Color

Soccer is a sport rich in expression, manifesting in various forms from the sleek moves on the pitch to the vibrant team chants and fan-made banners. However, the most striking form of expression in soccer is arguably the team colours. To truly tell the story of the game, it's necessary to not only include these colours but to let them drive the narrative. They do more than just “add decoration”; they are integral in telling the game's story.Before getting to the team colours, let’s start off with the colours used in the stadium view (rings).

The borders defining each ring were useful in indicating the zones for each event, but this approach had a drawback. Often, it was challenging to discern whether two events were in separate zones, as they appeared to be in the same one. To accurately identify the zone, one had to consistently count the rings from the center. Therefore, coloring the rings became crucial for straightforward and clear differentiation.

Side note: Important to remember that colour is being used for communication not style. A scenario like the one below does not work because the colours combination makes it impossible to see the goals scored by the brown team.

Moving on to the teams, it was essential to stay as close as possible to the colours used by the teams in real life. This ensured that we don’t break the mental associations that people already have of teams and their representative colours. It would be hard for someone to follow a Manchester United game if they saw their team being represented in blue.

This was a game of Brighton against Manchester United. By seeing this image, I bet you can tell which team is which and ultimately the one that won the game.Working on the colour part of the project was really fun. A number of modern apps shy away from using colour and we find that to be quite sad. Instead, we should be taking advantage of the rich colours that our displays can pump out. Ending this with an interesting exchange from a book titled: Palette Perfect

Qstn: Would we survive if colours were extinct?Ans: Yes, but it would be VERY boring. A little like quarantine: you would be alive, but something would be missing. It would be a much less happy life.