# Umbro — World Cup Graphics

**Year:** 2010
**Role:** Designer
**Client:** Umbro
**Tags:** stories-and-dataviz
**Case study:** /work/umbro-world-cup

Umbro commissioned me to come up with infographics to feature in their coverage of
the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I designed a visual language for match recaps — timelines
to pair with written game analysis as the tournament unfolded.

The final post — a single bird's-eye view of all 64 matches — was the most
trafficked post on Umbro's digital channels. In response, Umbro released posters of
the graphic.

### Recognition

> "The best visualization of the World Cup."
> — [Fast Company](https://www.fastcompany.com/1661843/infographic-of-the-day-the-best-visualization-of-the-world-cup-matches)

- Published in *Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process* by Andy Kirk.
- Published in *Data Visualization: Convey, Clarify, Construct* — Do/Work Publishing.

Each per-match timeline had to work on its own and as one tile in the all-64
composition — a composition that didn't exist until the bracket completed.

In 2010 I didn't code. The match data came as XML with no straight path to a
finished graphic with a bespoke look. So I stitched together a scrappy pipeline —
XML into a spreadsheet, the spreadsheet's default chart output coerced into a
starting frame, then a streamlined workflow in Illustrator — to get all 64 match
graphics out on the tournament's clock. That bottleneck is trivial now, but in 2010
it was the project.

## How to read these timelines

![A ~90-minute timeline represents a football match](/work/umbro-world-cup/onboarding-1.svg)
![Yellow lines in the timeline indicate passes](/work/umbro-world-cup/onboarding-2.svg)
![Blue triangles indicate shots on goal](/work/umbro-world-cup/onboarding-3.svg)
![Red circles above blue triangles indicate a successful goal](/work/umbro-world-cup/onboarding-4.svg)

## Infamous goals from the tournament

![Timeline for Portugal vs. North Korea — a 7-0 shutout](/work/umbro-world-cup/infamous-por-nrk.svg)
Portugal hammers North Korea with a 7-0 shutout.

![Timeline for Spain vs. Switzerland — Switzerland's lone goal wins](/work/umbro-world-cup/infamous-esp-sui.svg)
While Spain dominates Switzerland all match, the Swiss slip one in for the win.

![Timeline for Argentina vs. Nigeria](/work/umbro-world-cup/infamous-arg-nga.svg)
Argentina comes out swinging, but goes unanswered.

![Timeline for Algeria vs. USA — USA scores at the death](/work/umbro-world-cup/infamous-alg-usa.svg)
After 90 balanced minutes, USA scores with seconds left.

## Every pass, shot, and goal of the World Cup

![Timelines for the six matches in Group A](/work/umbro-world-cup/group-a.svg)
![Timelines for the six matches in Group B](/work/umbro-world-cup/group-b.svg)
![Timelines for the six matches in Group C](/work/umbro-world-cup/group-c.svg)
![Timelines for the six matches in Group D](/work/umbro-world-cup/group-d.svg)
![Timelines for the six matches in Group E](/work/umbro-world-cup/group-e.svg)
![Timelines for the six matches in Group F](/work/umbro-world-cup/group-f.svg)
![Timelines for the six matches in Group G](/work/umbro-world-cup/group-g.svg)
![Timelines for the six matches in Group H](/work/umbro-world-cup/group-h.svg)
![Timelines for the eight matches in the Round of 16](/work/umbro-world-cup/round-of-16.svg)
![Timelines for the four quarter-final matches](/work/umbro-world-cup/quarter-finals.svg)
![Timelines for the two semi-final matches](/work/umbro-world-cup/semi-finals.svg)
![Timeline for the third-place match](/work/umbro-world-cup/third-place.svg)
![Timeline for the final match](/work/umbro-world-cup/final.svg)

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