The Dijon logo belongs to Dijon Football Côte-d’Or (DFCO), a French football club founded in 1998 through the merger of Cercle Dijon Football and Dijon FC. The club’s badge centers on an owl, the famous good-luck symbol carved on the Église Notre-Dame de Dijon. Since the club’s founding, the crest has gone through three versions.
Within French football branding, the Dijon logo sits among a wave of club identities that shifted toward cleaner, flatter designs in the 2010s. The current version has been in use since 2014. No designer or agency has been publicly credited for it. It took the 2006 owl crest, dropped the dark shading at the top of the shield and left a plain red-and-white badge, an approach many mid-tier European clubs adopted around the same time.
What Is the Dijon FCO Logo?
The Dijon FCO logo is a red shield with a white owl spreading its wings, the letters “DFCO” across the top and the merger year “1998” beneath them. The current flat version has been used since 2014 and updates the 2006 crest. No designer has been publicly credited. The owl is Dijon’s best-known city symbol.
| Symbol | The owl (chouette) of Notre-Dame de Dijon, wings spread |
| Designer/agency | Not publicly credited |
| Current version since | 2014 |
| Colors (hex) | Red #D40028 and white #FFFFFF (from the club’s own SVG logo file) |
| Typeface | Custom block lettering for “DFCO”; no published typeface |
| Previous major version | 2006–2014 owl crest with a red shield darkening to black at the top |
How Has the Dijon FCO Logo Evolved Over Time?
The Dijon FCO logo has had three versions since the club’s creation in 1998. Each change moved the badge from a detailed, city-emblem look toward a cleaner mark. The owl stayed through every version, but everything around it changed.
Before the merger, both parent clubs had their own badges. The Cercle Dijon Football crest carried the letters “CDF” in yellow, while Dijon FC used a quartered shield in yellow and red modeled on the Burgundy coat of arms, with a fleur-de-lys, three players and a ball.
Original Dijon FCO Logo (1998-2006)
Years Active: 1998 to 2006
The first DFCO badge, the old Dijon logo many fans still remember, showed the Porte Guillaume, the triumphal arch on Place Darcy, drawn in blue and red, with a yellow owl standing in front of it. Those colors nodded to the two clubs that had merged, and blue was DFCO’s main kit color at the time.
It looked more like a civic emblem than a football crest, which made sense for a newly merged club trying to root itself in the local identity.
The design was busy. Lots of detail, several colors and an illustrative style. But it did the job of announcing what this club was about: Dijon, Burgundy and the owl.
Second Dijon FCO Logo (2006-2014)
Years Active: 2006 to 2014
This redesign came out of a kit change. In the 2005-06 Ligue 2 season, DFCO introduced a red third shirt and kept winning in it, so the club switched its main color from blue to red and changed the logo with it.
The Porte Guillaume disappeared and the background became a plain red shield that darkened to black toward the top, a gradient-style effect typical of the period. The owl was redrawn in full flight, its open wings forming a “V” for victory. The “DFCO” initials sat at the top, with the merger year “1998” between the wings.
This version arrived while Rudi Garcia was coaching the club (2002 to 2007), the period in which DFCO became a professional club. Dijon wanted to look like it belonged at a higher level, and the new crest did that.
The shaded shield had the slightly glossy feel that tech companies and sports teams favored in their branding around 2005-2008. It worked at the time.
Current Dijon FCO Logo (2014-Present)
Years Active: 2014 to present
The 2014 version kept the same structure but flattened it. The black at the top of the shield is gone, so the whole background is now solid red, and all the lettering is white.
The layout stayed the same: “DFCO” in bold white letters across the top, “1998” just below, and the white owl with spread wings filling the center and lower part of the shield, all inside a thin white border.
This simplified approach followed the broader flat design trend that swept through branding from about 2012 onward. Clubs like Juventus later went much further, but Dijon found a middle ground: modern without losing its identity.
The result is a badge that reads well at any size, from a stadium banner down to a social media avatar. That kind of scale and proportion flexibility matters more now than it did in 1998.
What Do the Design Elements of the Dijon FCO Logo Mean?
Every element in the Dijon badge ties back to the club’s roots in Burgundy. The owl is the centerpiece, but the initials and the date matter too.
The whole design works as a compressed identity statement. You see the badge, you know it’s Dijon. That’s the point.
What Does the Owl Represent in the Dijon Logo?
The owl comes from Notre-Dame de Dijon, where a small stone owl is carved on a buttress of the church along the street. Touching it, traditionally with the left hand, is said to bring luck, and the city’s tourist trail, the Parcours de la Chouette, is named after it. It became the emblem of Dijon, so it was a natural choice for the club when it formed in 1998. The club’s mascot, Lolie, introduced in 2013-14, is an owl too.
Owls are commonly linked with wisdom and watchfulness. On the badge, the spread wings (described as a “V” for victory when the 2006 crest was drawn) suggest ambition, which fits a club that has climbed through the French football pyramid several times.
What Are the Dijon FCO Logo Colors?
The current badge uses just two colors. The hex values below come from the logo file on the club’s own website.
- Red (#D40028): RGB 212, 0, 40. Red has been DFCO’s main color since 2006, which is why the team is called “les Rouges.” Red represents energy and competitive fire, which is one reason so many brands use red in their logos.
- White (#FFFFFF): Used for the lettering, the owl and the shield border. White adds contrast against the red, keeping the badge readable from a distance. Many logos rely on white for exactly this kind of versatility.
The club has not published an official Pantone or CMYK reference, so treat any such values you find online as estimates.
The original 1998 badge used blue, red and yellow. Those extra colors went when the club adopted red in 2006. Fewer colors means fewer distractions. The psychology behind color choices here is pretty straightforward: red grabs attention, white keeps things clean.
What Font Is Used in the Dijon FCO Logo?
The “DFCO” lettering is custom: heavy, squared-off sans-serif capitals drawn for the crest. The club has never named a font for it, and it doesn’t match any commonly available typeface.
The letters are bold and tightly spaced so they fit across the top of the shield without crowding the owl. The “1998” is much smaller and sits just below, creating a clear typographic hierarchy between the club acronym and the founding date.
What Are the Hidden Meanings in the Dijon FCO Logo?
There’s no buried Easter egg here, honestly. But the positioning of elements tells a story.
The owl’s raised wings follow the curve of the shield’s top edge. This creates visual unity between the graphic and the frame, making the whole badge feel like one piece rather than elements stacked on top of each other.
The “1998” is the year of the merger that created DFCO, not the start of football in Dijon. The club’s own history traces local football back to the Cercle Laïque Dijonnais in 1903.
How Does the Dijon FCO Logo Compare to Competitor Logos?
French football has some genuinely great crests. And then it has a lot of very samey ones. Dijon falls somewhere interesting in that spectrum.
Compared to regional rivals like AJ Auxerre, with its blue-and-white crest, Dijon’s red badge stands out immediately. They don’t share a color or a vibe. Troyes also builds on blue, while Metz uses a maroon crest with its Graoully dragon.
Where Dijon stands out is the owl. Plenty of French clubs use text-heavy badges, city coats of arms or abstract symbols, and an animal drawn front and center is a strong recognition tool. You see the owl, you know it’s Dijon. Your mileage may vary on whether you think that’s good branding or just lucky, but it works.
Bigger clubs like Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais have more elaborate badges with more layers of symbolism. Dijon’s flat, two-color approach is less complex but arguably more effective at smaller sizes, especially on screens.
For the same reason, a two-color crest like this is easy to reproduce. Designers working with it generally prefer vector format (the club’s own site serves an SVG), since bitmap files in JPEG or PNG lose quality when enlarged, and the thick white owl survives even a few dozen pixels wide.
What Cultural Impact Has the Dijon FCO Logo Had?
For a club that has spent most of its existence between the second and third tiers of French football, the Dijon badge punches above its weight in local recognition.
The owl connects the club to something older than football. Tourists visit Notre-Dame de Dijon and touch the stone owl for luck. Kids grow up seeing that same owl on DFCO scarves and kits. The logo turned a civic tradition into a football identity, and that connection keeps the club relevant in the city’s culture even during lean seasons.
When Dijon reached Ligue 1 for the first time in 2011-12, and again from 2016 to 2021, the badge appeared on national broadcasts alongside clubs with much longer histories. After relegation to the National in 2023, DFCO won the National title in May 2026 and returned to Ligue 2 for the 2026-27 season, so the owl is back on the professional stage.
How Does the Dijon FCO Logo Fit Into the Overall Brand Identity?
The badge is the anchor. Everything else in Dijon’s branding radiates outward from it.
Since the switch to red in 2006, the club’s kits have been built around the red-and-white base that the logo establishes, with black and white used for change shirts. That consistency comes directly from the badge’s color palette.
The Stade Gaston-Gérard, the club’s home since 1998, carries the same red in its matchday branding, and the club’s website and social channels follow a consistent brand style guide look. The training center at Saint-Apollinaire carries the owl as well.
What’s smart about Dijon’s approach is that the simplified 2014 logo made all of this easier. Fewer colors, fewer elements, fewer ways for things to go off-brand. The flat design translates cleanly across print, digital and physical environments without constant adjustment.
How Should the Dijon FCO Logo Be Used?
The following is general advice, not rules published by the club.
The DFCO crest is the club’s property and is protected as a trademark. Using it in news coverage, commentary or fan discussion is generally fine. Anything involving merchandise, products or paid promotion needs permission from the club.
If you do use it editorially, use a clean copy, keep the proportions intact, don’t change the colors and don’t add effects. Placing it on a plain background keeps the white owl readable. Clubs that publish brand guidelines usually ask for exactly these basics, and for press use the club’s communications department is the right contact.
FAQ on the Dijon Logo
What does the Dijon FCO logo look like?
It is a red shield with a white owl spreading its wings, the letters “DFCO” across the top and the year “1998” below them. The owl comes from the stone carving on Notre-Dame de Dijon.
Why is there an owl on the Dijon logo?
The owl is the emblem of the city of Dijon. A small stone owl carved on the Église Notre-Dame is said to bring luck to anyone who touches it with the left hand.
When the club formed in 1998, adopting this heritage symbol was the obvious move. It has been on every DFCO crest since.
What did the old Dijon FCO logo look like?
The first DFCO logo (1998-2006) showed the Porte Guillaume on Place Darcy in blue and red, with a yellow owl in front of it. The second (2006-2014) introduced the flying white owl, “DFCO” and “1998” on a red shield that darkened to black at the top.
What colors are used in the Dijon FCO logo?
Red and white. The club’s own logo file uses red #D40028 and white #FFFFFF. The original 1998 badge also used blue and yellow, which disappeared when the club adopted red in 2006.
How many times has the Dijon logo been redesigned?
DFCO has had three crests: the original from 1998, a red owl crest from 2006 and the current flat version from 2014. Each one simplified the badge further.
What font is used in the Dijon FCO logo?
The “DFCO” lettering is custom, bold, squared-off sans-serif capitals drawn for the crest. The club has never named a commercial font for it.
What does DFCO stand for?
DFCO stands for Dijon Football Côte-d’Or. The name references both the city and the Côte-d’Or department in Burgundy.
What does 1998 mean on the Dijon logo?
It is the year Cercle Dijon Football and Dijon FC merged to form DFCO. Football in Dijon is older, since the club traces its roots to the Cercle Laïque Dijonnais of 1903.
Who designed the Dijon FCO logo?
No designer or agency has been publicly credited for any of the three DFCO crests.
When was the current Dijon logo introduced?
The current version has been used since 2014. It updates the 2006 crest, with a fully red background and all-white lettering.
Where does Dijon FCO play?
DFCO plays at the Stade Gaston-Gérard in Dijon. After winning the National title in 2025-26, the club is back in Ligue 2 for the 2026-27 season.
Conclusion
The Dijon logo works because it doesn’t try to do too much. Three crests took a busy city-emblem badge and turned it into a clean, flat shield that holds up on a matchday kit or a tiny social media icon.
That owl symbol ties the club to something bigger than football. It ties it to Burgundy, to Notre-Dame de Dijon, to a city tradition that predates the sport by centuries.
Red and white. “DFCO.” The merger year. Nothing extra.
For a club that has moved between Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and the National, and is back in Ligue 2 in 2026-27, that kind of focused municipal branding keeps the visual identity strong regardless of the division. The badge doesn’t need a Ligue 1 spotlight to make sense. It just needs the owl.
Sources
- DFCO, Histoire du club – https://www.dfco.fr/club/histoire
- DFCO, official logo file (logo-dfco.svg) – https://www.dfco.fr/wp-content/themes/dfco/dist/images/logo-dfco.svg
- Wikipédia, Dijon Football Côte-d’Or (Logos and Couleurs sections) – https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijon_Football_Côte-d’Or
- info.fr, National : l’AS Le Puy s’incline 1-2 face à Dijon, champion et promu en Ligue 2 – https://info.fr/as-le-puy-defaite-1-2-dfco-dijon-national-ligue2-brives-charensac-2026-05/
Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.
His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.
He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
- How to Replace an Image in Canva Without Breaking the Layout - 12 November 2026
- What’s the Best Bot-Free AI Note Taker for Client Calls in 2026 - 12 November 2026
- When Shared Hosting Is the Right Choice for Your Website - 11 November 2026
Bogdan Sandu is a seasoned designer who has been designing websites since 2008. Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients. His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8. He also wrote in the past years on sites like Design Your Way, WebDesignerDepot, WPDean, Designmodo, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, and more.
You Might Also Like
