World Cup Graphics

After I was forced to listen to the opening game of the World Cup via the internet in the office I naturally relied upon web based graphics and the stream of instant text updates.  Honestly I was impressed at how good some of the graphics were, giving real-time updates as an instantaneous snapshot of the game.

Naturally my first stop for the live text streaming was the BBC Sport site, lovely stuff (sadly I missed getting a screen grab of the opener but here are this evenings, you get the idea).

The graphics are so good in fact you don’t even need words.  I can immediately see all the crucial data giving a continuously updated image of the game.  Brilliant.  Sadly these graphics are only available when ITV are showing the game, when BBC have the game the graphics give way to a live stream of the actual match.  Not complaining, that’s just not the point of this post is all.

I have since found that excellent World Cup graphics don’t stop on the screen either, The Guardian offered a sterling “unofficial mtachday programme” for England v USA.  In fact the whole layout of this programme impressed me.

Please excuse the low-res Blackberry camera photos.

The Guardian also offers its own web based graphics in an interactive map here.  Focussing on how the countries actually got to the finals it shows what is essentially a lot of information both simply and remarkably effectively.

And then there is this.  Everything you wanted to know about the World Cup stadiums in one place, seriously.

View it large here, it’s really quite impressive.

Other notable graphics include this (pointed out by Full Beard) and this interactive, trophy tracking piece from Coca Cola.

All that and more than three weeks of world class football still to come.

The Creativity Of Nike

Nike, the choice of hi-top trainer for Jordan, the net-bulging boot of Rooney, and the sponsor of the thigh-busting road cyclist Lance Armstrong.  All great names, and undoubtedly outstanding sporting performance. But so do many other great brands, the likes of Adidas with Lionel Messi and Lewis Hamilton for Reebok are just a couple that spring to mind.  When it comes to being creative though Nike have stepped up their game even more, and are truly in a class of their own.

As I’m sure we all do, I add daily reams of online material to my ‘favourites’. I do my best to keep it orderly and categorised, and recently I noticed that Nike almost deserved a sub-category of their own, their flair for design and advertising creativity seems to consistently be pushing boundaries that no one else at all is considering, let alone other sporting brands.

This turned up a few weeks ago (April 1st to be exact) and was Nike’s spoof video for April Fool’s Day. The concept is great, and the execution even better. Yes it helps to have a team of international superstars at your disposal, but they’ve earned that.  I even love the “grunt removal system”!

Most recently I came across this. Very different, but the final product is what we’ve come to expect, polished, fantastic, and even makes you smile a little bit. The rather unique style comes from Sticky Monster Lab, who Nike collaborated with for this.

This recent effort with Wieden+Kennedy to promote Nike Free Run is also a touch of musical genius.

Even their installs look great, this is merely a typical store,

but pixaramic installs like this really turn heads. The Wilson Brothers manually positioned 6,000 acrylic pixel cubes, each with a different coloured face in red, green, yellow, blue, black and white.

To finish, a look at what Nike are offering in the very near future. Due to be first aired during the Champions League Final later this week, this is a sneak preview at their ad for the World Cup showing how a footballer’s successful world can come crumbling down with just one move.

For a bit of nostalgia who remembers Nike’s previous World Cup ads from 1998 and 2002.  Brilliant.  They continue to produce amazing works, and I for one am looking forward to them all.