In a content-saturated world, how do you tickle the imagination?
( 3 min read )
︎
Sports Direct x Nike
The Monster Kickabout
↯
The Monster Kickabout
↯
There once was a
monster
who had
fi
ve legs
and
three
heads
, all bunched together in the
middle
. Not two, not three, but
five legs
. You see,
fi
ve’s a
winner
if you want to roll
around
town like a purple, limb-
powered
windmill. Now his eyes, his eyes were
keen
as can be.
Better
to see the kids, you see.
Because
this agreeable beast liked
nothing
more than
rolling
around town with others,
getting
his kicks from the
ball
he was born with.
But woe upon the monster who was conceived during the long months of lockdown. The streets were empty. Goats roamed the highstreets like clippity cloppity kings. Football pitches were as barren as green deserts. He was all dressed up in brand new kit, but nowhere to go, and no one to play with. Alas, all the town’s kids were indoors, playing behind screens. Patience oh odd one, your time will come yet.
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At the end of a tough year of lockdowns, with month after month of everyone being cooped up indoors, Sports Direct and Nike had joined forces to create a platform to unite all the schools in the UK to get outside and enjoy football again. Conceived as the biggest kickabout in the nation –
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It’s a bliss-filled soft spot of ours – the place where creativity combines with sport combines with impact combines with community, particularly when combined with an invitation to irreverent playfulness. So, barely had the starting whistle sounded, we didn’t see
At the end of a tough year of lockdowns, with month after month of everyone being cooped up indoors, Sports Direct and Nike had joined forces to create a platform to unite all the schools in the UK to get outside and enjoy football again. Conceived as the biggest kickabout in the nation –
a
Monster Kickabout
– the doors to a brief for creating the visual identity were thrown wide open.
It’s a bliss-filled soft spot of ours – the place where creativity combines with sport combines with impact combines with community, particularly when combined with an invitation to irreverent playfulness. So, barely had the starting whistle sounded, we didn’t see
Man like Wai
andThe Real Camille
for dust. They were off in a purple cloud of limbs and trackpads, kicking about ideas.
Rather than opting for the deluge of the usual tropes kids are exposed to – in this case traditional football ‘icons’ – their vision was to offer up something unexpected and a tad surreal. In the spirit of storytelling and imagination, you could consider the identity as a breadcrumb trail, using cues from the worlds that kids were comfortable with out into new terrain: hints from the world of gaming, within a free-spirited illustrative style, back into the real world of football pitches. A satisfying design full circle, if we may say so ourselves.
We’re not usually ones for tooting our own trumpets but, hey, maybe just this once 📣 📣 📣 We could not have been more chuffed with the results. Everyone loved it. Our clients gave us an A+ too.
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In the end 3000 schools signed up. And over a million kids (not the goat kind, the human kind) were helped to get back into exercise. Result! And even the kingiest king of all, Eric Cantona, joined in leading the rallying call to action. Score!
In the end 3000 schools signed up. And over a million kids (not the goat kind, the human kind) were helped to get back into exercise. Result! And even the kingiest king of all, Eric Cantona, joined in leading the rallying call to action. Score!
