The Saint-Etienne logo is one of the most recognized football crests in France and, honestly, across European football. It belongs to AS Saint-Etienne, a club founded in 1919 by employees of Groupe Casino in the Loire region. The badge has gone through about eight different versions since the club turned professional in 1933. Green has always been its anchor color. The current version, introduced for the 2022-23 season, blends a modern shield shape with gold accents and civic symbols drawn from the city’s coat of arms. It carries a blue-white-red star at the top, marking the club’s ten Ligue 1 titles.
Few clubs in French football can match ASSE’s branding history. The badge has tracked nearly a century of shifts in design movements, from stripped-back mid-century lettering to the ornate panther mascot of the late 1960s. It sits alongside crests like those of Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais as a fixture in French football’s visual culture.
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What Is the AS Saint-Etienne Logo?
The AS Saint-Etienne logo is a shield-shaped emblem featuring green and white vertical stripes, the “ASSE” initials in bold sans-serif lettering, a blue-white-red star for the club’s ten championship titles, and gold accents drawn from the city of Saint-Etienne’s coat of arms. It was officially introduced on July 1, 2022.
Here is a breakdown of its key attributes:
- Design Type: Combination mark. The crest merges a shield (coat of arms style) with custom lettering and symbolic imagery. It functions as both an icon and a wordmark depending on the context.
- Primary Elements: Green and white vertical stripes, the “ASSE” acronym, the word “Saint-Etienne,” the inscription “Loire,” two golden palms, a crown, three crosses, and the founding year “1933.” A blue-white-red star sits at the top of the shield.
- Official Introduction Date: July 1, 2022 (for the 2022-23 season). The club announced the winning design on January 1, 2022, after a fan vote in late 2021.
- Designer/Agency: The 2022 logo was developed collaboratively through supporter workshops conducted by the club in October and November 2021. No single external agency has been publicly credited. Earlier versions, like the famous 1968 panther logo, were designed by Roger Viou of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Etienne.
- Trademark Status: The ASSE crest is a registered trademark of AS Saint-Etienne, protected under French and European intellectual property law. It is used exclusively by the club for official merchandise, kits, and communications.
- Color Palette: Green (#008D3F), White (#FFFFFF), Blue (#009EE6), Red (#E20513), with Gold as a secondary accent color introduced in the 2022 version.
- Usage Context: Match-day kits, stadium branding at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, official merchandise, digital platforms, social media accounts, press materials, and institutional communications. An enriched version with oak and laurel branches is used for formal institutional purposes.
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How Has the AS Saint-Etienne Logo Evolved Over Time?
The ASSE badge has been redesigned roughly eight times since 1933. Early versions were simple monograms. The mid-century brought shield shapes and vertical stripes. A panther mascot appeared in 1968, disappeared, briefly returned, then left for good. The 1992 circular crest lasted 30 years before the current shield took over in 2022.
Original ASSE Logo (1933-1940)
Years Active: 1933 to 1940
The first official badge appeared when AS Saint-Etienne turned professional in 1933. It was a simple shield outline, mostly white, with the letters “ASSE” written diagonally in green.
No fancy shapes. No mascots. Just the initials and the green color inherited from Groupe Casino, the grocery chain whose employees founded the club.
This was the entire identity. Clean, functional, and about as understated as you can get for a club that would go on to become the most decorated team in French football.
Interlocked Circles Logo (1940-1960)
Years Active: 1940 to 1960
Around 1940, the club moved to a more distinctive mark. Three interlocking circles replaced the shield. The “ASSE” lettering sat inside them, now in white against green circles with white outlines.
The font got rounder and bolder. It felt different from anything else in French football at the time.
This period covered the club’s near-collapse around 1950 and its recovery under Pierre Guichard’s return as president. The first league title came in 1957 with players like Rachid Mekhloufi leading the charge.
Green Shield with White Stripes (1960-1968)
Years Active: 1960 to 1968
The shield came back. This version featured a plain green background with three vertical white stripes running through the center.
Those stripes are a reference to the awnings on Casino grocery stores, the company whose founder, Geoffroy Guichard, also gave his name to the club’s stadium. They became a lasting motif that would show up in almost every version of the crest after this point.
There was something about the simplicity of this one. No text cluttering it up, just stripes and color. It looked strong on a jersey.
The Panther Logo (1968-1978)
Years Active: 1968 to 1978
This is the one people remember. In 1968, club president Roger Rocher wanted an animal on the crest, something like the lion at Sochaux or the crocodile at Nimes.
A board member spotted a panther on an African postage stamp and thought it was perfect, especially since the club’s star player Salif Keita was nicknamed “the Black Panther.” Roger Viou from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts drew up the design.
The result was a circular badge, split green and white, with a yellow border. A black panther leaped across it, alongside a football and the club’s name. This logo coincided with ASSE’s most dominant era in French football, when titles came in clusters.
By the way, the psychology of shapes here is worth noting. The circle communicated unity and completeness, while the leaping animal added energy. It worked.
Gold Shield Logo (1978-1980)
Years Active: 1978 to 1980
After the panther years, ASSE returned to a square shield shape. Green background, gold outline, vertical green and white stripes inside a smaller inner shield, and the “ASSE” letters in gold across a white banner.
Gold showed up for the first time here, a nod to the club’s growing trophy collection. The overall look was more traditional, more “classic European crest.” It felt like the club was saying, “We have history now. We don’t need a mascot.”
Return to Classic Shield (1980-1988)
Years Active: 1980 to 1988
The shield stayed but the gold lettering turned white. “A.S Saint-Etienne” appeared as text for the first time on the crest itself, and the green-and-white stripes were retained.
The gold outline referenced the club’s record-breaking run. Saint-Etienne won their tenth French championship in 1981, earning the right to wear a star on their badge. That star became a permanent fixture from this point forward.
There was a brief comeback attempt for the panther around 1987, but supporters didn’t warm to it much. It quietly disappeared again.
Black Panther Logo (1988-1993)
Years Active: 1988 to 1993
A darker, more aggressive design. The shield narrowed and became more elegant. A black panther holding a football sat on a white diagonal stripe against a deep green background.
Gold was gone, replaced by black outlines. The mood shifted. This was a tougher, more modern look. The “A.S.S.E.” lettering sat in white at the top while “St-Etienne” appeared in small black text below the panther.
It only lasted about five years, but it stands out as one of the boldest design experiments in the club’s history. The contrast between the dark green and the sharp white diagonal made it genuinely eye-catching.
Circular Crest (1993-2022)
Years Active: 1993 to 2022
The longest-running Saint-Etienne logo. Introduced in 1992, this circular emblem brought together green and white vertical stripes, the “A.S.S.E.” initials in bold white lettering across the center, “Saint-Etienne” curved along the top, and “Loire” at the bottom.
The blue-white-red star was added in 1993, celebrating those ten league titles. Around 2000, a slight 3D effect was applied to give the badge some depth, but nothing major changed.
This crest lasted nearly 30 years. It became the logo most fans worldwide associate with Les Verts. It was clean, readable, and worked well across everything from web platforms to embroidered badges on replica kits.
Current Shield Logo (2022-Present)
Years Active: 2022 to present
On January 1, 2022, ASSE revealed the winner of a supporter vote. Nearly 16,000 fans participated, and 61% chose the design that would become the new crest.
It takes the shape of a traditional French coat of arms with a gold surround. The green and white stripes remain. The ASSE lettering and Saint-Etienne inscription are there. But new elements from the city’s coat of arms were added: two golden palms, a crown, and three crosses.
The founding year, 1933, appears on the badge for the first time ever. Gold returned as a secondary color. The blue-white-red star is now fully integrated into the top of the shield rather than floating above it.
An institutional version with oak and laurel branches exists for formal use.
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What Do the Design Elements of the Saint-Etienne Logo Mean?
Every piece of the ASSE crest carries specific meaning tied to the club’s history, its city, and its footballing achievements. The green and white stripes reference Groupe Casino. The star marks ten championships. The golden elements connect to Saint-Etienne’s civic identity.
None of this is accidental. Let me walk through it.
Why Did AS Saint-Etienne Choose These Specific Colors?
Green is the club’s primary color. It comes directly from Groupe Casino, the grocery chain whose employees started the football club in 1919. According to color theory, green communicates growth, energy, and renewal.
- Green – Hex: #008D3F | RGB: (0, 141, 63) | CMYK: (87, 20, 100, 6) | Pantone: PMS 3522 C. This is the hue that defines Les Verts. It links the club to Groupe Casino’s branding and to the landscapes around the Loire region.
- White – Hex: #FFFFFF | RGB: (255, 255, 255) | CMYK: (0, 0, 0, 0). White pairs with green on the vertical stripes. Those stripes mimic the awnings of Casino stores. In terms of color psychology, white adds clarity and balance to the design.
- Blue – Hex: #009EE6 | RGB: (0, 158, 230) | CMYK: (73, 24, 0, 0) | Pantone: PMS 299 C. Used exclusively in the tricolor star. It represents French national identity and the club’s place in the country’s football history.
- Red – Hex: #E20513 | RGB: (226, 5, 19) | CMYK: (5, 100, 100, 1) | Pantone: PMS 2347 C. Also part of the tricolor star. Combined with blue and white, it forms the French flag colors within the championship star.
- Gold – Secondary accent in the 2022 version. The gold surround references the club’s prestige and history. It appeared in earlier logos (1978, notably) and returned in the latest redesign to connect past and present.
If you look at other clubs that rely on green as their primary color, like Sporting Lisbon or Werder Bremen, you will notice that the challenge is always the same. Green can look flat without the right secondary colors to create emphasis. ASSE solves this with white stripes and gold accents.
What Typography Style Is Used in the Saint-Etienne Logo?
The ASSE logo uses a custom sans-serif typeface. The letters are clean, bold, and built for readability at small sizes. This matters because a football crest gets seen on everything from a 2-inch sleeve patch to a stadium scoreboard.
Earlier versions used simpler block lettering. The 2022 redesign refined the typography to create a clearer hierarchy between “ASSE” (largest), “Saint-Etienne” (medium), and “Loire” (smallest).
The spacing between characters is tight but legible. No serifs, no decorative strokes. Just functional lettering that works across print and digital.
What Are the Hidden Meanings in the Saint-Etienne Logo?
The three vertical stripes don’t just look good. They are a direct reference to the outdoor awnings of Casino grocery stores. Most fans don’t know this. The stripes have appeared in ASSE logos since 1960, and they connect the club back to its commercial origins.
The 2022 crest added the two golden palms, crown, and three crosses from the city of Saint-Etienne’s coat of arms. These were never part of the football badge before. The palms and crown represent civic pride, while the crosses tie the club to the city’s religious and cultural history.
The year “1933” (when the club turned professional) appearing on the badge was a deliberate choice timed close to the club’s 90th anniversary. It grounds the crest in a specific moment in history.
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How Does the Saint-Etienne Logo Compare to Competitor Logos?
In French football, Saint-Etienne’s crest sits in a category of its own. Most Ligue 1 badges lean toward circular designs or simplified modern shields. ASSE went the other direction with a traditional coat of arms shape loaded with civic symbolism.
Olympique de Marseille uses a clean circular logo with minimal elements. AS Monaco keeps a classic diamond shape. RC Lens leans into a blood-red color scheme with bold diagonal lines. Each approach is different.
What makes the ASSE badge distinct is the sheer amount of symbolism packed into one crest. Civic coat of arms elements, Casino store awning stripes, a championship star, the founding year. It tells a more specific story than most football logos do.
Compared to rivals like Lyon, whose badge is cleaner and more corporate-feeling, Saint-Etienne’s crest feels more rooted in place. Whether that is better or worse depends on what you value. Some prefer streamlined. Some prefer layered with meaning.
The approach is closer to what you see in German football. Clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund also load their crests with regional identity markers.
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What Are the Technical Specifications of the Saint-Etienne Logo?
Official Color Codes
- Primary Color – Green: Hex: #008D3F | RGB: (0, 141, 63) | CMYK: (87, 20, 100, 6) | Pantone: PMS 3522 C
- Secondary Color – White: Hex: #FFFFFF | RGB: (255, 255, 255) | CMYK: (0, 0, 0, 0)
- Star Color – Blue: Hex: #009EE6 | RGB: (0, 158, 230) | CMYK: (73, 24, 0, 0) | Pantone: PMS 299 C
- Star Color – Red: Hex: #E20513 | RGB: (226, 5, 19) | CMYK: (5, 100, 100, 1) | Pantone: PMS 2347 C
- Accent Color – Gold: Used in the 2022 crest border and palm elements. Part of the secondary color palette per the club’s announcement.
Dimensions and Proportions
The 2022 crest uses a traditional French coat of arms shape, taller than it is wide. The aspect ratio is approximately 1:1.2 (width to height), though official exact ratios have not been publicly documented by the club.
The star sits integrated into the top edge of the shield rather than floating above it (a change from the 1993 version). Minimum size requirements follow standard football badge sizing for kits, typically no smaller than 6cm in height on match shirts.
Clear space around the crest should maintain enough breathing room so that sponsor logos and kit manufacturer marks don’t crowd it. The club’s brand guidelines dictate usage across different materials.
For digital use, the logo needs to hold up at small pixel counts. The clean sans-serif lettering and simple stripe pattern make it legible even at low DPI values, which is one reason the design works well as a social media avatar or favicon.
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What Cultural Impact Has the Saint-Etienne Logo Had?
Les Verts’ badge is more than a football crest in the Loire region. It is a civic symbol. The club dominated French football in the 1960s and 1970s, winning eight league titles and five Coupes de France in just sixteen seasons. That run made the green and white stripes a nationally recognized image.
The panther logo from 1968 became an icon of that golden era. Even though it has not been part of the official badge since 1993, supporters still use it on banners, tattoos, and unofficial merchandise. Groups like Magic Fans and Green Angels keep the imagery alive inside Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
The 2022 redesign brought something new. By pulling elements from the city’s coat of arms, the crest now represents Saint-Etienne the city, not just Saint-Etienne the football club. That is a meaningful shift. It says the club sees itself as part of the place, not separate from it.
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How Does the Saint-Etienne Logo Fit Into the Overall Brand Identity?
The ASSE crest is the center of a broader identity system that includes kit design, stadium branding, digital presence, and merchandise. Everything flows from the badge.
Green and white dominate home kits. Away kits typically flip to white with green accents. A black third kit shows up most seasons but rarely gets used since so few opponents also play in green.
The gold accent color introduced in 2022 gives the club more flexibility in merchandise and print materials. It adds a premium feel without abandoning the core green-and-white identity.
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard (nicknamed “Le Chaudron”) carries the branding throughout. The badge appears on seats, concourse signage, and digital boards. The institutional version with oak and laurel branches shows up on formal correspondence and partnership documents.
The logo connects to a network of related brand elements: the “Les Verts” nickname, the panther as an unofficial mascot, and the star representing ten titles. Together they form an identity that covers match days, retail, and civic representation.
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How Should the Saint-Etienne Logo Be Used?
ASSE maintains strict control over how the badge gets used. Here is what you need to know.
Do:
- Use the official crest files provided by the club or its licensing partners
- Maintain the original color values (the hex and Pantone codes listed above)
- Keep sufficient clear space around the badge
- Use the institutional version (with oak and laurel) only for formal or ceremonial contexts
Don’t:
- Alter the colors, proportions, or layout of the crest
- Place the logo on busy backgrounds that reduce legibility
- Use outdated versions of the badge for current-season materials
- Reproduce the crest on commercial products without a licensing agreement from the club
Official logo files can typically be obtained through the ASSE fan shop or via media relations contacts at the club. For commercial licensing inquiries, you would go through AS Saint-Etienne’s partnerships and licensing department directly.
The ASSE crest is a registered trademark. Unauthorized use on merchandise, packaging, or promotional materials can result in legal action. This applies to both physical products and digital reproductions.
If you are working on a project that involves the logo (say, a fan site or a media piece), best practice is to use the vector version of the file to avoid quality loss when scaling. A bitmap file like a JPEG will blur at larger sizes.
FAQ on The Saint-Etienne Logo
What does the Saint-Etienne logo look like?
The current ASSE badge is a shield-shaped crest with green and white vertical stripes, the “ASSE” initials, and a gold surround. A blue-white-red star sits at the top, marking the club’s ten Ligue 1 titles.
When was the Saint-Etienne logo last redesigned?
The latest version launched on July 1, 2022. Nearly 16,000 supporters voted on three finalist designs in late 2021.
Proposal number one won with 61% of the vote. It was the eighth crest in the club’s history.
What do the green and white stripes on the ASSE crest mean?
The stripes reference the outdoor awnings of Casino grocery stores. Geoffroy Guichard, Casino’s founder, also created the football club in 1933. Green has been the club’s primary color since day one, inherited directly from Groupe Casino’s branding.
Why is there a star on the Saint-Etienne football crest?
The star represents ten French championship titles. It was added to the badge in 1993, colored in blue, white, and red to match the French flag. AS Saint-Etienne remains one of the most decorated clubs in the country.
What are the official colors of the Saint-Etienne logo?
Green (#008D3F), white (#FFFFFF), blue (#009EE6), and red (#E20513). The 2022 redesign also introduced gold as a secondary accent.
Green and white are the core team colors. Blue and red appear only in the championship star.
Who designed the famous panther logo for ASSE?
Roger Viou from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Etienne created the panther design in 1968. Club president Roger Rocher wanted an animal mascot, and the panther fit because star player Salif Keita carried that nickname.
What font does the Saint-Etienne logo use?
The club uses a custom sans-serif typeface. Bold, clean, and built for readability at small sizes. Earlier versions had simpler block lettering, but the 2022 redesign refined the text to create better visual hierarchy between elements.
How many times has the Saint-Etienne logo changed?
About eight times since 1933. The designs have ranged from simple monograms to interlocking circles, panther mascots, circular crests, and the current coat of arms shape.
The 1993 circular version lasted the longest at nearly 30 years.
What do the golden palms and crosses in the new ASSE logo represent?
They come from the city of Saint-Etienne’s coat of arms. Two golden palms, a crown, and three crosses were added for the first time in the 2022 crest. These connect the football club directly to the civic identity of the Loire region.
Where can I download the official Saint-Etienne logo?
Official files are available through the ASSE fan shop and the club’s media relations department. For commercial use, you need a licensing agreement from AS Saint-Etienne.
Always use the vector version for scaling. A bitmap file will lose quality at larger sizes.
Conclusion
The Saint-Etienne logo has been through eight versions across nearly a century of French football. Each one tells a piece of the story, from the stripped-back initials of 1933 to the civic coat of arms shape used today.
What makes the ASSE emblem different from most Ligue 1 crests is how much it ties the club to its city. The Casino awning stripes, the Loire region references, the golden palms pulled from the municipal coat of arms. It is a badge that says where it comes from.
The 2022 redesign, voted on by supporters, proved that a club can update its brand style guide without losing what made the original work. Green stays. The stripes stay. The star stays. Everything else just got sharper.
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.
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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.
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