Arsh and the in-house team looked at historic World Cup graphics, 20th century World’s Fair posters from the city and vintage soccer ephemera. Arsh designed a ton of initial designs but “none of them felt like they were for New York” – so she looked more into how to subvert simple touristy imagery and represent the five boroughs of NYC: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. Arsh found out in her research that every borough actually has its own flag (which Arsh turned into individual stickers) and used those local aesthetics to make New Yorkers feel seen, all while developing a classic football-patterned giant apple to represent the largeness and presence of football in the city, but also to make it recognisable to children and adults alike. They called it the “Bapple”. “I wanted it to feel like old sports memorabilia, city signage and the mayor’s collection all at once,” says Arsh.
More on using New York imagery as a visual palette, the designs are rooted in the Transportation Office’s colours, in particular the subway green, taxi yellow, coffee cup blue, ferry orange, and thank you red. “Yes, it’s soccer, yes, it’s the World Cup, but we are talking about New York City,” explains Arsh. The decision to include so much of NYC’s infrastructure in the design came from strong creative direction from Mayor Mamdani, who could look at designs and immediately spitball ideas and offer advice – after all, he does know the city arguably better than anyone. “What we created feels like the mayor’s version of the World Cup and there’s this vintage feeling to it, but it still feels fresh,” she adds.