxford United followers, which allowed us to craft a refresh that truly reflects the club’s DNA without losing sight of the heritage that has made Oxford United special to so many people.”
As an agency deeply rooted in football culture, LoveGunn has seen firsthand how important it is for any rebrand to remain true to a club’s heritage through collaborations with clubs and associations, from grassroots to top-flight organisations. Through this, they’ve noticed that the rebrands that resonate most powerfully with fans are those that keep the club’s spirit front and centre. Using those insights as a starting point, LoveGunn centred its approach for Oxford United around honouring its proud legacy while presenting a fresh, future-facing identity.
Love explains how, for Oxford United, that meant ensuring the refresh reaffirmed the club’s unique identity. “We’ve listened closely to fans, local partners, and the wider Oxford community, making sure the new look still feels like ‘their’ club—proud of its heritage, yet ready for the future,” he says. “By grounding ourselves in the city’s history and the supporters’ passion, we believe we’ve struck a balance that not only respects the past but also excites everyone about what’s to come.”
The result is a strategy that comes directly from the new Oxford United vision of ‘Dream. Inspire.’, which aims to bring people closer to the club and create a more personal connection. The new visual toolkit encompasses new palettes, fonts, art direction styles and tone of voice, all consistent with a raw, authentic look and feel, grounded not just in the club’s history but in the city of Oxford.
Oxford United’s graphic assets have all been refreshed and reconsidered as a holistic toolkit, with each element informing the other. For example, the OX imagery has been repurposed and turned into three core club icons designed for different audiences, from the traditional club badge reflecting all things football down to the newly simplified OX silhouette. The latter will be used to sign-post the club’s breadth of cultural initiatives, from fashion ranges to festivals and collaborations with cultural institutions.
Retaining authenticity involved creating assets unmistakably Oxford, so LoveGunn drew on elements like the city’s iconic skyline, studying every nuance of its historic spires, which are symbols of Oxford’s renowned legacy as a global centre of learning and discovery.
Love says: “We distilled these forms into a bold, modern motif that flexes across our visual identity – from the subtle detailing on this season’s home kit to the dynamic patterns woven into our brand assets.
“It’s a powerful statement that anchors our new look in the city’s proud heritage while driving the club forward.”
With the colour palette, LoveGunn has brought fresh energy into Oxford United’s classic yellow and blue, making the hues brighter and bolder without losing their historical significance. Other heritage colours, like gold and black, inspired by the club’s roots, were also introduced, honouring the original Headington FC kit and bridging the past with the future.
Of course, a key aim of this identity is to help Oxford United transcend purely footballing traditions and open it up to wider community and cultural arenas. So, the agency developed a secondary palette made up of colours like Green Spire, Graffiti Pink, Oxford Stone, and Academic Blue. “Each shade speaks to a different facet of Oxford’s character,” says Love.
“Green Spire reflects the city’s copper spires that have aged into a vivid green; Graffiti Pink repurposes an infamous moment of vandalism on the stadium’s Ox statue, transforming an act of rebellion into a powerful statement about art and expression.” The versatility of this secondary palette means the club can stay visually relevant in every context, showcasing Oxford’s culture of innovation, heritage, and creativity, both on and off the pitch.
The city’s storied heritage and contemporary future are also prevalent in the new typeface, which takes cues from the city’s skyline with spire-like forms into certain characters and chiselled details reminiscent of traditional stone masonry. Gunn says: “This approach adds an elegant, authentic touch that stands apart from the bold, condensed styles dominating today’s sports landscape.
“Our goal was a refined aesthetic that both pays tribute to Oxford’s roots and positions the club at the forefront of innovation.”
LoveGunn’s vision for the club’s new art direction is all about bringing fans closer to the heart of the action. According to Love, the agency set out to capture football’s “raw, unfiltered emotions, everything from the pure exhilaration of a goal celebration to that final, exhausted push at the end of a match”.
He explains how lighting and depth are key to this story-driven approach, “ensuring each shot feels both authentic and visually striking”. With the unpredictability of live action in mind, LoveGunn also developed custom editing processes and automation that enhance every frame so that each image could tell its own story.
“Ultimately, it’s about immersing supporters in the highs, lows, and sheer passion that define Oxford United,” Love adds.
Oxford United has a new look, but how does it speak to its fans? LoveGunn felt that the club needed a unified, confident voice that could appeal to lifelong supporters and a new generation.
“Guided by ‘Dream. Inspire.’, we set out to harness football’s familiar vernacular and reimagine it as a rallying cry for personal ambition, which led us to a bold, two-word approach rooted in motivational instruction,” says Gunn. Phrases like ‘Push Forward’, ‘Rise Again’, and ‘Chase Glory’ pop up across the identity to inspire fans through a fusion of authenticity and aspiration.
The fans’ reactions will be a huge factor in measuring the success of the rebrand, and according to LoveGunn, they’ve been incredibly positive so far. It’s also clear that Oxford United wants to open themselves up to new commercial and cultural opportunities, though. They’ve already seen “a significant shift in who the club can connect with and the kinds of initiatives they’re able to support,” says Love.
Gunn adds: “2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year of transformation, and we’re excited to see how we can build on this momentum to keep Oxford United pushing forward in fresh and unexpected ways.”
