Studio Blackburn

Why We Wall Chart

Blog — Keeping Score

21.09.21

Paul Blackburn and Nirvana Creative Production House have been collaborating on a design-led wallchart for every World Cup and European Championship since the Japan and South Korea tournament in 2002.

The original idea for the range of wallcharts came to Paul when on a print run in Rotterdam during the 1998 World Cup. He noticed how much better the design of the Dutch tournament wallcharts seemed than the ones delivered by British media, so he decided to design his own, “I wanted to offer fans, and by definition myself, an alternative to the garish and unattractive wallcharts traditionally produced”.

UEFA Euro 2020

UEFA Euro 2020 — our biggest wallchart yet. The full tournament is printed on one side of an A2 poster using white ink. We scaled up the full tournament design from the front of the poster to fit across 32 posters (8 x A0) and printed this with black ink on the back. The nature of the Transclear paper allows you to see the design on the back from the front, with each poster becoming its own unique piece of typographic display. Each can be used as a standalone or joined together to create one massive wallchart.

The large black text on the back of the poster that makes up the big poster was printed digitally with a black ink. For the detailed white text on the front we actually used an Arizona flatbed printer with each wallchart taking 13 minutes to print.

2018 FIFA World Cup

Inspired by the early 20th century Suprematist art movement of Russia, this wallchart depicts a deconstructed football pitch complete with bold Russian typography. The design recalls the classic graphic design and styling of Soviet-era football teams, with a nod to the World Cup’s Lev Yashin inspired poster.

UEFA Euro 2016

The UEFA Euro 2016 wallchart referenced Panini stickers and collecting. We wanted to be mindful of the different relationships that people would have with their charts — some might choose to leave theirs blank, others might like to use it as a means of predicting results. For those using theirs in a more traditional way, the progression of the tournament turns the chart to a sea of colour, as matches are played and more stickers applied.

2014 FIFA World Cup

This series of wallcharts celebrated all of the players who have worn the iconic number ten shirt at previous World Cup Finals for Brazil, Argentina and England.

UEFA Euro 2012

UEFA Euro 2012, was slightly over-shadowed by the 2012 Olympics, so was designed with subtle typography to provide an understated feel. Produced with gloss black foil, silver foil and blind de-bossing onto Robert Horne’s Taffeta & Chromolux stock.

2010 FIFA World Cup

UEFA Euro 2008

2006 FIFA World Cup

UEFA Euro 2004

2002 FIFA World Cup