From World Cup logo to new club crests, football design loses its edge | Football

Lance Wyman is one of the greatest graphic designers of all time in the United States, with his fingerprints spread throughout many American cities.

Wyman’s style is instantly recognizable – simple, bold and smart. Wyman often works in Wayfaring, and he often uses simple geometric shapes to get the job done with the signs and instructions of the audience, often with entertaining. His method makes his work eternal. In 2011, when the District of Columbia government wanted to update its subway map, they immediately returned to Wyman, who designed the original design for the system about 40 years ago.

His most compelling job, though, was early in his career. In the late 1960s, Wyman, along with a few others, was tasked with creating visual logos for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Mexico City. It’s a tough task, especially for young designers, only ten years.

Determined to complete the task correctly, Wyman moved to Mexico a few months before the deadline and immersed himself in the country’s culture. He jumped into the archives, visited the archaeological sites and talked to the locals. Slowly, he began to pick up design clues – from the yarn paintings of Huichol in western Mexico to the Aztec stone carvings that always helped define the country’s visual identity.

The products Wyman helps produce are almost universally considered one of the greatest sports design portfolios ever. The logo that only competes in the competition – that hypnotic, concentric “Mexico 1968”) blends the country’s culture with the OP art movement. Wyman and his team have produced event posters, Wayfaring Signage, etc., and have spread the entire city’s landscape for a few years.

In 1970, when the country held its first World Cup, they returned to Wyman’s login standards, and Wyman himself created some other designs for the competition. It can be argued that the tournament’s visual identity is likely to be the most directly identified design work in any World Cup in history.

I arrived at Wyman in his office in New York City a few years ago. Then 86, his work slowed down. The World Cup will return to Mexico in 2026 and I am eager to collect his ideas for some of his early designs related to the game, especially FIFA’s official World Cup logo.

“I did see it, yes,” Wyman said at the time. “It’s not that effective. When it gets smaller it’s not really recognizable, so it’s definitely a problem. Of course, it doesn’t say ‘football’. I remember the first time I saw it [European] Champions League logo, I think it’s smart. This…I’m just not sure there are many things you can do. ”

At that time, the logo felt it, just like it is now. It was carefully designed by the FIFA internal design team and even by necessary interpreters FIFA’s own speechthey embrace its heroism: scalability and adaptability. They explained that it was less logos, and more logo systems, allowing them to adapt the image to different devices, and even change it to fit different host cities in the tournament host country. Wyman skillfully did the same thing at the age of 68, and worse.

Of course, my point of view is purely subjective – so is most things related to art and design. But looking at the logo made me think more broadly about the pinnacle and direction of overall design in American football.

recent, Denver Summit FC’s Cliff – NWSL’s latest expansion club will debut in 2026 – will only strengthen what I’m already thinking about: Why do these things look the same in recent years? Still, why are some so inspiring, some so… plain?

In some ways, Vermont designer Matthew Wolff has mastered the key to the design direction of American club football. His work covers the entire game of men’s and women’s games, including the most popular crests of MLS, designed for elegant designs in LAFC and NYC FC. In the NWSL, Wolff was recently selected to make a new logo for what is now known as the Boston Heritage (after that club was launched, perhaps The most criticized names and brands In American football history.

His work also embellishes the next league, and his several crests feel like instant classics – United Omaha, and even the most recent USL League 2 champion Vermont Green, the Wolff Club has helped co-create.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Wolf said. “I thought of the trajectory of American football, which is parallel to where I was in education and early careers. [Everybody] Knowing that American football will explode for many years. So, I think I intend to position myself as doing well in the United States, willing and able to create a football championship. ”

Wolff’s works are sometimes a bit like Lyman’s works: neat, bold, simple. Like Wyman in ’68, Wolff operates in spaces that often represent the commissioned community, and he often incorporates elements of these places into his final design.

It’s easy to see in the crest of New York Football Club, it looks like an old subway token, or Wolf’s crest designed for the NWSL’s Gotham FC, which features the Statue of Liberty. Others feel more esoteric, such as the crest Wolf made for a Knox FC in USL. That palette inspired by a handful of Knoxville local monuments, like Denver, feels more versatile.

Here is an aesthetic summary on the podcast I’ve heard recently. In it, the host praised Denver’s new badge, saying it would feel at home on the side of the reusable metal water bottle. To that person, it was a compliment. But sometimes, this prevalence can rob the design of its character.

Wolf himself acknowledges the reality of the entire design work. His work is done for clients to meet their brief needs and is not necessarily his own taste or preference.

“My ideal vision has nothing to do with these crests,” Wolf said. “I’m trying to answer a short parameter that is set by the club or by the club. Obviously, even in the most intense profile, you can do a variety of ways. If you tell me ‘well, this song requires a blue streak lion, which is blue, and can be in circle and football club, and I can be in the bottom and football club…I don’t fit me. My own taste in the crest is with “this is in the answer summary.” ”

In other words, designers are now only part of the equation when it comes to making brand identity.

“[The process] Has been evacuated from the graphic designer – the expert – and entered the vague room of other people who made the design decision by the committee. ” MLS Club DC United. “The marketing director, the focus group, the analytic-driven shit, all ultimately push things toward safer territory. It’s losing the artistic side and the weirdness from the individual.”

It can be said that Wolff and any other designers in this space are also sympathetic to the audience. BOS Nation stays away from the only club that corrects the course after the initial turnover – their fans were angry when the Chicago Fire launched an absolutely brutal remake in 2019. The fire turned to Wolff solved the problem, and he did it, cleaner and easier to see the design.

“These designs are designed to represent fans and clubs,” Wolf said. “And if fans or communities see this crest and they feel it doesn’t represent them, then I think they fit their rights and let them know the club. These fans are fans who are asking for a $100 kit. Of course, some examples are examples of people commenting [about a crest] This is a little ridiculous. But overall, I get it. ”

For his role, Wyman grew up in Kearny, New Jersey (who is himself a soccer mecca) told me that he was never asked to do Football Peak. A few years ago, he worked with nonprofits Help design footballthe results are great: red, blue and white designs are paved with stars. It feels a bit like the North American Football League dance design, used in the 70s and early 80s.

In addition, Wyman’s work is mainly done for companies and local municipalities. Looking at his design, it’s hard to imagine why some clubs won’t bring him in. Wolff’s work is usually great, but some varieties may be great, too. Maybe there are some clubs out there that might give those who have been putting their design on the mood board for almost all the logo-related designs over the years.

“The sports meet is carried with you every once in a while, but for the most part, my work has been focused elsewhere,” Wyman said a few years ago. “I would love to top if I get the chance.”