It's all change at Hampshire County Cricket Club with today's unveiling of a re-branded identity and the announcement that the Club is now to be known as `Hampshire Cricket'.

The move to re-brand Hampshire is in line with the company's development strategy. This month, Hampshire makes history by becoming the first professional cricket club to convert to a plc via their parent company, Rose Bowl plc. A Public Offer opened on March 4th 2002 and the Club aims to raise a further £5 million to supplement the £18 million already spent on the 150-acre Rose Bowl site at West End, Southampton.

Evolving from the traditional Rose and Crown icon and retaining the blue and yellow Club colours, the new logo reflects the exciting developments at the Club. The new brand has a fresh and contemporary style in order to reflect the dynamic values of the Club.

The Hampshire Hawks logo has also been updated to integrate with the new Club brand and image.

A new brand identity has been created for Rose Bowl plc based on the modern design of the new Pavilion's highly unusual, canopied roof. This will act as the umbrella brand under which the individual Hampshire Cricket, Hampshire County Golf Club and Connor's Health & Fitness brands will operate.

All the new identities have been created by a London-based brand design consultancy, the-field, whose managing director, Simon Barbato, commented: "Rather than create a new identity for Hampshire at the risk of alienating a wide audience, we concentrated on gently evolving the badge whilst retaining the Club colours A visual communication strategy has also been created that reinforces the breadth of sporting, corporate and entertainment opportunities at the Rose Bowl through a wide array of media."

The re-branding will encompass all consumer literature, corporate sales materials, stadium signage, stationery, identity guidelines and an interactive digital presentation to promote sponsorship and venue naming rights opportunities.

"The new brand identities and design strategy positions Hampshire as a contemporary and dynamic club in what is still a traditional market." said Samantha White, group commercial & marketing director, "We believe that this will enable Hampshire to attract younger spectators to cricket and build a broader sports entertainments brand as well as enabling Rose Bowl plc to present a professional and authoritative tone to the city."

© Hampshire CCC