World Cup

| Carol Liao

World Cup fever–It’s insanely contagious when you live in Europe. During the festivities it doesn’t matter how much or little you know about football, because the proud and passionate energy in the air is enough to turn almost anyone into a raging fan for the month. But a deeper look into the competition and the rich culture behind the sport is what keeps many fans waiting in anticipation for the next World Cup. There is a lot to admire from this carefully crafted competition, even from a creative standpoint. So much in fact, that it’s been a struggle to pick out only a few favourites!

So, we hereby present to you some FIFA World Cup inspiration for designers.

World Cup Calendar

To start, have you been keeping up with the games? Team Karoshi has designed an incredibly sexy typographic calendar to help keep track of every game. The customisable site allows you to designate your time zone, import all game times into your calendar, and even change the site to match your team colours. When’s your team playing next?

326490

A great project bringing international creatives from the World Cup participating countries to create beautiful visual commentaries. Why’s it called 326490? 32 creatives, 64 matches, 90 minutes. The love of the sport shines through different styles, interpretations, and approaches, leaving us with an exciting end result of a diverse collection of thoughtful work. Find the creative representing your team.

8 by 8

8 by 8 is a New York based football publication started by the partners from design company Priest+Grace. (Fun fact, it’s called 8 by 8 because the goalposts are 8feet high by 8 yards long) The designers aim to make the magazine “as visually dazzling as the game itself” in order to stand out from the countless other publications featuring the World Cup. To achieve this, they implemented action packed illustrations in order to incorporate commentary and satire into the works of art. These stunningly detailed spreads fill the publication with enough excitement and depth to do justice to the thrilling sport. Read more about their illustrations.

The Man Who Made The Wold Cup Trophy

The famous 36.8 cm tall, 18-carat gold hollowed trophy was designed by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga in 1974 to replace the stolen Rimet trophy. The article sheds some light on his goals and processes for designing the iconic trophy that has been proudly lifted by some of the greatest football players in history. Find out what the abstracted forms represent.

Uniform Kit Requirements

Think the uniform kits are straight-forward? Quite the contrary! They have a whole brand of their own, complete with it’s own 92-paged guideline document. These guidelines cover everything down to not only the size of the player’s number, but the max stroke width. As meticulous as it seems, it’s nice to know the FIFA officials care so much about the competition’s aesthetics. Read the FIFA guidelines.

World Cup Kits through the ages

A comprehensive look at the World Cup kits through the ages. This interactive guide goes through the 32 competing teams’ kits for every year they participated in the World Cup, along with their progress in the tournament. Have they improved? See for yourself.

The World’s Ball

The football itself has gone through many changes since the first World Cup. It began as inconsistent hand-sewn leather balls that had to be laced and inflated with great skill and care. Today, the World Cup balls are aerodynamic, heat-sealed, and go through a great deal of testing before making it onto the field. Browse previous versions of the famous ball.

Geniet van de WK Koorts! (Enjoy World Cup fever!)