Football: Desgning The Beautiful Game

Breaking Down the Game: Designing for Design Museum's Football Exhibition

When Design Museum asked us to create the campaign identity for 'Football: Designing The Beautiful Game', we knew we had about three seconds to score with London's rushing commuters. No pressure, right?

Here's how we played it: First up, colour. We went bold with a striking green that does two jobs at once – it stops scrolling thumbs and walking feet in their tracks, while instantly signalling 'football' to viewers. It's like that perfect pass that you just know is going to lead to something good.

But here's where it gets interesting. We took football's most iconic visual – the classic ball template pattern – and flattened it for the marketing assets. This twist on the familiar created a sweet spot between sports fans and design enthusiasts. It's technical enough to grab designers' attention, but authentic enough to resonate with football diehards.

Then came the typography. We treated the spacing between letters like a football formation, because why not get meta with it? It's these little details that make designers grin while keeping the overall impact bold enough to work from a moving bus.

This resulted in a campaign that proves sports and design speak the same language when you get the translation right. It's about finding that perfect balance – like a midfielder who can defend and score (Zidane).

Want to see bold ideas in play? Check out the full campaign on our work page. Just don't blame us if you start seeing football formations in every piece of typography from now on.