Categories: Design

Kicking up Memories

It’s World Cup time again, and if you can get past the bleating South African vuvuzela horns, it’s quite a spectacle to behold. Soccer’s World Cup has been held every four years since 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946, during, and just after, Word War II. Easily the world’s most widely viewed sporting event, the Cup boasted more than 26 billion viewers in 2006.
The modern tournament is a far cry from the 1930 Cup, held in Uruguay. These days, with HD-TV feeds and enormous LED boards that decorate the venues, we often to forget the Cup’s humble origins.
Early events were celebrated mainly with posters and billboards. The posters reflect the prevailing styles of the time, and of the host nation.
Here’s a gallery of posters from each Cup. In my opinion, the most attractive posters are the earliest ones, but you can judge for yourself. One thing we can all agree upon is how annoying those daggone horns are. Enjoy!

Jeff Russ

Jeff Russ is a content studio manager for SmartWork Media and was the senior art director of Signs of the Times from 1996-2021. A graphic designer and illustrator with an interest in sign design and sign history, Jeff documents important, interesting and notable design trends in the sign industry as a contributor to Signs of the Times. He has written dozens of features for Signs, and his column, Design Matters, was published for more than a decade.