Official mascot for the Russia 2018 World Cup™

 The mascot of a sports event is the guiding symbol, the instantly-recognisable ‘face’ of the brand and a unique marketing tool that reflects the defining characteristics and traditions of the host country.

A round-table workshop event was designed to develop key criteria for the design of the Official Mascot of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ in Moscow. Participants included representatives of FIFA, Russian brand experts, 3D designers and animators, art school representatives and design students.

The creative workshop format allowed us to gather experts from the fields of design, animation, art and design students together with industry professionals to develop a rigorous forensic analysis of the mascots of previous World Cups, and to lay out the core criteria for a winning mascot design that will successfully capture the attention of key target audiences.

Following the workshop, the public competition to design the official mascot created a strong sense of ownership and involvement in Russia, offering the opportunity for everybody to create a lasting symbol of the World Cup in 2018 that will go down in sporting history.