The Troyes logo belongs to Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne (ESTAC), a French football club based in Troyes, in the Aube department of the Champagne region. Football in Troyes goes back to the Union Sportive Troyenne of 1900, but today’s club was founded in 1986 as ATAC and took the ESTAC name in 2000. Since then, its emblem has gone through three versions, and the current blue-and-gold shield has been in use since 2007.
What Is the ESTAC Troyes Logo?
The ESTAC Troyes logo is a blue shield with a gold rim, “1986” at the top, “ESTAC” in large white letters, “TROYES” in spaced gold capitals and the number 10 in a circle at the bottom. It has been in use since 2007, replacing a 2000 wordmark. The club has not publicly credited a designer.
| Symbol | Shield with “ESTAC”, “TROYES”, the year 1986 and a circled 10 |
| Designer/agency | Not publicly credited |
| Current version since | 2007 |
| Colors (hex) | Blue approx. #0262A9 and gold approx. #C8A005 (sampled from the current logo), white #FFFFFF |
| Typeface | Custom lettering; no published typeface |
| Previous major version | 2000–2007 lowercase “estac” wordmark with a ball and a yellow swoosh |
The concept of a logo in football goes beyond decoration. It acts as the visual anchor for everything the club does publicly. ESTAC’s version handles that job well, staying clean enough for small digital icons while keeping enough detail to look good on a jersey.
How Has the ESTAC Troyes Logo Evolved Over Time?
The Troyes badge has had three main versions since 1986, tracking the club’s journey from regional football to the top flight and Europe. The interesting part is how different they are from each other: two of them aren’t shields at all.
Troyes didn’t just tweak colors or fonts between versions. The city’s football identity shifted because its clubs literally ceased to exist more than once.
Before ESTAC: Troyes’ Earlier Clubs
ESTAC is the latest in a line of Troyes clubs. The Union Sportive Troyenne (1900) played in pink and black. It merged into the ASTS (Association Sportive Troyes Sainte-Savine) in 1930, which wore navy and white, reached the first division and was dissolved in 1967.
Its successor, Troyes Aube Football (TAF), grew out of the Troyes Omni-Sports club, reached the first division in 1973, was relegated in 1978 and was liquidated in 1979. Each of these clubs had its own badge, but they belong to different clubs and are not part of ESTAC’s own logo line.
At the time, most French clubs weren’t investing much thought into their logo design principles. You got a shape, some text, maybe a local reference, and that was it.
Association Troyes Aube Champagne (ATAC) Logo (1986-2000)
Years Active: 1986 to 2000
ATAC (Association Troyes Aube Champagne) was born in 1986 and started in the regional Division d’Honneur, so it needed a completely new identity.
The ATAC logo wasn’t a crest at all. It was the four letters “ATAC” in heavy, slanted blue capitals, with a blue-and-white football and its shadow below them. Simple, sporty and very much of its time.
From 1993, ATAC climbed from National 2 to the second division in three seasons, turning professional along the way, and reached the first division in 1999. The badge traveled with them through those promotion campaigns, and it showed how much design elements matter when a club’s ambitions change quickly.
ESTAC Troyes Logo (2000-2007)
Years Active: 2000 to 2007
In 2000 the club had to change its name after a complaint from the Atac supermarket chain, and it became the Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne. The acronym ESTAC kept the “TAC” of the old name.
The new logo was a wordmark: “estac” in lowercase, italic blue letters, a blue-and-white ball above the final “c” and a yellow swoosh curving underneath. Blue stayed dominant, with white providing contrast on the ball.
This was the logo of Troyes’ golden period. The club won the Intertoto Cup in 2001, knocking out Newcastle United in the final, and then pushed Leeds United all the way in the UEFA Cup.
It was a modern, friendly mark, but it didn’t look like a traditional football crest. By 2007 the club wanted something more classic.
Current ESTAC Troyes Logo (2007-Present)
Years Active: 2007 to present
The current crest brought back the shield. It is a blue shield with a thick gold rim and a white inner border, with a light, slightly three-dimensional shading on the blue.
“1986”, the year the current club was founded, runs across the top. “ESTAC” sits in the center in big white letters, “TROYES” below it in widely spaced gold capitals, and a white circle at the bottom holds the number 10.
This badge has seen the club through several promotions and relegations, Ligue 2 titles in 2015, 2021 and 2026, a City Football Group takeover in 2020 and the ups and downs of life between Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and the National. It’s proven surprisingly durable.
What Do the Design Elements of the ESTAC Troyes Logo Mean?
The crest is simple: a shield, the club’s name, its city, a date and a number. The club hasn’t published an official explanation of each element, but most of them are easy to read.
It’s not overly complicated, which is actually the point. Football crests that try to say too much end up saying nothing.
What Are the ESTAC Troyes Logo Colors?
The crest uses blue, gold and white. The club hasn’t published official color codes, so the values below are approximate, sampled from the current logo file on the club’s website. The crest uses shading, so the blue varies slightly across the shield.
Blue (approx. #0262A9) is the primary color. The club’s colors are blue and white, the home shirt has always been blue, and the club’s own history credits ESTAC with carrying “the blue and white” into Europe.
Gold (approx. #C8A005) is used for the rim and the word “TROYES.” It adds a sense of prestige that sets the crest apart from plain blue-and-white badges.
White (#FFFFFF) is used for “ESTAC”, “1986”, the circle with the 10 and the inner border. It keeps the blue and gold from feeling heavy.
No official Pantone, CMYK or RGB specification has been published, so treat any such values you find online as estimates.
From a color psychology standpoint, the combination works. Blue builds credibility, gold suggests quality and white keeps things approachable. The color palette is simple, and it reproduces well across print and screen.
What Font Is Used in the ESTAC Troyes Logo?
The typography in the ESTAC crest is custom lettering. The club has never named a font for it, and it doesn’t match a common typeface.
“ESTAC” is set in a bold, rounded, geometric sans-serif style, slightly slanted. “TROYES” uses thinner capitals with very wide letter spacing, and “1986” and “10” use simple bold numerals.
The wide spacing on “TROYES” is a deliberate contrast with the tightly set “ESTAC” above it. Good kerning keeps the five letters of the acronym balanced within the shield, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
The earlier 2000-2007 logo used lowercase italic letters instead, and the ATAC logo used heavy slanted capitals.
What Are the Hidden Meanings in the ESTAC Troyes Logo?
The shield shape is the most obvious choice. After two logos without one, the 2007 crest returned to the classic heraldic shape that most French clubs use.
The “1986” is the founding year of today’s club, the year ATAC was created. It deliberately doesn’t claim the 1900 roots of the Union Sportive Troyenne.
The circled “10” is the one element people ask about. The Aube’s French department number is 10, and that is the usual reading, with fans also pointing to the playmaker’s number 10. The club has not published an official explanation.
How Does the ESTAC Troyes Logo Compare to Competitor Logos?
Troyes’ main regional rivalry is with Stade de Reims, another Champagne club. Reims plays in red and white, which gives its crest a completely different feel from ESTAC’s blue and gold.
Where ESTAC goes for a tidy, modern shield built from lettering, Reims leans on its historical prestige.
Among other French clubs, Metz uses a shield in darker maroon tones, and Lorient uses an orange-and-black palette that feels sportier.
Strasbourg and Nantes both build regional symbols into their crests, while Troyes relies on lettering and numbers.
Compared to the bigger French clubs, Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille operate on a different level of brand recognition. ESTAC’s logo doesn’t try to compete with that. It knows what it is and does it cleanly.
What Cultural Impact Has the ESTAC Troyes Logo Had?
For a city of roughly 60,000 people, ESTAC’s identity punches above its weight. The club’s Intertoto and UEFA Cup run in 2001 put Troyes on the map for fans who had never heard of the Aube department, even if it was the earlier wordmark that traveled across Europe.
The City Football Group’s takeover in September 2020 put the crest in a global network alongside Manchester City, Melbourne City and the group’s other clubs. The 2026-27 season gives it another boost: after winning the 2025-26 Ligue 2 title, ESTAC is back in Ligue 1, playing at the Stade de l’Aube.
Locally, the crest is a source of identity for the Aubois, as the club’s fans and players are known. With the year 1986 and the number 10 on it, it reads almost as much as a civic symbol as a sporting one.
How Does the ESTAC Troyes Logo Fit Into the Overall Brand Identity?
The logo sits at the center of a broader visual system that includes the club’s kits, stadium branding and digital presence. The blue, gold and white palette ties everything together, the way brand guidelines would.
Kit manufacturers have changed over the years. Kappa supplied the shirts from 2015 to 2019. Le Coq Sportif, a brand from Romilly-sur-Seine in the Aube, took over in 2019 on a five-year deal. In June 2025 the club signed with Puma, which already supplied several City Football Group clubs. The home shirt has stayed blue throughout.
The club’s web design and social media use the crest as the main visual anchor, and the blue tones translate naturally to both light and dark interface backgrounds.
Match programs, press materials and ticket designs follow the same colors, and the visual hierarchy consistently places the crest at the top, with supporting text and imagery below it.
How Should the ESTAC Troyes Logo Be Used?
The following is general advice, not rules published by the club.
If you need the ESTAC crest for editorial, fan content or reference purposes, use a clean copy, keep the shield’s proportions, don’t change the colors and don’t add effects. A vector graphic scales without quality loss, while bitmap files blur when enlarged. For print applications, ask for a high-resolution file, since low DPI images lose the crest’s fine gold rim.
The crest is the club’s property and is protected as a trademark. Editorial use is generally fine, but anything commercial needs permission from the club, which you can contact through estac.fr.
FAQ on the Troyes Logo
What does the ESTAC Troyes logo look like?
It is a blue shield with a gold rim, “1986” at the top, “ESTAC” in white, “TROYES” in gold and the number 10 in a white circle at the bottom.
When was the current Troyes logo introduced?
The current crest has been in use since 2007. It replaced the 2000-2007 “estac” wordmark.
What did the old Troyes logo look like?
From 2000 to 2007, ESTAC used a lowercase italic “estac” wordmark in blue with a football and a yellow swoosh. Before that, ATAC (1986-2000) used the letters “ATAC” in heavy slanted blue capitals above a football.
What colors are used in the Troyes logo?
Blue, gold and white. The club hasn’t published official codes; sampled from the current logo, the blue is approx. #0262A9 and the gold approx. #C8A005.
What font is used in the ESTAC logo?
The lettering is custom. “ESTAC” uses a bold, rounded geometric sans-serif style and “TROYES” uses widely spaced capitals. The club has never named a commercial font.
Who designed the ESTAC Troyes logo?
The club has not publicly credited a designer or agency for the current crest or the earlier logos.
What does the 10 on the Troyes logo mean?
The club hasn’t explained it officially. The usual reading is that it refers to the Aube, which is French department number 10.
Why does the Troyes logo say 1986?
1986 is when today’s club was founded, as ATAC (Association Troyes Aube Champagne). It took the ESTAC name in 2000.
What does ESTAC stand for?
ESTAC stands for Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne. The name was adopted in 2000 after the Atac supermarket chain objected to the old ATAC name.
How many times has the Troyes logo been redesigned?
Today’s club has had three logos: the ATAC logo (1986-2000), the “estac” wordmark (2000-2007) and the current shield (since 2007).
What league does Troyes play in?
ESTAC won the 2025-26 Ligue 2 title and plays in Ligue 1 in 2026-27. Its home ground is the Stade de l’Aube.
Conclusion
The Troyes logo tells the story of a football city that refused to disappear. Through liquidations, rebirths and a forced name change, the club’s emblem kept evolving alongside the team it represents.
Its blue, gold and white shield works across jerseys, digital platforms and matchday programs without losing clarity. That’s harder to pull off than most people think.
With City Football Group behind the club and a return to Ligue 1 in 2026-27, the badge carries more weight than ever for the Aubois.
Few French football emblems pack this much local identity into a crest made almost entirely of letters and numbers.
Sources
- ESTAC, Histoire du club – https://www.estac.fr/le-club/histoire/
- ESTAC, official logo file (logo-estac.svg) – https://www.estac.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/logo-estac.svg
- ESTAC, L’ESTAC et Puma annoncent un nouveau partenariat pluriannuel – https://www.estac.fr/lestac-et-puma-annoncent-un-nouveau-partenariat-pluriannuel/
- Wikipédia, Espérance sportive Troyes Aube Champagne (Logos et maillots section) – https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espérance_sportive_Troyes_Aube_Champagne
- What The Logo, ESTAC Troyes Logo – https://whatthelogo.com/logo/estac-troyes/232508
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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