we are football

WE AREFOOTBALLREPORT

WE AREFOOTBALLREPORT

Laura Galmés SchwarzMA Graphic Branding & Identity 2010London College of Communication

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS / 7

PREFACE / 9

INTRODUCTION / 11

RESEARCH QUESTION / 13

FIELD OF STUDY 1 / 14

FIELD OF STUDY 2 / 18

RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS / 34

SECONDARY RESEARCH & CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT / 37

INTERMEDIATE THOUGHTS / 64

FINAL OUTCOME / 67

FEEDBACK / 89

CRITICAL REFLECTION AND EVALUATION / 91

BIBLIOGRAPHY, REFERENCES & VIDEOS / 92

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A special thanks to my tutor John, for guiding me throughout this project and making me step out of my comfort zone.

PREFACE

Football’s average attendances are not only the largest ones in the world; they are also rising from year to year. From season 1994/95 to 2008/09, the English Premier League average attendances increased by an impressive 46 per cent reaching a peak of 35,632 stadium-spectators per match1. Whereas the global TV audiences of the Premier League are estimated at over 450 million viewers per year, the football audiences all over the world reach a total of 4.1 billion viewers. It is worth mentioning that the FIFA World Cup alone garners 1.5 billion audiences2, which means that something like a quarter of the entire world stops doing whatever it is doing and focuses its attention on 22 men kicking a ball on a green pitch.

Football could objectively be seen as one of the strangest patterns of human behaviour in modern society.

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / PREFACE / 91/ www.footballeconomy.com2/ Nielsen & Industry Estimates, Measurement and Information

Company (en.us.nielsen.com)

INTRODUCTION

The starting point of my Major Project is the fact that football is an interesting social phenomenon and also, because of my personal interest in the sport and how it is branded and communicated in our society. I am a football fan myself and, there-fore, one of the pursuits of doing a project about football was to exercise my ability as a brander to adopt an objective approach towards the subject.

Bearing in mind the impressive facts mentioned in the Preface and also the explanation given above, the initial research question of this project is:

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / INTRODUCTION / 11

RESEARCH QUESTION

WHY IS FOOTBALL SUCH AN OUTSTANDING SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENON?

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / RESEARCH QUESTION / 13

FIELD OF STUDY 1

FOOTBALL, ITS HISTORY AND WHAT MAKES IT SO SPECIAL

14 3/ The Soccer Tribe (Desmond Morris. Published: London, Cape, 1981)

First of all I will explain the main possible reasons why football captures on average more followers than any other sport, including both players and fans. It has to do with the basic nature of the sport and its relation to our nature as human beings.

Since our evolutionary history pertains to the period when the reason of preying was a matter of survival, this hunting nature moulded us genetically as what we are nowadays. The need to hunt made us more intelligent and better at concentrating on a long-term project and avoid-ing distractions, and it also gave us the ability to cooperate with others and have a strategic way of thinking. Hunting itself made us more athletic. This changed when we started farm-ing. Nonetheless, the hunting spirit was still in us and, therefore, instead of stopping, we kept hunting even if it was not necessary any more.

Centuries later, in the 1820s, due to animal protection societies and a massive movement of populations from the country to the cities and its factories, traditional hunting was replaced by another kind of hunting: the ball-game.

The Football Association was established in 1863 in England. Football is now being played by almost 150 different nations being without doubt the biggest sport phenomenon of the last century3.

The question is, why football and not any other sport?

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / FIELD OF STUDY 1 / 174/ The Killer Ape theory, African Genesis; A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man (R. Ardrey / Dell Publishing, 1967)

It seems football is the sport which retains the most elements of a traditional hunt. Aiming at a target, the need for great skill, physical risks, great exertions of the headlong chase, active coopera-tion with other members of the group, fast-flowing movements, and so on. Sports like croquet or golf aim at a target but lack in physical risks, speed and cooperation. More closely related ones, such as basketball, have enough fast-flowing movements but are still missing the physical danger. Others, like rugby, are dangerous enough but in this case weak on free-flowing movements. None of the other existing sports appear to have the perfect combina-tion that football seems to offer. It is the sport with the most similarities to our hunting nature and that seems to be the main reason that makes football entertaining towards the audience and more ap-pealing than other sports for both players and fans.

Football is the one which retains the most elements of medieval hunting.

Overall, it could be said that due to our nature as human being - and therefore animals - we are predators and we have a hunting instinct in our genes4. As mentioned before, whilst it was essen-tial in ancient civilizations, this hunting instinct is generally not applied anymore - since we don’t need to kill our food - but that doesn’t mean that the instinct isn’t there. The reason I mention this is because, maybe, if we take a psychoana-lytical point of view, watching football gives us the chance to liberate and experiment with our unconsciously repressed hunting instinct without actually hunting anything, and this liberation raises our adrenaline levels and gives us a pleasant feeling of satisfaction, the same feelings that hu-man beings had through hunting.

FIELD OF STUDY 2

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF FOOTBALL AND SIMILARITIES WITH OTHER SOCIAL IDEAS

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The following research section is meant to prove and explain why football and its fan phenomenon have individual and social values.

These values will emerge from a series of compari-sons between football and other important ideas of our society, with the aim of suggesting that the football fan phenomenon does probably exist as a result of human’s psychological nature.

The comparisons to follow are:

Football & Religion, Football & Art, Football & Tribalism and Football & Love.

Are the similarities between football and other important social phenomenons the key to its success?

FOOTBALL & RELIGION

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / FIELD OF STUDY 2 / 19

Football beliefs can go beyond the earthly and take the game on the pitch to a higher level if the feelings for your team cross physical barriers. The pride of following your colours, a common feeling among others of your kind, has turned the ball-game into something more than just a game.

There are several similarities between football and religion to be highlighted. The faith that both require, as well as the attraction to the uncontrol-lable: fans hope for something good to happen but lack in possible influence on eventual results.

Both religion and football follow a ritual: a huge crowd of people heading to a ‘sacred place’, listen-ing to ‘sacred music’ and believing in their ‘god’ to improve the situation: the believers = the fans, the church = the stadium, liturgical music = the chants, God = the striker, miracle = the goal.

You believe in something you can not control.

“It’s better than going to church” / Julian Germain, In soccer Wonderland.

During the Europe Cup 2008 in Austria, an exhi-bition about the religious aspects of football called ‘Heroes, Saints and Heaven-strikers’ took place at the Dom Museum in Vienna5. The director of the exhibition, Snejanka Bauer, argued that “just like believers find heaven, security and unity in their parish church, football fans do celebrate their faith in their teams”.

Apart from the aforementioned facts, what both football and religion especially do have in com-mon is an outstanding power to move masses and to make people come together for a common aim. In some cultures, such as the Spanish one, it is said that ‘Football is the opiate of the masses’ - adapta-tion of Karl Marx’s famous statement ‘Religion is the opiate of the people’. Indeed, if we go through some of the attributes that Marx used to describe religion we can see they are compatible with foot-ball as well: ‘spiritual point d´honneur’, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘illusory happiness of the people’6.

All in all, that football and religion are comparable in several ways is a fact, and it is not surprising that even religious terminology has been adapted to the game. The ‘footballing cardinal sins’ are: passing the ball across your own penalty area, showboating, making a substitution just before a set piece against you, ballwatching, not playing to the whistle, not organizing the wall and not giving your teammates a shout7.

20 5/ www.wien.gv.at/rk and www.dommuseum.at6/ Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s philosophy

of right (Karl Marx / Deutsch-Französiche Jahrbücher, February 1844)7/ Football Lexicon (Leigh & Woodhouse / Faber & Faber, 2006)

Religion is the illusory happiness of the people” / Karl Marx, In soccer Wonderland.

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Just like believers find heaven, security and unity in their parish church; football fans do celebrate their faith in their teams” / Snejanka Bauer, director of the exhibition ‘Heroes, Saints and Heaven-strikers’.

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Football and religion make people hope.

FOOTBALL & ARTMaking a statement in relation to art is always a difficult issue, probably because of its indescrib-able and indefinable nature, as some writers and philosophers such as Paul Valéry and Immanuel Kant have analyzed before. Nonetheless, from a personal point of view, football and art share one special attribute: the value of the worthless. Why do they have a positive effect on us if they do not directly improve anything? Relating to art, Kant talks about a ‘disinterested pleasure of the beauty’8; do fans have a disinterested pleasure by being fans and watching football? Both are useless but both can make us feel full with joy. The question is why? Most of us have a stressful life packed with commitments and responsibilities. In some way, art gives us an opportunity to escape from our thoughts and obligations for a certain period of time, allowing us to empty our minds and focus on something that has no direct influence on our lives but is, nevertheless, of high value for exactly

that reason. Art makes us disconnect and enjoy, exactly like football does.

Poet Raymond Carver argues: “after all, art is a form of entertainment, yes? For both the maker and the consumer. I mean in a way it’s like shooting billiards or playing cards, or bowling – it’s just a dif-ferent, and I would say higher, form of amusement” 9. I slightly agree, above all with the idea of art as an amusement; and that is in my opinion the second aspect it shares with football.

In conclusion, football as well as art has the value of the worthless that makes us disconnect in a disinterested way, and both are therefore an amusement in our lives.

24 8/ Critique of the Power of Judgement (Immanuel Kant, Paul Guyer, Frederick Rauscher, Curtis Bowman / The Cambridge Edition of the works of Immanuel Kant, August 2010)

9/ The Economics of the Experiences, the Arts and Entertainment (Ake E. Andersson and David E. Andersson / books.google.com)

Football is the love of form. It is a spectacle that scarcely leaves a trace in the memory and does not enrich or impoverish knowledge. This is its appeal: football is exciting and empty” / Mario Vargas Llosa, Latin-American writer.

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After all, art is a form of entertainment, yes?”/ Raymond Carver, American poet and writer.

The value of both art and football is in their insignificance.

28 10/ www.tribalfootball.com, engishfootball.tribe.net, footballtribe.forumcommunity.net, and so on...

11/ ‘New Tribal revolution theory’ by Daniel Quinn (The New Tribalism, University of Oregon)

FOOTBALL & TRIBALISMThe main reason why football is definable as a kind of tribalism is because of its feeling of belonging. Belonging to a team makes the fans radiate a kind of patriotic feeling which is nowadays rare to find in other aspects of our lives. When do thousands of people come together to support their nation more than during a world cup? The tribal aspect in foot-ball implies possible negative parts as well, such as division, hooliganism and violence, in the same way patriotism does; but the positive consequences are much more likely to emerge. The unity of all kind of different people and their shared commit-ment and enthusiasm is without any doubt some-thing valuable. If only other society aspects could bring us together in such an enthusiastic way.

In fact, many football fan web sites and blogs use both words ‘football’ and ‘tribe’ in their naming10. It is a commonly shared point of view.

From a personal perspective, the fact that fan socie-ties are tribes and that they imitate tribal habits such as dressing and painting themselves with the same colours and accessories, could be seen as a nostalgic representation of the emerging lack of ‘tribalism’ in our society. It is probably for the same reason that social subcultures do exist. In the last century, anthropologists have revised our idea of tribe and redefined it using attributes like ‘open’, ‘egalitarian’, ‘classless’ and ‘cooperative communi-ties’11. All of these attributes are present in football tribes. Although, both football and tribalism are also defined by an ethnocentric feeling.

The world of football is marked by distinction on the one hand and pride of belonging and commitment on the other, and so is the world of tribalism.

Clubs are organized like small tribes, complete with a tribal territory, tribal elders, witch-doctors, heroes, camp-followers, and other assorted tribesman” / Desmond Morris, The soccer tribe.

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FOOTBALL & LOVELove is defined between others as ‘a strong positive emotion of regard and affection’, as ‘having a great affection or liking for’ and also as ‘getting pleasure from’. All of them could refer to a football fan’s feelings. In my opinion there are some other char-acteristic aspects shared in both football and love: the irrational aspect and the consequent com-mitment. You do not have any physical or logical explanation for falling in love with somebody, in the same way that you have no rational reason to follow one team over all the others - apart from a generational reason. It just happens, and when it happens you get involved and you commit to sup-port the chosen team forever.

Again, it could be a symptom of our human na-ture, we need love and we tend to offer disinter-ested commitment to what we love. As a result, you not only love your team but the atmosphere, the other fans, the whole ritual and especially the transition from bad to good moments.

Both football and love have the ability to make people happy in an irrational way.


RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS

EXTRACTED VALUES AND SECONDARY RESEARCH

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With regard to the aforementioned comparisons we can state that football is more than a game, mainly because of its valuable effects on its follow-ers. A wide range of experiences are felt by a foot-ball fan, from believe and faith, through pride, belonging and commitment to excitement, amusement, and happiness. In addition football offers several educational values. Team-work, respect, patience, learning to support something in the good and the bad moments and learning to lose, are some of the lessons a fan should expe-rience, even if facing them positively is sometimes a more difficult task. Most of these educational lessons are shared by both players and followers.

All I know most surely about morality and obliga-tions, I owe to football” / Albert Camuz (French-Algerian writer and phi-losopher. Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957)

Football is more than a game, it is a whole world of experiences.

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Therefore, we can argue that the values of football are much more about the experiences of the fans than about the game and the team itself, basically because players are just a few whereas the fans number millions.

This is the interesting aspect to research and ana-lyze in a deeper way from this point on. Besides, a research into experiences allows an approach to branding, since nowadays experience is mainly what branding is about.

All in all, in response to these initial fields of study and the research of football’s social values, I even-tually defined a secondary and focused research:

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS / 35

To give and to take, to accept success modestly and defeat bravely, to fight against odds, to stick to one’s point, to give credit to your enemy and value your friend – these are some of the lessons which football should impart” / Arthur Conan Doyle, writer and nr.1 founder member of Portsmouth FC and the club’s first goalie, under the pseudonym A.C. Smith

From this point on, my project will focus on the experience of football and its presence in branding.

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SECONDARY RESEARCH & CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

THE FANS AND THEIR EXPERIENCE OF FOOTBALL

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / SECONDARY RESEARCH / 37

SECONDARY RESEARCH AND CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

THE FANS’ PRESENCE IN BRANDING

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This secondary approach was a focused analysis of the fan experiences and a research into branding and how football is communicated in the com-mercial environment.

As will be shown next, it is rare to see football brand campaigns that are focused on the fans. Most of the time, the value and the idea that is communicated relies on the team and the players, probably for a logical reason: star-players are the most successful promotion for a team and they make the money through all kind of corporate and identity products, ‘because fans love their idols’. Nonetheless, what this aspect provokes is an overdose of clichés and an outstanding similarity among football brand and advertising campaigns. Football communication is clichéd, both visually and conceptually, or at least conceptually: players, balls, trophies, flashy lights and excitement are some visual attributes you can usually find. Conceptually, you see players represented in all kind of topical ways: warriors, gladiators, gods, kings, winners, artists, idols... The creativity of it is exploited and repetitive, I felt there is potential for innovation.

Football communication is cliché and repetitive -with a few exceptions.

Why does hardly nobody brand the fans instead of the players; the experience instead of the product?

As said before and after seeing these few examples, the cliché is either general or at least conceptual. We can see just a few exceptions and some cam-paigns focused on the importance of the fan:

On the left we see, a T-shirt designed for the fans of the Netherlands National Team where you have your star-player printed inside. Then we have Adidas’ and Chelsea’s ‘Blue Day Out’ on 2006, cre-ating the biggest team-photo ever made, having all the fans in the back of the team. And finally, Nike Football’s initiative to allow the users to design and produce their own, personalized football kit.

These are a few examples but in general terms, the fan does not play an important role in brand-ing football. Why not? For instance, especially in case of smaller teams the presence and support of the fans is of high value since they do not have big star-players. At this point, as a result of this branding possibility, I decided to try and brand the experience and not the product of football.

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / SECONDARY RESEARCH / 41

Is there a branding possibility? = brand the experience and not the product.

SECONDARY RESEARCH AND CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

THE FANS AND THEIR EXPERIENCE OF FOOTBALL

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Once I finished with a study into branding and after defining the experience as the interesting part of football, I started developing an output idea that evolved through three main stages. The defini-tion of these temporary conclusions will give a logical overview of the thinking process and it will show how I ended up with my final outcome.

It is worth mentioning that this project was always a positive expression of football, not going into violence, hooliganism and other negative aspects. Also, from this point on, I decided that the project would focus on team-football and not nations competitions, since the values and experiences of both are different in many ways.

The three different conceptual developments were:

1 / 90 MINUTES IN LIFE TO BECOME A FAN

2 / THIS IS FOOTBALL

3 / WE ARE FOOTBALL

The aspect that all stages had in common was my intention to communicate the fan experiences avoiding visual clichés.

My intention was to pro-duce something colourful, eye-catching and rich in variety. In my opinion, these are all characteristic aspects of football.

The idea started as an intention to design the whole fan experience, representing 90 independent and non-consecutive minutes with very different styles and techniques, to eventually show the variety of experiences with a variety of looks, and make them work as a whole.

This initial idea was the first approach to achieve the colourful and eye-catching variety. Although none of the designe ideas I thought of at this early stage are present in the final outcome, almost all of them were either an inspiration or a first step of a visual development.

The research of fan experiences was not conducted through a survey because, in my opinion, that would only be helpful if it was done across a very big group of people, and also because a survey gives you only a limited number of answers based on the ideas you already have, and I wanted other fans to tell me experiences that I did not know yet. I pre-ferred to interview and establish conversations with a few fans and get their personal impressions.

Critical reflection. The concept was interesting, especially because of its potential towards the out-come. The idea of 90 books creating one collection to represent the fan experience was appealing, although it was very ambitious as well. That was the first problem: 90 books is a lot of books. An exercise of narrowing down was necessary. Eventu-ally, the project had intervals of time, such as 7’-14’ or 45’-55’, which allowed me to decrease the number of books and also made it more interesting and less heavy.

I ended up with several inspiring designs as a result of this concept and the whole exercise was well worth it, but the problem was at the beginning: 90 minutes would always be related to the 90 min-utes of a match, and that was not the pursuit of this project, since my intention is to show that foot-ball is more than a game, and precisely, more than the 90 minutes of a match. The idea was confusing and the branding usability was not there yet.

A few examples of this stage are next:

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1 / 90 MINUTES IN LIFE TO BECOME A FAN

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Prev. page: The minute you are just a speck.

This page: Minutes related to weather con-ditions in a stadium.


JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

The minute you learn a lesson (series).

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The minute you have the first symptoms


The minute you believe in God

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The minute you shout

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The minute you disagree


The minute you get excited too early

The next step for the conceptual development was eliminating the idea of the 90 minutes and nar-rowing down the experiences to a smaller group that includes the most important ones. I changed the title to ‘This is Football’. The design exercise was focused on doing things in a more subtle way and progressively trying to avoid clichés and obvi-ous concepts and imagery.

The content was ‘experiences of a football fan’. In other words, the reasons that made a fan become a fan. The experiences chosen at this point were:

We followed our senses, we were dazzled, we chose, we stick together, we know, we talk, we are obsessed, we withstand, we are patient, we believe, we disagree, we feel, we regret, we hate, we lose and we win.

An individual design exercise was undertaken for each of them; some examples will be shown in the following pages.

The important step at this stage was to stop design-ing for a while and focus on the general aim of the project, trying to bring more structure and logic into it. The critical reflection was:

2 / THIS IS FOOTBALL

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So I restructured the idea in the following way:

I am creating an unusual visual grammar for football, based on an uncommon conceptual approach: the importance of the fan. As a result, this part is a branding source for football, that can inspire innovative strategies to brand and communicate it.

And taking this as a starting point, everything started to make more sense and the project was defined in a clearer way.

At this stage, I did not know yet in what way I was going to do it, but I did know that the project would have two differentiated parts: The new visual language and how this lan-guage could be taken into a more commercial environment.

Next I will show some examples of this stage of the project; however almost none of them are included in the final outcome since they were just possible outputs at this point of the development.


What am I creating, and how does it relate to branding?

From the time I was a child I remember the smells of the barbecue stands, the cigar smoke around me and the smell of the humit turf ”/ Raimon Botey, F.C. Barcelona fan

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First examples of the olfactory experience at a stadium. The title pages at this stage did all look like the one showed above.

WE FOLLOWEDOUR SENSES


The idea was to use the technique of ‘scratch and sniff’ and print the different smells on the sheets. (Eventually not done, budget reasons)

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Next step for this con-cept, at this stage called We withstand’


Photographs for We are obsessed’

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First output for ‘We are dazzled’. Changed later on to focus on the fan’s perspective, and not the player’s one.

Next page: ‘We choose’


Some examples of ‘We Believe’. The num-bers of the best players in Europe and the correspondent type and colours of their teams.

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No players, no balls, no clichés.Taking things to the limit and not trying to do what has been done in thousand different and beautiful ways. Communicating the experience and not the product. Abstraction, the least necessary elements, technicality, unexpected imagery... But eventually making things work as a whole.

INTERMEDIATE THOUGHTS

This is all beautiful, but do something out of it, bring ideas to life” / Tony Brook

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In ten minutes you can do a lot. That was the time I had with Tony Brook to go through my work, and thanks to this encounter the whole project adopted a new perspective: to go one step further and apply ideas to reality.

Thank you, Tony.

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / INTERMEDIATE THOUGHTS / 65

You don’t need to shout to be seenAs a result of this thought, an intense exercise in simplicity and finesse was tried do be done. Some of the undertaken steps were: Avoiding big titles at the beginning of the books, turning them into signatures at the end of it and, therefore, letting the viewer have his/her own interpretation of the content. The same decision was applied to the covers and several contents.

God is in the detail” and so is the devil... / Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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Implementing structure, unifying all the ideas and design tools such as typographies and colour codes. Starting to create a common identity in the variety of the project.

Eliminating the unnecessary and introducing the necessary. A deep work on the details.

FINAL OUTCOME

WE ARE FOOTBALL

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / FINAL OUTCOME / 67

Conceptually very similar to ‘This is Football’ but a bit more narrowed down, unified and subtle.

‘We are football’ is the title for the final outcome of my Major Project.

What is it? The projects includes the two parts mentioned before: the innovative created visual grammar based on the fans experiences and an ex-planation of how this conceptual and visual exercise could be applied to branding.

Why? Because I felt there was potential for innova-tion in how football is branded and communicated.

How? Next is a detailed explanation of the out-come going through conceptual, strategic, visual and technical aspects.

3 / WE ARE FOOTBALL

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FINAL OUTCOME

OUTPUT AND CHARACTERISTICS

TARGET AUDIENCEFocused on both designers and fans but in each case with a different intention:Intention1 / Fans enjoy the outcome and identify with the ideas that are presented. Intention2 / Designers get inspired by the con-cept and the visual language, and come up with ideas of how to turn them into brand campaigns.

TITLE: WE ARE FOOTBALLIt is a result of the conceptual development. From the beginning on, this project was based on the fan and its experiences. The clearest way to express this, and taking into account that the concepts presented in the project are from football fans, a use of the first person of the plural seemed suitable.

Obviously, the fans are there because of the players but, on the other side, the players would not be there without the fans.


We are football: we experience it and we make it happen.

OUTPUT / COMPONENTS1/ A collection of books in which each one repre-sents one of the selected final fan experiences.(A short explanation of each and its correspondent design resolution will be shown further on).

2/ It also includes one additional book called “Bringing ideas to life” where I give some exam-ples of how the concept and visual language could turn into single brand campaigns or strategies.

The reason for me to choose an editorial outcome for this project is because most of my education as a designer was in this sector. Besides, I consider that the valuable factor of this project is its visual exercise and its conceptual approach including all the eventual ideas; and in my opinion the success of both is not dependant on their medium or support. What is more, it could be adapted to any of them.

FORMATS The format of the books is A5 for two reasons: a collection of 11 books could result to heavy in big formats and also, an A5 format allows you enough space to make the design stand out and at the same time, it is small enough to make it handy.

Even if the books are all in the same format, the interior varies from one to the other. Apart from normal pages, some contain fold-outs or posters. This follows the initial intention of making it rich in variety and eye-catching for both targets.

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We are football: we see, we remember, we love, we reject, we know, we talk, we dream, we hope, we fight, we lose, we win.

MATERIALS & TECHNIQUESTo achieve variety inside a total unity, each of the books and experiences has its suitable paper and treatment and at the same time, all of them look the same from the outside. Materials are adapted to the content, as in the case of the chosen paper for the dictionary.

After a research into printing techniques, ‘scratch and sniff’ turned out to be an interesting one in order to make out of ‘We Remember (smells)’ more than just a book of photographs - the technique has not been applied due to budget reasons. Also a special ink was used to represent the dazzling green of the pitch in ‘We See’.

All in all, these different solutions enrich the project without altering its effectiveness as a whole.

TYPOGRAPHY The chosen typography for the whole project is the Trade Gothic Linotype Std family.

The initial reason was because of its bold condensed nr.20 and its condensed nr.18, since both worked well for titles written in upper case and both had a very uniform series of numbers. Although eventu-ally the numbers were not important anymore and the big titles were removed, it still worked well for smaller titles in upper case and other written con-tent accompanying the visuals. It has a rich family, very different styles, presence and it is eye-catching.From my perspective, the Trade Gothic has also a sporting touch and is quite masculine, very suitable for a project about football. It is not surprising that similar types with the same attributes have been used to design and communicate sport subjects, such as ‘Sport’ magazine, Nike Football, teams like Liverpool FC and Hamburger SV, and some others.


TRADE GOTHIC LT STD

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Trade Gothic works well for titles and is very uniform in both upper and lower case. It is an eye-catching type with presence and also a certain sporting look to it.

FQW1’!

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When you go to a stadium and see the dazzling green pitch from different perspectives. Four posters show the view in an abstract way.

WESEE


The variety of smells you have at a stadium. This book should be printed with scratch & sniff technique (not enough budget for a sample).

WEREMEMBER

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A fan loves the ritual of being part of a family. Fans show their love for their teams sticking together and offering an unconditional support.

WELOVE


A hyperbole of a fan’s passion for football through a complete lack of interest for any other sport.

WEREJECT

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Fans know everything about the sport. Among other things, this book wants to show the techni-cal and sophisticated part of football.

WEKNOWHOW


Overall it includes all the aspects and factors that are present in a football match.

WEKNOWHOW

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Apart from ‘how’ football is played, a fan knows ‘who’ are the best teams that play it. In this image, the proportion of colours of Europe’s best teams.

WEKNOWWHO


On the right sight are the cups won by the correspondent team, so that you can have an instant overview of their success. Instead of the team’s real name, its nick-name is given to enhance that it is about the fans’ point of view.

WEKNOWWHO

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A dictionary with a selection of words and expres-sions that adopt a different meaning in football. It is an edited version of the ‘Football Lexicon’12.

WETALK

12/ Football Lexicon (Leigh & Woodhouse / Faber & Faber, 2006)


This book shows fans’ obsession. Seeing football pitches everywhere is a poetic way to say that a fan thinks about football the whole time.

WEDREAM

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The typical match when nothing really happens but fans keep hoping for their team to win. It is an hom-age to a fan’s patience and unconditional support.

WEHOPE


The unpleasant weather conditions that fans have to cope with in a stadium. The organic type design is meant to show the physicality of the conditions and their effects (wet, frozen, melted). It could include some others.

WEFIGHT

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As in life, sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. It only depends on which side you are. This is the concept applied to the book: two points of view.

WELOSE


If you start on the wrong side, everything turns black, like when you lose. If you start on the right side you have happiness in form of colours. You win.

WEWIN

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The eleventh and last book explains possible appli-cations to branding. It is white to stand out, like a white line on the pitch.


It includes independent brand strategies and campaigns that are inspired by one of the designed fan experiences. The content of this book is, and could probably always be a work in progress.

I had the chance to meet Benn Achilleas, from Neoco, on the morning of the 13th of November.

Since my project aimed to inspire designers and branders, it was a first test of its success. Benn is specialist in social networks and its possibilities in matters of branding. My intention was to see how my project could fit, both visually and conceptu-ally, in this environment.

After we went through what I had done so far, we started an exchange of thoughts and he gave me opinions and tips of how to apply my ideas. It was very useful because I got a completely new perspec-tive. I was pleased that he could see so many pos-sibilities in my project, which is always motivating.

Some of the ideas presented in the additional branding book are a result of this meeting, espe-cially the ones that are more up to date using new formats and technological possibilities.

Benn inspired me in many different ways and it was very useful to have a different and fresh look at this stage of the project. The meeting encouraged me to question and rethink some aspects, like titles and other details, and it also pushed me to go a bit further in matters of branding.

Thanks, Benn.

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / FEEDBACK / 89

FEEDBACK

MEETING AND FEEDBACK FROM BENN ACHILLEAS

You have a clear creative thinking and I can see the possibilities of this project straight away”/ Benn Achilleas, Co-Founder & Director of Neoco and Chelsea FC fan.

“

This project made me grow as a brander and designer because I learned to approach work in a different way. I stepped out of my comfort zone, avoided being too practical, achieved a broader thinking process and, therefore, achieved a richer variety of outcomes.

One of the learned lessons is that you can generate strategies through design and not only generate design through previous strategies. In other words, working on design solutions can also give you good ideas. I’m sure a creative or strategist will always be more successful if he/she has knowledge and experience in how the ideas could be represented. What is more, even if I do believe in the value of accurate research, I also believe that research can easily distract you from your final aim, which is communicating your ideas to a target that usually hasn’t got such a deep knowledge of the subject. The research into design solutions is probably as important as the research of the subject.

Probably I could have worked more on the even-tual branding ideas, the visual language could be applied to many other areas such as web design or retail experience; but the visual exercise required time and I am personally fond of finishing what has been started. Even though, I think that the intention and usability of the project has been proven and I am quite confident of its potential for further development.

All in all, the outcome of the project might not appeal to everyone, but it is a complicated exercise since avoiding the popular clichés carries a risk of failing. Nonetheless, an attempt at innovation is al-ways an interesting exercise and its outcome should at least be considered.

WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / CRITICAL REFLECTION AND EVALUATION / 91

CRITICAL REFLECTION AND EVALUATION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

‘1000 type treatments : from script to serif, letterforms used to perfection’. Wilson Harvey/Loewy. Beverley, Mass.: Rockport, 2008.

‘African Genesis; A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man’ R. Ardrey / Dell Publishing, 1967

‘Ball im Kopf : Kult ums Kicken’ Contribution by Volker Albus; edited by Nils Jockel, Jens Oestreicher.

‘Boots, balls and haircuts : an illustrated history of football from then to now’Hunter Davies. London: Cassell Illustrated, 2004.

‘Colours of vanishing tribes’Photos and text by Bonnie Young; foreword and colour quotes by Donna Karan. London: Booth-Clibborn, c1998.

‘Critique of the Power of Judgement’Immanuel Kant, Paul Guyer, Frederick Rauscher, Curtis Bowman / The Cambridge Edition of the works of Immanuel Kant, August 2010)

‘Don McCullin in Africa’Don McCullin. Published: London, Jonathan Cape, 2005.

‘Extraordinary world of the football fan’ Jeremy Sice, Tim Rich and Rick Glanvill. London: Virgin, 2000.

‘FC football graphics’ Jeremy Leslie and Patrick Burgoyne. London: Thames & Hudson, c1998.

‘Football 365 days’ Christian Eichler, 1959. New York : Harry N. Abrams, 2006.

‘Football Lexicon’ Leigh & Woodhouse / Faber & Faber, 2006)

‘Great male dancers of the ballet’Walter Terry. Published: London, Hale, 1979.

‘Guinness book of football’Managing editor Max Benato; introduction by Andy Gray. London: Guinness Publishing, [1998?]

‘In soccer wonderland’Germain, Julian. London: Booth-Clibborn Edns., 1994.

‘Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right’ Karl Marx / Deutsch-Französiche Jahrbücher, February 1844

‘New typographic design’Compiled and edited by Roger Fawcett-Tang, introduction and essays by David Jury. London: Laurence King, 2007.

‘New ornamental type: Decorative lettering in the digital age’Steven Heller, Gail Anderson. Author: Heller, Steven. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010.

‘Offside!: contemporary artists and football’Catalogue edited by Tim Wilcox. Manchester City Art Galleries, London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1996.

‘Our world now’Reuters. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.

‘Photographing sport’By John Zimmerman, Mark Kauffman and Neil Leifer; text by Sean Callahan and Gerald Astor with the editors of Alskog, Inc. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975.

‘Play loud!’Ed. by Robert Klanten, Hendrik Hellige, MASA. Berlin: Gestalten Verlag., 2006.

‘Posts’ Gabie, Neville. London: Penguin, 1999

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WE ARE FOOTBALL REPORT / BIBLIOGRAPHY / 93

‘Shot!: A photographic record of football in the seventies’ Foreword by Eamonn McCabe; Compiled by Doug Cheeseman, Mike Alway and Andy Lyons. London: Witherby, 1994.

‘The Economics of the Experiences, the Arts and Entertainment’ Ake E. Andersson and David E. Andersson / books.google.com

‘The Football book. The Leagues, the Teams, the Tactics, the Laws’David Goldblatt, Johnny Acton. Edited by Conor Kilgallon. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2010.

‘The soccer tribe’ Desmond Morris. Published: London, Cape, 1981.

‘This is soccer: images of World Cup USA ‘94’ Compiled and edited by Doug Cheeseman; princi-pal photographers Peter Robinson; foreword by Patrick Barclay. London: Gollancz, 1994.

‘We are right : 2006 FIFA World Cup. A profile of England’s candidacy’ Gabie, Neville. London: Penguin, 1999

ONLINE REFERENCES

www.11freunde.dewww.11v11.comwww.adidas.com/com/football/www.adsoftheworld.comwww.anthonyburrill.com/www.ddb.com/spainwww.dommuseum.atengishfootball.tribe.netwww.footballeconomy.comwww.footballstatisticsresults.co.ukwww.gregorybonnerhale.com

www.holster.co.uk/work/england-unitedwww.johnsonbanks.co.uk/www.marca.eswww.nickbelldesign.co.uken.us.nielsen.comwww.nike.com/nikefootball/www.nikestadiums.comwww.pentagram.com/en/new/2010/07/new-work-fifa-world-cup-us-bid.phpwww.philosophyfootball.comwww.studio8design.co.uk/www.tribalfootball.com www.umbro.comun.titled.co.ukvitalstatistics.infowww.wien.gv.at/rk

* Football clubs’ web sites in general (Premier, Spanish, German and Italian leagues).

VIDEOS: YOU TUBE & OTHERS

‘Nike:Take It To The Next Level - Directors Cut’by Guy Ritchie for Nike Football.

‘Fingerskilz’ by MRM Worldwide UK Agency, for HP.

‘Monty Python Football’

‘Pepsi MAX Stars Max their Wild Side’

‘Adidas Chelsea-Blue Day Out’by TBWA London.

‘Nike Football. Write The Future’By Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam

‘Nike Mercurial’on www.vimeo.com/10964751. By Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam & Paranoid US Production....

IMAGE LEGEND

p 22 / Google Images

p 23 / Our World Now, Reuters. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008.

p 30 / ‘Colours of vanishing tribes’Photos and text by Bonnie Young; foreword and colour quotes by Donna Karan. London: Booth-Clibborn, c1998.

p 31 / ‘Shot!: A photographic record of football in the seventies’ Foreword by Eamonn McCabe; Compiled by Doug Cheeseman, Mike Alway and Andy Lyons-London: Witherby, 1994.

p 32,33 / ‘Colours of vanishing tribes’Photos and text by Bonnie Young; foreword and colour quotes by Donna Karan. London: Booth-Clibborn, c1998.

p 39 / from left to right, top to bottom:

p 40 / from left to right, top to bottom:

p 44 / ‘Football 365 days’ Christian Eichler, 1959. New York : Harry N. Abrams, 2006.

p 95 / London, 11th of JulyMy best experience as a fan, when Spain became World Champion in 2010. Spain 1 : Netherlands 0.

· Adidas campaign for Ajax home shirt 2008-09· Football wallpaper by n.design studio· Nike / F.C. Inter de Milan campaign (2008-09)· Wallpaper for Manchester United F.C. by footballwallpapers.com· Adidas’ Champions League ball (2009-2010)· Nike campaign for German team Bayern Münich and it’s top player Frank Ribéry (2007)· Nike campaign for F.C.Barcelona, by Villar Rosas (2009)· “F50+” Adidas campaign (Salomon AG, 2004)· “+10” Adidas campaign (in Cologne’s Central Train Station) in celebration of the Football World Cup 2010. Idea by TBWA Agency and Fresco painted by Felix Reidenbach.

· Nike ad with England’s star Wayne Rooney (2006)· Nike Football by Alex Trochut and Non Format

we are football

Documents

football audiences

football captures

football fan

football report preface

football report introduction

research conclusions

research questionwhy

initial research question