Crest and Colours
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AIK's crest is dark blue, yellow and gold. The crest's style is arguably art nouveau, the predominant style at the turn of the 20th century.
Creator of the crest was Fritz Carlsson-Carling, a runner and football player who won a contest where the award was to design a new crest for AIK. He wanted the crest to convey four basic values: tradition, force, glory and joy.
Tradition is conveyed in the towers of the crest, which are borrowed taken from the coat of arms of Saint Erik, Stockholm's patron saint. Saint Erik's coat of arms has five towers, symbolizing Stockholm's city walls, an indication of AIK's tradition of defending the capital's honour.
Force is represented by the initials A.I.K., strikingly emblazoned diagonally across the crest. There is also an element of nationalism in the crest since the colors are Sweden's national colours: blue and yellow.
Glory and joy are characterized by the sun, referring to "Sol Invictus", the "invincible sun". Contrary to popular belief, it has nothing the City of Solna's coat of arms. Solna, today a city of its own, was not a city until 1943, i.e. six years after Råsunda Football Stadium was completed and 52 years after AIK was formed in Bibilioteksgatan in Stockholm.
AIK's primary colours are black and yellow. White is the secondary colour.
Read more about this topic: AIK Fotboll
Famous quotes containing the words crest and/or colours:
“What shall he have that killed the deer?
His leather skin and horns to wear.
Then sing him home.
Take thou no scorn to wear the horn,
It was a crest ere thou wast born;
Thy father’s father wore it,
And thy father bore it.
The horn, the horn, the lusty horn
Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“My faith is the grand drama of my life. I’m a believer, so I sing words of God to those who have no faith. I give bird songs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them, make rhythms for those who know only military marches or jazz, and paint colours for those who see none.”
—Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)