The Hull City AFC logo is a well-known symbol of English football heritage, built around one image that has outlasted every redesign: the tiger's head. Since 1904, the Hull City AFC logo history has moved through civic crowns, initials, roundels, and shields, but the tiger has always found its way back. Our archive tracks every version of the Hull City AFC Primary Logo, giving fans a clear look at how the crest has changed across more than a century of football.
Hull City AFC
The emblem of Hull City Football Club is set inside a traditional pointed shield outlined by a thick black border. Across the arched black header at the top, the club’s name, HULL CITY, is printed in bold, sans-serif white capital letters. The core of the crest features a vibrant amber-orange field dominated by a stylized, roaring tiger head facing left, rendered with sharp black tribal-like stripes, white facial highlights, bared fangs, and delicate whiskers. Centered directly below the tiger in the lower point of the shield is the club’s founding year, 1904, displayed in clean, narrow black numerals.The emblem of Hull City Football Club is set inside a traditional pointed shield outlined by a thick black border. Across the arched black header at the top, the club’s name, HULL CITY, is printed in bold, sans-serif white capital letters. The core of the crest features a vibrant amber-orange field dominated by a stylized, roaring tiger head facing left, rendered with sharp black tribal-like stripes, white facial highlights, bared fangs, and delicate whiskers. Centered directly below the tiger in the lower point of the shield is the club’s founding year, 1904, displayed in clean, narrow black numerals.
Hull City AFC
2014 - 2019
Shifting toward an ultra-minimalist and modern aesthetic, this redesign strips away the previous crest's black chief, the trailing lower ribbon, and all overt mentions of the club name and nickname. Retaining the classic heater shield silhouette with its thick black outer border, the entire interior is unified into an uninterrupted, warm amber field. At the center sits the familiar three-quarter-facing roaring tiger, subtly cleaned up with sharper contours while keeping its textured fur, whiskers, and white highlights intact. Replacing the wordy "HULL CITY A.F.C." and "‘THE TIGERS’" typography, the emblem is anchored simply by the club’s founding year, "1904," rendered in a clean, bold black serif typeface centered neatly beneath the mascot.
Hull City AFC
2001 - 2014
Streamlining the busy heraldic elements of the 1998–1999 crest, this design completely strips away the Humber Bridge, the golden civic coronets, and the founding-year silver ribbon in favor of a cleaner, high-impact aesthetic. Retaining the traditional heater shield format, the badge is framed in a bold black border with a solid amber field, now occupied by a heavily detailed, three-quarter view of a roaring tiger's head that revives the textured, lifelike fur rendering and white facial highlights of the club's classic 1970s look. The typography is thoroughly modernized into a bold, white sans-serif, featuring "HULL CITY A.F.C." set directly inside the black chief along the flat top, while a flowing black banner wraps across the pointed base inscribed with the club's iconic nickname, ‘THE TIGERS’.
Hull City AFC
1999 - 2001
Departing from the notched, circular metallic badge of the preceding era, this redesign returns Hull City to a traditional heater-style shield while dramatically reintroducing regional civic heraldry. The shield's body features a vibrant amber field dominated by an aggressive, forward-facing tiger's head rendered with bold black stripes and bared fangs, replacing the photorealistic rendering with a graphic illustration. In place of the isolated circular ribbons, the top of the shield is capped by a black chief showcasing a silver silhouette of the Humber Bridge beneath three golden ducal coronets borrowed from the city's historic coat of arms, while the base is anchored by an unfurling silver ribbon inscribed with "HULL CITY A.F.C." and flanked by the club's founding year, "Est. 1904."
Hull City AFC
1998 - 1999
Replacing the flat, two-tone amber heater shield of the 1990s, this crest adopts an ornate, circular badge flanked by notched side cutouts and outlined in a beveled metallic gold border. At the center, the stylized line-art illustration is overhauled into a hyper-realistic, front-facing roaring tiger rendered in natural orange, black, and white fur tones, with piercing eyes and an open pink mouth showing gleaming white fangs. Encircling the mascot against a solid black background are arched, brushed-silver banners trimmed in black: the upper ribbon bears the club name "HULL CITY AFC" in a bold, dark serif typeface, while the lower ribbon reincorporates the storied moniker "• THE TIGERS •" flanked by decorative circular rivets.
Hull City AFC
1995 - 1998
Moving away from the split circular ring, white Yorkshire rose, and "THE TIGERS" moniker of the 1980s, this redesign returns Hull City to a traditional heraldic heater shield rendered in deep amber and black. The shield is defined by a heavy black outer border with an inner pinstripe frame, housing an aggressively snarling tiger's head at the center. Rendered in intricate, high-contrast black line work against the solid amber field, this illustration discards the storybook aesthetic of the preceding badge in favor of fine whiskers, exposed fangs, and detailed fur patterning that harkens back to the club's 1970s look. Anchoring the design, bold black serif lettering reads "HULL CITY" across the top, neatly balanced by a smaller "A.F.C." centered directly beneath the shield's inner contour at the base.
Hull City AFC
1992 - 1995
Retaining the core illustrated tiger from the previous era, this design introduces a far more structured, badge-like presentation by encasing the mascot within a thick, split circular ring rendered in metallic gold gradients. The free-floating, rusty-red typography of the prior version is replaced by crisp, black sans-serif capital lettering contained directly inside the arched panels, reading "HULL CITY A.F.C." across the upper arc and "THE TIGERS" along the base. At the center, the three-quarter snarling tiger is subtly enhanced with the addition of a pleated white Yorkshire rose rosette tucked behind its right cheek, creating a unified emblem that ties the club’s fierce feline mascot directly to its county heritage.
Hull City AFC
1982 - 1992
Shifting from the dense, stippled photorealism of the 1970s logo, this design adopts a lighter, vintage storybook illustrative style with a brighter, warmer orange palette. The roaring tiger's head is redrawn at a clearer three-quarters angle, reintroducing crisp white patches around the eyes, muzzle, and bared teeth rather than relying solely on two-tone amber and black fur. Anchoring the illustration, the framing typography undergoes a major overhaul: the single black sans-serif wordmark beneath is replaced by dual, rusty-red arched inscriptions, displaying the full club title "Hull City A.F.C." in a clean, curved serif above the mascot and the proud nickname "THE TIGERS" in bold, capitalized block lettering below.
Hull City AFC
1979 - 1982
Shifting from the dense, stippled photorealism of the 1970s logo, this design adopts a lighter, vintage storybook illustrative style with a brighter, warmer orange palette. The roaring tiger's head is redrawn at a clearer three-quarters angle, reintroducing crisp white patches around the eyes, muzzle, and bared teeth rather than relying solely on two-tone amber and black fur. Anchoring the illustration, the framing typography undergoes a major overhaul: the single black sans-serif wordmark beneath is replaced by dual, rusty-red arched inscriptions, displaying the full club title "Hull City A.F.C." in a clean, curved serif above the mascot and the proud nickname "THE TIGERS" in bold, capitalized block lettering below.
Hull City AFC
1975 - 1979
Departing entirely from the expressive, feral tiger artwork of the preceding years, this mark shifts to a stark, purely typographic monogram. Rendered in a traditional, high-contrast serif typeface, the black letters "HCAFC"—standing for Hull City Association Football Club—descend diagonally from top left to bottom right. By eliminating the mascot illustration, crimson accents, and shield enclosures altogether, this minimalist design embraced a utilitarian, mid-century aesthetic tailored for simple, unadorned embroidery on the club's kits.
Hull City AFC
1957 - 1975
Evolving from the 1947–1957 crest, this mark completely strips away the amber heater shield and outer border to isolate the tiger’s head as a standalone, deconstructed graphic. The snarling, left-facing beast retains its feral, scratchy line work and prominent whiskers, but the underlying amber fill is replaced entirely with clean white negative space. Heavy, jagged black brushstrokes define the brow, ears, and trailing neck stripes, while the open maw—accented by a deep crimson-red tongue and sharp, exposed white fangs—remains the sole pop of color, creating a higher-contrast, far more modern silhouette.
Hull City AFC
1947 - 1957
Departing completely from the civic, royal-blue crest and three stacked golden coronets of the 1935–1947 era, this redesign introduced Hull City’s identity as "The Tigers" to their visual branding for the first time. Set inside a classic arched heater shield with a thick black outline, the field shifts to the club’s signature bright amber. At the center is an aggressive, left-facing snarling tiger's head rendered in heavy, jagged black brushstrokes and stripes, accented by sharp white bared fangs and a vibrant red open mouth, replacing the static heraldry of the past with a fierce, club-specific mascot.
Hull City AFC
1935 - 1947
Derived directly from the historic civic coat of arms of Kingston upon Hull, this crest features a classic triangular heater shield outlined with a thin burgundy border and filled with a vivid royal-blue field. Stacked vertically in pale down the center are three ornate golden ducal coronets (coronets of three leaves), each tapering slightly in width to contour naturally with the inward curve of the shield. The crowns feature intricate heraldic leaf points along their upper rims, engraved circlets adorned with jewel-like patterning along the bands, and deep bronze-and-gold crosshatch shading across the interiors to create a pronounced sense of three-dimensional depth.
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Hull City AFC Logo History
The Hull City AFC logo history didn't start with a tiger at all. The club's first shirt badge appeared in 1935 and featured the three crowns of Kingston upon Hull, tying the team directly to its home city. That badge disappeared after just one season, and Hull played without a crest until 1947, when a tiger's head on an amber shield finally arrived — a nod to the black and amber stripes that had already earned the club its "Tigers" nickname decades earlier.
From there, the tiger came and went. The club dropped the image briefly in the mid-1970s in favor of simple "HCAFC" initials, only to bring the tiger's head back in 1979, paired with the club name underneath. That combined badge stuck around for nearly two decades before a more detailed crest, complete with the Humber Bridge, replaced it in 1998 — a design that never quite caught on with supporters.
Hull City Crest 2014
The most talked-about update in the Hull City AFC logo history came with the Hull City crest 2014. Stripped down and modern, the new badge kept the familiar tiger's head inside an amber shield but removed both the club name and the "Tigers" nickname entirely, replacing them with just the year "1904." The change landed at the same time as owner Assem Allam's failed push to rename the club "Hull City Tigers," and fans weren't shy about connecting the two. The stripped-back crest didn't last, and by 2019 the club had restored its name to the badge, keeping the tiger's head at the center where it has remained ever since.
Today's Hull City AFC Primary Logo carries that same tiger's head forward, framed in the club's traditional amber and black, with "Hull City AFC" and "The Tigers" both back in place. The design can also be compared with the more modern Premier League Primary Logo styles used by clubs across England's top flight. You can visit the Hull City AFC History page to learn more about the club's promotion battles and cup runs. After 13 different badge versions since the club's founding, the tiger's head remains the one constant thread running through the entire Hull City AFC logo history.