“El Clásico” is the name for the matches between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona in Spain’s highest soccer league. El Clásico is one of the most watched league matches, with about 650 million viewers worldwide. For years, the game was not only a league match between two teams but also a clash between the two best football players of their time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) and Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona). From 2009 to 2018, both played in LaLiga, and this year marks the first edition of the classic in 16 years with neither of the two stars under contract in Spain.

A month ahead of the first 2021 edition, LaLiga announced that from this year’s edition onward, the match is branded as a product: “The world’s most iconic club match will now have its own logo and visual identity. Rivalry, strength, passion, technology, innovation, dynamism, entertainment and globality are among this new image’s main attributes.”

Branding agency Vasava removed the wordspace from the match name, making it hashtag-ready. For the typography, two contrasting typefaces were chosen that both started out on Future Fonts. The angular Halunke by Elena Schneider is used for the logo, with a few modifications. Its corners were trimmed, the C was flipped and the Á is a custom design. All information is set in Pacaembu, a football-inspired typeface family by Álvaro Franca and Felipe Casaprima, avialable from their type foundry Naipe. Álvaro is also one of the graphic designers who worked on this project.

Watch and read an presentation of the new design on the website of Vasava (in Spanish).

Karavaan is a café and restaurant in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Their sleek identity was developed by Larissa Wiens’ design studio, and features Halunke by Elena Schneider. The logomark can be found throughout the interior space and thoughtfully placed on items like espresso cups and reservation cards.

Halunke is paired with Karben 205 Mono by Adrian Talbot and Quickbrush by Laura Condouris.