Lance Wyman is among America\u2019s greatest-ever graphic designers, and his fingerprints are all over any number of American cities.<\/p>\n
Wyman\u2019s style is instantly recognizable \u2013 simple, bold and clever. Wyman often works in wayfaring, and his signs and instructions to viewers often use simple, geometric shapes to get the job done, often incorporating a playfulness as well. His approach has made his work timeless. In 2011, when the government of the District of Columbia wanted their metro map updated, they went right back to Wyman, who had crafted the original design for the system about 40 years earlier.<\/p>\n
His most notable work, though, came early on in his career. In the late 60s, Wyman, along with a handful of others, was tasked with creating the visual identity for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Mexico City. It was a massive task, especially for a young designer only a half-decade removed from college.<\/p>\n
Determined to get the assignment right, Wyman moved to Mexico in the months leading up to his deadline and immersed himself in the country\u2019s culture. He dived into archives, visited archaeological sites and spoke to locals. Slowly, he started to pick up design cues \u2013 from the yarn paintings of the indigenous Huichol in western Mexico, to the Aztec stone carvings that have always helped define the country\u2019s visual identity.<\/p>\n
What Wyman helped produce is almost universally recognized as one of the greatest assemblages of sports design ever created. The logotype for the tournament alone \u2013 that hypnotic, concentric \u201cMEXICO 1968\u201d \u2013 blended the country\u2019s culture with the Op Art movement of the time. Wyman and his team created event posters, wayfaring signage and more and within years their designs dotted the landscape of the entire city.<\/p>\n
A collection of Lance Wyman\u2019s work for the 1968 Olympics. Photograph: Courtesy Lance Wyman<\/p>\n
In 1970, when the country hosted its first-ever World Cup, they went right back to Wyman\u2019s logotype, and Wyman himself created a handful of other designs for the tournament. It feels fair to say that the visual identity of that tournament may well be the most instantly-recognizable design work of any World Cup in history.<\/p>\n
I reached Wyman a couple of years ago, at his office in New York City. Then 86, his work had understandably slowed. The World Cup is returning to Mexico in 2026, and I was eager to gather his thoughts on some of the early designs associated with the tournament, particularly Fifa\u2019s official World Cup logo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did see it, yes,\u201d Wyman said back then. \u201cIt\u2019s not that effective. It\u2019s not really identifiable when it goes small, so that\u2019s certainly a problem. It certainly doesn\u2019t say \u2018soccer.\u2019 I remember the first time I saw the (European) Champions League logo, I thought that was pretty clever. This \u2026 I\u2019m just not so sure there\u2019s a lot you can do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 World Cup logo was revealed in 2023. Photograph: SOPA Images\/LightRocket\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The logo felt phoned-in back then, as it does now. It was crafted by Fifa\u2019s in-house design team and accompanied by the requisite explainer graphic and even a presentation by Fifa itself<\/a>, who espoused its valors: scalability and adaptability. It\u2019s less a logo and more of a logo system, they explained, allowing them to adapt the image to different devices and even alter it to suit different host cities in the tournament\u2019s host countries. It\u2019s the same thing Wyman did expertly in 68, just worse.<\/p>\n My view, of course, is purely subjective \u2013 as are most things related to art and design. But looking at the logo got me thinking more broadly about the direction of crests and design as a whole in American soccer.<\/p>\n More recently, the crest for Denver Summit FC<\/a> \u2013 the NWSL\u2019s latest expansion club, which will debut in 2026 \u2013 only intensified what I\u2019d already been thinking: why do these things all look the same in recent years? And despite that, why are some so inspiring, and some so \u2026 bland?<\/p>\n A collection of World Cup 1970 posters designed by Lance Wyman. Photograph: Courtesy Lance Wyman<\/p>\n In some ways, Vermont-based designer Matthew Wolff holds the keys to the design direction of American club soccer. His work spans the entirety of the men\u2019s and women\u2019s game, having handled some of MLS\u2019 most well-received crests, elegant designs for LAFC and NYCFC among them. In the NWSL, Wolff was most recently tapped to craft a new logo for the club now known as Boston Legacy (after that club rolled out maybe the most roundly criticized name and brand<\/a> in American soccer history.<\/p>\n His work dots the lower leagues as well, where several of his crests have felt like instant classics \u2013 Union Omaha, and even recent USL League 2 champions Vermont Green, a club Wolff helped co-found.<\/p>\n \u201cI was at the right place at the right time,\u201d said Wolff. \u201cI think about the trajectory of American soccer in parallel to where I was in my education and my early career. (Everybody) has known that American soccer was going to explode for years and years. So I think I somewhat intentionally positioned myself to be ready, willing and able to create football crests in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Wolff\u2019s works sometimes feels a little bit like Lyman\u2019s: uncluttered, bold, simple. Like Wyman did in \u201868, Wolff operates in a space where his work often ends up being representative of the community that commissioned it and he often incorporates elements of those places into his final design.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson<\/p>\n Jonathan Wilson brings expert analysis on the biggest stories from European soccer<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The NYC FC logo is designed to resemble an old Subway token. Photograph: Noam Galai\/Getty Images<\/p>\n That\u2019s easy enough to see in NYCFC\u2019s crest, which looks like an old subway token, or the crest that Wolff designed for the NWSL\u2019s Gotham FC, which prominently features the Statue of Liberty. Others feel a lot more esoteric, like the crest Wolff crafted for USL\u2019s One Knox FC. That one, which features a color palette inspired by a handful of Knoxville\u2019s local monuments, feels distinctly more generic, as does Denver\u2019s.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an aesthetic summed up on a podcast I heard recently. In it, the host was raving about Denver\u2019s new crest, saying it would feel right at home on the side of a reusable metal water bottle. To that person, that was a compliment. At times, though, that type of ubiquity can rob a design of its character.<\/p>\n Wolff himself acknowledges the reality of design work as a whole. His job is done for the client, to meet the needs of their brief, not necessarily his own tastes or preferences.<\/p>\n \u201cMy ideal vision is kind of irrelevant to these crests,\u201d says Wolff. \u201cI\u2019m trying to answer a brief, some parameters that have been set by a club or by me and the club together. There\u2019s obviously an infinite number of ways you can execute it, even in the tightest of briefs. If you told me \u2018OK, this crest needs to have a heraldic lion that\u2019s blue, and be in a circle and say Chelsea at the top and Football Club at the bottom and have some ornaments \u2026 there are still infinite ways I can design that. I don\u2019t really think about my own tastes in the crests as much as \u2018is this answering the brief.\u201d<\/p>\n Designers, in other words, are only part of the equation these days in terms of crafting a brand identity.<\/p>\n \u201c[The process] has been pulled away from graphic designers – specialists – and pulled into this nebulous room of other people who make design decisions by committee,\u201d said Ben Mahler, a former creative director at MLS<\/a> club DC United. \u201cMarketing directors, focus groups, analytics driven shit, it all ends up pushing things into safer territory. It\u2019s losing the artistic side and the wonkiness that comes from an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n One Knoxville and Vermont Green FC logos, both designed by Matthew Wolff. Photograph: One Knoxville & Vermont Green FC<\/p>\n Wolff, and any other designer in this space, is also subject to the mercy of the audience, so to speak. Bos Nation is far from the only club to have course corrected after an initial misstep \u2013 when the Chicago Fire rolled out an absolutely atrocious rebrand in 2019, their fans were enraged. The Fire turned to Wolff to solve that problem, and he did so with a much cleaner, easier-to look at design.<\/p>\n \u201cThese designs are meant to represent the fans and the club,\u201d said Wolff. \u201cAnd if the fans, or the community see this crest and they feel it doesn\u2019t represent them, then I think they\u2019re well within their rights to let the club know. These fans are the ones who the clubs are asking to buy a $100 kit. And sure, there are examples where people make comments (about a crest) that are a little ridiculous. But by and large, I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n Lance Wyman among some of his non-sports work. Photograph: Courtesy Lance Wyman<\/p>\n