Squash Ireland
Repositioning a national governing body with a sharper, younger identity built to drag squash out of the polite shadows and back into the fight.
Sector:
Type of Organisation:
Deliverables:
Sport & NGO
National governing body
Identity system, logo suite, regional lock-ups, social assets, brand applications, rollout guidance
Timeline:
Collaboration:
2024
Branding Sport, Squash Ireland, nmcDesign
A clearer, more energetic identity system designed to pull in younger players, tighten regional consistency and make the sport show up like it actually means business.
Squash Ireland was carrying the weight of an older perception problem, and no amount of pretending otherwise was going to fix it. The sport itself is fast, aggressive and full of tactical drama, but the brand was not reflecting any of that. At a national level, the organisation needed to modernise how it presented the sport, while also creating a system that could work across regions, events and social media. The timing mattered too: with squash set to make its Olympic debut at LA 2028, the organisation needed a brand ready for a bigger stage. The job was not to make squash look tidier. It was to make it feel relevant again.
The brief could easily have become a straightforward logo refresh. That would have been tidy, safe and almost completely useless. The real issue was perception: squash needed to stop looking like a leftover from another sporting era and start behaving like a contemporary, high-intensity sport with room to grow. If nothing changed, the organisation would keep speaking to the converted while struggling to reach younger audiences, digital channels and potential new players.
The project shifted from redesigning a mark to building a full identity system around the energy of the game. The strategic move was to stop explaining squash politely and start expressing it with confidence. Movement, intensity and local ownership became non-negotiable. The brand had to work nationally, but it also needed enough flexibility to feel alive in different provinces and across different applications.
Early creative routes explored different ways to capture the sport’s pace, intensity and spatial pressure. Some leaned too heavily on familiar sports tropes. Others looked interesting in isolation but struggled as a repeatable system. The strongest direction came from the idea of squash as “sport in 3D” — a tighter, more immersive way of describing the physical and psychological feel of the game. That gave the work a stronger point of view and pushed the identity towards something more direct, angular and alive.
The final system drew from the geometry of the court and the compressed, high-speed nature of play. The logo structure and wider graphic language were designed to feel fast, focused and slightly confrontational in the best possible way. The ball device in the logo reinforced the idea of squash as a three-dimensional sport; one of the few court sports where the ball is regularly played behind the athlete as well as in front of them. Bold colour, strong contrast and a sharper typographic attitude helped move the sport away from polite federation branding and closer to the feel of a modern competition culture. Regional variations added local relevance without breaking the system.
The identity was designed to work well beyond a hero logo. It needed to hold together across social content, events, provincial applications and wider communications. Messaging such as “Step in” helped turn the brand into an invitation as well as a challenge. Every part of the rollout was built to make the sport easier to recognise, easier to share and harder to ignore.
Squash Ireland now has a brand with far more intent. It gives the organisation a clearer visual language, a stronger social presence and a better platform for growth. More importantly, it changes the tone of the conversation around the sport. Instead of trying to defend squash’s relevance, the brand starts from a stronger position: this game is fast, demanding and absolutely worth stepping into.
