The Concept Elm City FC is a fictional professional soccer club for New Haven, Connecticut. I designed the full identity: crest, color, type, three kits, and brand patterns. One rule drove every decision: every element comes from the city's real history, so nothing is just decoration. The goal was a brand that could sit in MLS and still feel unmistakably from New Haven. The New Haven Story New Haven is known as the Elm City, named for the elms planted along its streets and around its central common. Founded in 1638, it's widely considered the first planned city in America, laid out as a grid of nine squares with a public Green at its center. Every part of this identity pulls from that history. The elm tree is the root of the city's nickname. The wave mark is Long Island Sound, the harbor New Haven was built on. The nine-square pattern is the original 1638 city grid. And the colors carry it through: lime for the elms, navy for the Sound, and white for the Green.