AC Milan rebuilt its identity around the oval crest for its next century

Reinterpret one of the world's most iconic football clubs for a modern international audience, launching with the 2019/20 Serie A season — the 118th of top-tier Italian football.

Grow the whole system out of the oval crest — one shape standing for 450 million supporters — in one vibrant red with a more accessible typeface.

DixonBaxi refreshed the colours into a consistent vibrant red, redesigned the bespoke AC Milan typeface to feel more accessible, and drew cues from fashion, lifestyle and Italian culture. The identity rolled out across ticketing, e-commerce, team branding, merchandising and venues including the San Siro — where over 1,000 brand elements needed considering — plus Casa Milan, Milanello and the Vismara Sport Centre.

The identity launched club-wide with the 2019/20 season, replacing a fragmented system across more than a thousand touchpoints at the San Siro alone; the source reports no commercial figures.

London agency DixonBaxi, founded by Simon Dixon and Aporva Baxi in 2002, unveiled a new club visual identity for AC Milan, timed to the start of the Serie A 2019/20 season — the 118th of top-tier Italian football — and billed as marking a new era for the club.

Inspired by the club's hundred-year heritage, the identity is built around the distinctive oval-shaped crest, chosen to symbolise the club's 450 million global supporters. The bespoke AC Milan typeface was redesigned alongside the AC Milan font so the typography feels more accessible, and the palette was channelled into one consistent, vibrant red.

The design takes cues from fashion, lifestyle and Italian culture, and it had to work at enormous scale: co-founder and executive creative director Aporva Baxi noted that in the San Siro alone there are over 1,000 different brand elements to consider, alongside ticketing, e-commerce, merchandising, the club's training centres and Casa Milan.

Baxi said the team wanted a narrative encompassing the legendary players of the red-and-black shirt, the trophies, and the talent of tomorrow — letting a club over 100 years old decide what its next century means.

Anchoring everything to the oval crest gives a sprawling, century-old brand one ownable geometric idea.

Committing to a single vibrant red solved the inconsistency that had crept across decades of applications.

A narrative spanning past legends to future talent made the rebrand feel like succession, not a facelift.

When a brand must scale to a thousand touchpoints, build the system from one ownable shape so every application stays recognisable.

The identity was rolling out across club touchpoints for the 2019/20 season; the source reports no follow-up figures.