Stadium, Sweden’s largest sports goods retailer, was facing new and growing threats. Its brand had stood still: stores and own-brand products still sported the slab-serif logotype that Stadium had introduced 20 years earlier. Its own-brand products – responsible for half its sales – were doing battle with brands worn by champions, such as Nike, Adidas and Puma. And its stores were facing fresh international competition from the likes of Decathlon and Intersport.

We were looking for a concept, or “fifth element”, that would add tangible value to the Stadium brand: ownership of an idea that was central to sport, and that could propel Stadium beyond the reach of its rivals. We found it in numbers. Sport-specific numbers – including record-breaking times, speeds, scores, sizes, lengths and heights – would provide the visual and cerebral fuel for the brand, inscribed in the dynamic, angular font we drew for the logotype, on walls, displays, merchandise, price tags, in print, online, even on the truck bays of Stadium’s logistics centre.