Ajax Amsterdam have unveiled Marc-André ter Stegen and Julian Brandt – and the photos look like an editorial. Here's what's behind the club's aesthetic.
Ajax Amsterdam signed Marc-André ter Stegen and Julian Brandt within a week. The sporting side of the two moves has been widely debated these days.
Just as interesting are the photos the club used to unveil its new signings: calm, warmly lit portraits reminiscent of a fashion magazine editorial.
How Ajax staged the unveilings of ter Stegen and Brandt
Transfer announcements in football usually follow the same pattern: press wall, flash, shirt held up to the camera.
Scroll through the unveiling posts of Ajax's two new signings, though, and it quickly becomes clear that nothing here was left to chance. The images feel tidy and unhurried, carried by warm sand and ochre tones against which even the strong Ajax red appears soft. The light is set gently, and the compositions give the players room to be visible as people.
Both series recognisably follow the same idea, yet each tells its own story.
The classic contract photos with signature and shirt still exist alongside them. But the visual tone of the unveilings at Ajax is set by the portraits, and in their look and feel, they could just as easily appear in a fashion magazine.
Why the Ajax feed looks like a fashion magazine
This aesthetic runs through the club's entire social presence. The feed follows a clear colour palette that Ajax applies consistently, and that's exactly where the high recognition value comes from: many posts are identifiable as Ajax posts before the crest or the account name comes into view.
Behind it sits a bigger project. In its 125th anniversary year, Ajax developed a new visual identity together with Amsterdam design studio Smörgåsbord, built around the reintroduction of the club's historic crest.
The result was a comprehensive design system: a custom type family developed with CoType Foundry, an expanded colour palette around the traditional red and white, plus new wordmarks, icons, broadcast graphics and digital templates. The studio calls its approach “Total Design,” a bow to the Totaalvoetbal with which Ajax once revolutionised football.
The whole presence shows how much football, culture and art now flow into one another, and Ajax has given itself a visual language that lives up to that development. At the same time, the club stays true to its traditions, with the historic crest at the centre of the new identity.
Ter Stegen and Brandt have arrived at a club that turns even their unveiling into a small photo series.
And the question of whether any other club is currently announcing transfers more aesthetically remains open for the rest of the summer. For now, though, the bar hangs in Amsterdam.
