IPSWICH Town are consulting top image-makers with a view to cashing in on their own unique brand identity, the Evening Star can reveal today.It could unlock the door to millions of pounds of extra profit to take the club to an exciting new level.

IPSWICH Town are consulting top image-makers with a view to cashing in on their own unique brand identity, the Evening Star can reveal today.

It could unlock the door to millions of pounds of extra profit to take the club to an exciting new level.

The sky's the limit as far as money-making opportunities within football are concerned and Town are anxious to maximise their potential in this area.

The club badge is unlikely to change, but the club will seek to exploit every avenue and it could crop up on a host of items to help boost awareness and profit.

Ipswich may never have the financial clout of Manchester United and others, but under ambitious chairman David Sheepshanks they have always pursued a "think big" policy.

It is understood the club have sought out one of the leading companies in their field, Design Bridge, for preliminary talks on a major re-branding.

Town first contacted them two seasons ago, when they were a First Division club seeking to win promotion and cement a place in the Premiership.

And although the two parties failed to come to an arrangement then, there is every likelihood of them joining forces in the near future to maximise the club's considerable pull.

It would not be a cheap exercise to re-brand completely, but Town would expect costs to be swiftly overtaken by increased profits running into millions of pounds.

Design Bridge work with their clients to help them ensure that their most valuable assets - their brands - are in the best condition to compete and to identify the best direction forward.

They already have a number of sporting clients, including governing bodies UEFA, The Football Association and the International Rugby Board.

But they are equally at home in the packaging and branding sector, where their clients include Nescafe, Birds Eye, Tiger Beer and Cup-a-Soup.

Design Bridge's brief from English football's ruling body was to evolve and update both the FA and the England team identities, to distinguish them from one another.

They also created a new look for brewing giants Tennent's, to help maximise the effect of their long-running sponsorship of the Scottish Cup.

And they were responsible for the innovative designs of the balls manufactured by Adidas that have featured in all the World Cup and European Championship tournaments since 1994.

But perhaps their best known work is the "starball" logo which was dreamed up when UEFA decided in 1992 that the European Cup should be reformatted as the Champions League.

The Design Bridge website boasts: "Whether helping a client identify the direction forward for an existing brand or creating a framework for real innovation, applying insightful and robust strategic thinking at the start will always give a more focused brief.

"This in turn is much more likely to provide the basis for a swift, appropriate and successful design solution.

"So, whether it's re-invigorating tired brands or creating new ones to meet changing consumer needs, we can offer tools, techniques and new thinking to help."