FIFA World Cup 2026

2026FIFA2D/3D Motion Design

A World Cup identity has to work as both a moment of spectacle and a repeatable stadium system. For FIFA World Cup 2026, trophy imagery, match graphics and player line-ups needed to remain coherent across sixteen venues with very different LED installations. The creative and technical task was to preserve recognition while adapting to the physical screens and the tournament’s production pace.

My contribution: 2D/3D Motion Design, in collaboration with Velvet for FIFA.

An object framed by the identity

The 26 gives the trophy a recognisable tournament frame. Coloured contours can carry atmosphere in close views and resolve into a clear identity around the full silhouette. That relationship makes the object and the tournament mark useful at different scales, from a detailed reveal to a composition read across a stadium.

Netherlands–Japan — a match-content example

National colours give a fixture immediate recognition within the shared tournament world. In the Netherlands–Japan example, flags, team names and fabric-like surfaces distinguish the two sides while the trophy connects them. The composition gives both teams a presence without splitting the event into two unrelated visual identities.

A consistent frame for the line-ups

Line-ups need a reading order that survives changes in team and screen. Number, portrait and name occupy a consistent hierarchy; national colour supplies the variation. Keeping that structure stable makes the content easier to recognise as the players change and gives adaptation to different stadium surfaces a common foundation.

Different stadiums, one delivery system

The venue range makes a single universal screen composition impractical. AT&T Stadium in Dallas centres its display environment on a vast suspended videoboard. SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles has the dual-sided, ring-shaped Infinity Screen; Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca adds a different venue and screen configuration again. A focal image that works on a central board needs a different distribution of space and information from graphics running around a long LED surface.

The team created a technically complex adaptation setup that could serve these different stadium configurations from a small family of video formats. The system handled the relationship between source compositions and venue-specific playback, allowing one tournament identity to work across each installation’s particular layout. The creative task was therefore to build assets whose focal points, text and motion could remain clear through those adaptations.

Review the content where it will be seen

For both the World Cup and Club World Cup, the team built an Unreal Engine system to place the actual media assets into 3D versions of the corresponding stadiums. Content could be reviewed in real time in its intended screen environment and approved by FIFA there. This made the physical setting part of the approval process: the relationship between a main board, surrounding ribbons and the spectator’s view could be judged together.

The stadium preview below shows that review environment. The Dallas recording adds an on-site view of the graphics at stadium scale; it contains different line-up content and is not a frame-matched comparison.

Ready for the next round

After the group stage, the production had to respond to confirmed knockout fixtures on a roughly two-day turnaround. Match-specific media needed to be generated, checked and ready just in time for the next games. A small family of adaptable formats and stadium-based review connected the visual system to that deadline: each new fixture could carry the tournament identity while meeting the requirements of its venue.

The tournament at a glance

• 6.81 million cumulative stadium attendances across 104 matches.
• 16 stadiums · 3 host countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.
• 48 teams · 39 days of competition.
• More than 9 million visits to FIFA Fan Festivals across the three host countries.
• 20 billion video views across FIFA’s platforms by the end of the round of 16, reported on 8 July 2026.
• 10,000 video distribution endpoints delivering live content across venues, reported on 8 July 2026.

These are tournament-wide figures. Stadium attendance and video views are cumulative, and distribution endpoints are not a count of stadium LED screens. They describe the scale of the event rather than the reach of individual creative assets.

Social media

• Instagram · Reel 01
• Instagram · Reel 02
• FIFA on Instagram · Post 01
• FIFA on Instagram · Post 02, image 13

Credits

Client

FIFA

2D/3D Motion Design

Matthias Lein

Agency

Velvet Mediendesign