Positioned at the very heart of ice hockey, the IIHF is the governing body of the fastest team sport on earth. It delivers championships, sets the rules and supports the sport from the grassroots to elite levels. The IIHF approached TwelfthMan to reimagine its brand for the future and create an identity that connects with its diverse audience including players, coaches, national governing bodies and above all, fans.
Brand strategy
Through a series of workshops with the IIHF team, we immersed ourselves in the sport of ice hockey and explored the IIHF’s position within the global game. These insights informed the creation of brand values, a brand narrative, and an overarching essence, Home Ice. Serving both as an internal rallying cry and an outward-facing message, Home Ice captures the idea that the rink is a place for every player, official, coach, and fan around the world.
Reimagining the logo
TwelfthMan worked closely with renowned brand icon designer Chris Mitchell to create a gender-neutral player with increased prominence, dynamism and character. We also developed a distinctive wordmark featuring a moving puck, designed to stand alone and bring clarity to the IIHF competition architecture.
A typeface which reflects the energy of the game
The IIHF needed a custom typeface that could perform across diverse touchpoints, from governance documents to fan-facing social content. The new typeface brings a distinctive character across five weights and three widths, giving the IIHF a flexible, adaptable voice. Its letterforms are inspired by the game itself, blending the geometry of the ice rink with the unexpected changes of direction and swift movement intrinsic to ice hockey.
Capturing the power of the rink
The IIHF graphic language was inspired by a core creative idea, ‘the power of the rink’. Hockey’s visual world is distinctive and inspiring – the arena, rink, puck, sticks and skates – but the essence of the sport is greater, and less tangible, than that. Here those forms are remixed, reinvented and recreated to capture the passion and power of the rink.
