A 130-year redesign marathon
The Liverpool FC crest is one of the most recognisable in world football. But it has not been one single design. The Liverbird has been redrawn, reshielded, reframed and retouched at least 15 times since the club was founded in 1892 — and the modern minimalist version bears only the faintest family resemblance to the Victorian original.
1892–1944: No club crest
For the first 50 years of the club’s existence, Liverpool FC did not wear a crest on their shirt at all. Players wore plain red or plain blue-and-white quartered shirts. The Liverbird as a symbol was already long-established in the city — it appears on the City of Liverpool coat of arms and dates to at least the 13th century — but it had not yet been adopted by the football club. Match programmes and club letterheads started featuring the Liverbird from the 1920s onward, but the shirts stayed bare.
1944–1954: City arms adopted
The first proper Liverpool FC crest to appear on official club material was a direct lift from the City of Liverpool coat of arms. A Liverbird above a shield, surrounded by the Latin motto "Deus Nobis Haec Otia Fecit" (loosely: "God hath granted us this tranquility"). This was a city symbol more than a football one. It did not appear on shirts — just on programmes and badges.
1954–1969: The first shirt crest
The first time the Liverbird appeared on a Liverpool shirt was in 1954. A simple stitched version sitting on a cotton-reel-shaped plinth. It was hand-embroidered and small, often barely visible from the stands. By the 1960s the position had standardised to the left breast, and the design had simplified further.
1969–1987: The Shankly-era shield
By 1969 the Liverbird had been formalised into a proper shield-style crest, framed by a decorative border with the club name around it. This was the crest that sat on the shirts throughout the Shankly, Paisley and Fagan dynasties. Four European Cups were won in crests that were slight variations of this theme.
1992: Flames added in tribute to the 96
The most emotional chapter came in 1992 when, to mark the club’s centenary, a full redesign was introduced that incorporated the Shankly Gates arch ("You’ll Never Walk Alone") above the shield and two eternal flames flanking it — one for each side of the Hillsborough memorial. Players wore this centenary crest from 1992 onwards. When the club simplified the crest in 2012, they kept the flames as a permanent tribute.
2012: Simplification
In 2012 Liverpool commissioned a redesign aimed at digital-age legibility. The decorative outer ring was removed, the Liverbird streamlined, the shield flattened, the flames kept. The result is cleaner, more modern, and reproduces clearly at any size. Traditionalists miss the ornate pre-2012 version. Designers generally prefer the new one.
The Liverbird itself
The Liverbird is often mistaken for a cormorant or a phoenix. It is neither. It is a heraldic eagle variant specific to the City of Liverpool, carrying a sprig of broom (laver in Latin) in its beak. The modern club version is the most stylised of all — and the most widely-printed symbol in the club’s history.
Read next
For the full kit history of Liverpool FC see the Liverpool kit history page. For more club crests, see Manchester United and Arsenal.