Medway Chess Club’s New Badge - designed by ashley thorpe

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When designing this badge, it was really important that it ties into where we’re from.

We play in Frindsbury now, but the club has existed all over Medway. In the 80’s the

club was originally called Black Lion, named after the pub the players used to meet

in in Gillingham. They then moved to the Brook theatre in Chatham, and after that

above a shop in Rochester High Street, among a few other Venues.

I took inspiration from the old City of Rochester Coat of arms, which dates back to

1574. I walk through the high street on my way to the club and you can see it on the

bollards outside the Cathedral.

Figure 1 - Bollard outside Rochester Cathedral

You can see this coat of arms has inspired some other local organisations, including

the Rochester Bridge Trust and Medway RFC.

Figure 4 - Medway RFC

I went through a lot of designs before landing on the one you see above. Initially I

wanted to incorporate the shield and the colours as well. However, there were

concerns about making it recognisable not just on a webpage but on a shirt. Then I

tried some designs which were more like a football club badge, but I ended up

stripping a lot of things out. I felt the key thing to keep was the crown, which alludes

to Rochester Castle’s round turret, and naturally fits really well with a Rook.

This was one of my first sketches sketches. I drew the Rook and shield outline on

tracing paper so that I could overlay it on a few different shield designs but ended up

moving away from the shield entirely.