FIFA | TGIM

Global sports hospitality design– built for the world stage

FIFA World Cup 26™ / On Location

Location: New York, NY
Scope: art direction, creative development, brand design, experiential
Credits: Creative Director- Ben Krantz; Additional Design- Sarah Yadidian, Rob Scully, Streetlight Studio; Additional Concepting & 3D- Yasmin Pazandeh; Production partner- TBA Group, Britten

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FIFA WORLD CUP 26- OVERVIEW

Defining, designing, and delivering the visual hospitality brand experience for FIFA World Cup 26, the largest global sporting event in world history...

...39 Days, 104 Matches, 3 Countries, 16 Venues... where do I begin?

I was tasked with creative development, art direction, and brand design through the entire event production process, from concept through final delivery. Needless to say, it was a career-defining project.

The creative work was strategic as well as unique in nature, as everything from small format and decor, to large format graphics, to photo ops and activations, to fabricated elements had to be designed in a way that could scale to 16 different host city venues in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and do so consistently while remaining unified to FIFA’s brand standard.

SECTION 1: LOOK & FEEL DEVELOPMENT

First, the overall look & feel of the program needed to be defined. Our hospitality spaces for each venue consisted of 4 different product tiers– Commercial Hospitality (various indoor and outdoor), Affiliates Hospitality, VIP, and VVIP spaces. Each product was assigned specific colorways for a unique brand experience in the guest journey.

I started with a high level of strategic creative development, using FIFA’s brand assets such as logos, colors, patterns, and messaging, to create a brand system that would guide the visual experience through each environment and to every touchpoint– from the largest wall graphics to the smallest details. To add uniqueness to the system, each venue would get its own host-city specific pattern implementation, blending the overall FIFA hospitality look with some local city flair.

EARLY CONCEPT DeVELOPMENT- Finding balance between FIFA BRAND ELEMENTS & HOST CITY ELEMENTS (NYNJ);
MAPPING OUT LOOK & FEEL BRAND SYSTEM TO ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHIC APPLICATION

SECTION 2: BRAND GUIDELINES

We then developed a variety of globalized application solutions and standardized them in the form of 16 individual venue-specific brand guides (NYNJ example below), in partnership with Streetlight Studio, that would eventually become very specific to each venue’s footprint.

SECTION 3: SCALING & EXECUTING THE BRAND SYSTEM

With a standardized brand system defined, we began developing all hospitality touchpoints that would be used across all venues– from small format items like menus, credentials, gift packaging, digital applications, pillows and table decor, to full-scale environmental graphics, large fabrication, photo ops & activations.

Using our Look & Feel brand guides as a global standard, as well as months of research, moodboards, sketches, and design application executions, I then directed our production partners on the overall intent of our brand system in order to scale our large format program to all 16 venue footprints in the US, Canada and Mexico– for both interior and exterior spaces. Months of site visits and measurements later, we identified our graphic opportunities within each space, followed by rounds of renderings and graphic approvals.

ABOVE: PRE-PRODUCTION RENDERINGS SHOWING THE OVERALL INTENT of BRAND APPLICATION (USING NYNJ AS THE EXAMPLE)

SECTION 4: THE RESULTS

There were certainly challenges along the way to deliver a premium product for all product tiers, but in the end, the FIFA Hospitality program was a major success.

Leading up to the start of the games, as well as the final match in NYNJ, my role shifted to onsite Design Implementation Manager for Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, and Metlife Stadium in NYNJ, where I oversaw QA/QC for all elements that our design team developed.

The highlight? Being present during a match, standing in the spaces, and seeing the joy and excitement on peoples' faces who got to be a part of a World Cup! Knowing I played a key role in their experience brought a joy that I can never express.

Enough talk. Let's see the outcome!

COMMERCIAL VILLATES: THE FIFA PAVILION

COMMERCIAL HOSPITALITY

DEVELOPING, DESIGNING, AND PRODUCING FABRICATED PHOTO OPS

Perhaps the most complex design system requiring a high level of strategic problem-solving was access controls.

The Challenge

Create a scalable branded system for wristbands with multiple points of security checks (indicating the specific match number, match date, match location, teams, and of course the tier of hospitality that the guest had access to), using an automated rotation of color combinations unique to the criteria, eliminating any possible crossover in products per match, per day, per venue.

The Breakdown

With multiple product tiers of hospitality per match (often with multiple lounges per tier), for 39 days of matches, with a total of 104 matches taking place at 16 host city venues, over 1,200 unique wristbands needed to be developed thus increasing the complexity of the system.