Inside the PSA’s Rebrand

Last week, the Professional Squash Association (PSA) announced its rebrand and new PSA Squash Tour structure, introducing the next chapter of professional squash.

The rebrand goes beyond a mere name change, with the PSA working with its multi-year partner, the New York-based advertising agency GAS Group, to create a fresh visual identity that captures the vibrant and fast-paced essence of the sport, while staying true to the core values that define the PSA.

As well as a new logo and new tour name, the PSA rebrand introduces an array of colours that will be showcased across all platforms, from the redesigned website to promotional materials. Each colour was carefully chosen to symbolise the various aspects that make squash an exhilarating and captivating sport.

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Harrow Blue: A tribute to the birthplace of squash, honouring our roots.

Boast Red: Embodies the thrill, passion, and action that define every match.

Match Teal: Represents success and trustworthiness, central to the PSA’s mission.

Rally Yellow: Captures the excitement and energy brought to every PSA tournament.

Drive Orange: Symbolises the creativity and dynamism that propel the sport forward.

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It marks the first time since 2015 that the PSA has refreshed its brand, and PSA Chief Executive Alex Gough has detailed the rationale behind the change.

“We are moving onwards and upwards, the team is expanding internally, the sport is getting more popular and squash is in the Olympics,” Gough says.

“If you look at the old branding, it was stereotyped, it was old fashioned, and it was traditional – blue and pink colours for men and women, which is still a legacy from the merger 10 years ago [when PSA & the Women’s Squash Association became a single, integrated governing body].

“It is time for a refresh as a brand, to signify the journey and to signify what professional squash stands for, which is the excitement, the action, the passion, the incredible athletes, and the dynamic nature of the sport. 

“We wanted to make sure that the colours reflected that. Also, the sport in itself is a relatively ‘dark’ sport. We play in an environment where there are court lights and pictures coming out of dark venues are typically dark, so we’re using the more navy ‘Harrow Blue’, which signals where squash started back in the day at Harrow School, and brightening it up with some colours that are reflective of what the sport stands for.”

For GAS Creative Director Eric Neal, creating branding reflective of the sport’s values anchored every step of the thinking process.

“Every bit of work we did came back to [what professional squash stood for],” says Neal.

“We were always providing rationales and sources on where our decisions came from. We had to be able to link back to the sport’s values, and if we couldn’t, it was not really going to fly. 

“So I think it really helped guide our thinking and our work and provided some necessary constraint and direction. We had really long discussions about everything from the new silhouette of the player [in the logo] to how the letters in the PSA acronym stay the same, to fonts and typeface colours. Ultimately, every aspect of the sport’s values are found through every element of the brand design.

“Another piece I’m particularly proud of within this rebrand is the ‘court system’ which is used on promo materials. I think it’s a really nice touch for the brand to have this really modular kind of tool to reinforce how the brand is recognised and that was inspired by the courts.

“It’s absolutely great to see this out there. This is almost two years in the making, and it’s so exciting to see this on court and in the hearts and minds of squash fans around the world. I hope that people will embrace it because there’s a lot of love for the sport and the players and the brand itself. So hopefully it will be embraced and loved as much as we love it.”

Changing the visual identity of a global sport doesn’t happen overnight, and Gough opened up on the exhaustive work which went into the rebrand, which took place over a period of almost two years.

“The process is always quite subjective to start with because everybody likes different ideas,” he says.

“What we have tried to do is develop a brand where there is a clear rationale behind why the brand is what it is. For example, the name, ‘PSA Tour’, for anybody who isn’t a squash person, you don’t really know what ‘PSA’ stands for. So we felt we needed the word squash in there, to make it instantly recognisable, which is also part of our strategic framework. 

“The next step was about what we use from a colour and branding perspective. We weren’t necessarily looking at a brand new logo; there is obviously a refreshed, modernised player badge icon, the PSA letters have not changed, and we have changed ‘World Tour’ to ‘Squash Tour’. So the logo has relatively small changes, but just modernised. 

“The big changes are about the colour scheme and the colour palette that we chose, also the court system and graphic identity that is going to come through in everything that we do. 

“If you really boil down to the core values of squash, that passion is in there for a reason. Everyone who watches and works in the sport is passionate about it.”

With the 2024-25 season kicking off later this month at the CIB Egyptian Open – the first “Diamond’ event of the PSA Squash Tour era – Gough outlined what to expect from the professional game over the next 10 months.

“Clearly, there will be a lot more content output, more marketing around the sport and a lot more of that will be focusing on the players as individuals, as sporting icons and as stars of the sport. There will be lots more live content on SQUASHTV too, more than 1000 matches aired per season,” Gough says.

“More generally, in the build-up to the Olympics, we want to show how amazing the sport is and how fantastic the athletes are. In our strategy, we are pretty clear on where we want to go, we’re following it quite diligently and we’re hitting the right markers. If I look at where we are, all of the puzzle pieces are in place.

“I think as a sport, we are in exciting times, which you can feel within the community. The Olympics has really made a difference, and as an organisation we are now at nearly 70 people, and every single one of them is excited and happy to work in this environment, which is not easy. 

“Mark Walters’ investment is a sign of confidence, the Olympics is a sign of confidence, and now we want to try and make sure the rest of the world sees what we are doing.”