Helping FIFA craft the brand strategy and visual identity for the first-ever 48-team World Cup across Canada, Mexico, and the United States - uniting three nations and 16 host cities under one inclusive vision.

What I did:

Cultural Research / Brand Strategy / Brand Platform / Host City Narrative

The Challenge

The 2026 FIFA World Cup would be unlike any before it - the first tournament featuring 48 teams, the first spanning three countries, and the first engaging 16 diverse host cities from Vancouver to Miami, Toronto to Mexico City. FIFA needed a brand strategy that could honor each city's unique culture while creating a unified movement powerful enough to unite an entire continent.

The Strategy

Through cultural research and collaborative workshops with FIFA and all 16 host city leaders, we developed We Are 26 - not as a finished brand identity, but as an open canvas. A brand designed as an invitation for host cities, communities, and the world to project their own stories onto the biggest stage in sports.

Rather than imposing a rigid visual system, we created a flexible brand platform that empowers each city to express its unique identity. The iconic FIFA World Cup Trophy anchors the center, while everything around it becomes a space for local culture, color, and creativity to flourish.

We developed 16 bespoke city brand identities, each one a collaboration with local artists and communities. The official Host City Posters exemplify this strategy - commissioned from artists in each city, they translate the We Are 26 framework through distinctly local artistic voices, from the vibrant muralism of Mexico City to the bold street art energy of Miami.

The brand doesn't speak for people - it invites them to speak for themselves. Every face featured in the campaign, every city poster, every community activation reinforces the same message: this is your World Cup, and we are all building it together.

The result: a brand that functions as a movement - where diversity isn't just celebrated in marketing language, but built into the very structure of how the tournament presents itself to the world.