adidas × FIFA World Cup 26
Gift card, EU

adidas wanted a Fifa World Cup 26 gift card for the European market that a shopper would still pick up in week three. A card tied to one nation dies the moment that nation goes out, so this one had to be generic, colour neutral, or drawn from several federations at once rather than any single one.

The guidance was unusually tight: no copy anywhere on the card, nothing but the 3-Bars or the adidas and FIFA World Cup lockup, and keep it simple. Two deliverables, one digital and one retail. With no typography available, everything the card has to say has to be carried by colour, texture and a single object.

Round one split the problem in two and tested both halves properly. Six cards were built on campaign photography, pitch grass, empty stadium seating, a flag caught mid-motion. Six were built on flat colour and texture instead, from federation reds and greens to a championship gold and brand black. Three directions survived: golden ticket, classic brand black, and the iconic stripes borrowed from fan product. Gold was chosen, with one addition, bring in the Trionda match ball. The first pass composited the balls as flat layers and it read as a layout, because a pasted shadow never sits on the surface. So the scene was rebuilt in 3D: balls modelled, lit and rendered, shadows falling out of real geometry. A depth-of-field pass was tried and dropped, since the blur pulled attention off the lockup.