SC Metalurg. THE COSSACKS ARE COMING

Creative Agency: BRENDARI Yevhenii Yefimenko — Creative Director, Art Director Mykola Shkvarok — Creative Director, Copywriter Liliana Terletska — Art Director, Graphic Designer Tamara Beilakh — Graphic Designer Volodymyr Matsko — Graphic Designer Olha Kaidash — Graphic Designer Denis Shpeniuk — Graphic Designer Mariana Korolchuk — Motion Designer Olenka Mosoryn — Project Manager Marketing Agency: Evolution Sport Vlada Shmaliy — Project Manager Olena Lukina — Manager Olha Tymofeieva — Designer Client: SC Metalurg Zaporizhzhia Project Initiator & Coordinator: Zaporizhzhia Regional Football Association Vladyslav Vakhilchuk — Marketing Director, Zaporizhzhia Regional Football Association / Project Lead & Coordinator Funded by Zaporizhzhia football academy graduates: Serhiy Sydorchuk Taras Stepanenko Serhiy Chobotenko Eduard Sarapiy Volodymyr Brazhko Serhiy Kryvtsov

BACKGROUND SC Metalurg Zaporizhzhia is one of the historic giants of Ukrainian football. Founded in 1935 around the city's metallurgical industry — the heart of Zaporizhzhia's economy — the club spent decades among the strongest in the country, with top-flight seasons and a Ukrainian Cup final in its history. After bankruptcy, it was revived in 2017 as a municipal project, and in 2025 transformed from a Municipal Football Club (MFC) into a Sports Club (SC) — uniting football and other disciplines under one shield, representing the entire region. Across decades, the club's emblem evolved — but two things remained constant: the round shield, and a sharp, recognizable letter "M" at its center. The classic palette was red, yellow and black. The most recent identity, however, broke this visual lineage — and the Zaporizhzhia Regional Football Association decided it was time to come home. The rebrand mattered far beyond aesthetics. Since the start of russia's full-scale invasion, Zaporizhzhia has stood as one of Ukraine's frontline defense cities — under daily shelling, defending itself and the country. And yet football lives on. Sport lives on. The new identity had to prove the club is alive, evolving, and worthy of inspiring locals, fans, youth and children — and standing tall next to any club in the world. What makes this project unprecedented in Ukrainian football: the rebrand was funded by the club's own academy graduates — players now competing across the world's top leagues. Serhiy Sydorchuk, Taras Stepanenko, Serhiy Chobotenko, Eduard Sarapiy, Volodymyr Brazhko and Serhiy Kryvtsov personally paid for the development of the new brand identity for the club that raised them. IDEA We brought back the round shield — and we brought back the sharp "M" that lived in the club's most legendary emblems. But we gave it a new soul: the soul of Zaporizhzhia today. Historically, the Zaporizhian Sich — the legendary Cossack stronghold on the Khortytsia island — was protected by a tall palisade of sharpened wooden stakes. We reshaped the letter "M" to echo that palisade. We tilted it to the right — a posture of resistance and defense. We sharpened its peaks like spears — a posture of attack. The character of the team and the character of the city, in a single mark. And the same tilt that gives the "M" its attacking posture also turns it into a "З" — the first letter of "Запоріжжя" (Zaporizhzhia). One mark. Two letters. Many meanings. The color came from the steelmaking process itself. Molten metal pours out white-yellow, turns red, hardens into black. We translated that into a gradient — yellow into red into black — a living color of the city's industrial DNA. The palisade became the foundation of the entire visual system: a sharp pattern stretched across fan merchandise, communication materials, transport, equipment and digital touchpoints. A symbolic anchor of the new identity is the slogan "THE COSSACKS ARE COMING" ("Козаки йдуть") — a line from the historical Ukrainian song "Oi na hori ta y zhentsi zhnut." It tells the reader: the Cossacks are approaching, there are many of them, and they fear nothing. RESULT A football club rebrand became a cultural statement. The new identity restored the visual lineage broken in recent years and reconnected the club with its strongest era. The system spans the emblem, custom typography, palette, palisade pattern, fan merchandise, match-day graphics, transport branding, team equipment, stadium environment and digital touchpoints. The brand was unveiled at Slavutych Arena in front of players, coaches, club legends and fans — and immediately picked up by national sports media, fan communities and local authorities. Funded by six footballers from the Zaporizhzhia academy who personally paid for the new brand identity — the first time athletes have funded the creative development of a club's brand in Ukrainian sports. In a city under daily shelling, a new shield says: the Cossacks are still here. And they are coming. THE COSSACKS ARE COMING.