Meet the designer behind NYC’s charming World Cup campaign
How do you build excitement among 8.5 million New Yorkers (and 1.2 million tourists) for the World Cup? You start with deep research on the city’s beloved colors and symbols and then turn that into something like the joyful, nostalgic, and vividly hued bus shelter posters, subway signs, souvenir cups, and jerseys the 34-year-old creative director Arsh Raziuddin designed for the citywide tourism campaign that the Mayor’s Office launched this week. “There’s an energy that we wanted to capture and I think it’s matching New York as of right now in a way that feels really nice,” she says. [Image: courtesy NYC Office of the Mayor] Since running for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani has become a design icon for breaking the rules of political aesthetics, from his campaign poster and branding inspired by Bollywood posters and MetroCards to his charming and affable videos. Now that he’s in office, he’s applying his refreshing approach to visual communication on an even grander scale. The World Cup campaign is his biggest yet. What’s notable about the strategy is how it applies all the feel-good parts of sports fandom to New York itself. While mega-events like the Olympics and the World Cup are touted as major economic drivers for host cities, the reality is usually more modest. Instead of benefiting FIFA or being in service of this summer’s tournament, the campaign—and the initiatives related to it, like free public watch parties, partnerships with family-owned restaurants, and public space improvements— advances the administration’s desire to make New York more inclusive and serves as a model for how other cities might conceive of mega-event branding. “The World Cup is one of those rare moments when a city gets to see itself differently,” Raziuddin says. “Millions of people will be looking at New York, but New Yorkers will also be looking at New York. It’s a chance to celebrate the city and the communities that make it what it is.” In April, the Mayor’s Office hi