SEA 2026
In 2022, Seattle was selected by FIFA as one of the host cities for the 2026 World Cup—a huge moment for the city and our club. I was tasked with creating the announcement graphic, something that felt worthy of that honor and captured the scale of hosting the biggest tournament in the world. The final piece was shared as a collaborative post between @SoundersFC and @SeattleFWC26, serving as the campaign’s first visual statement.
CLIENT
Seattle Sounders
ROLE
Senior Designer
YEAR
2022
TYPE
Promo Campaign
Strategic Approach
🎯 OBJECTIVE
The goal was to announce one of the biggest sports moments in Seattle’s history: being selected as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The main graphic needed to serve as the hero visual across all communications—capturing the spirit of Seattle, highlighting our venue, and feeling authentic to local fans while still inviting global football fans to celebrate with us. The creative also had to incorporate select elements from the official organizing committee’s brand guidelines to ensure consistency across the larger campaign.
⚡CHALLENGE
Timeline: We had only four days to develop the full visual package, and multiple departments needed assets simultaneously.
Budget constraints: We didn’t have additional budget to license trophy imagery, which would have strengthened the storytelling around the tournament’s arrival.
FIFA copyright restrictions: On launch morning, we received last-minute confirmation that we did not have clearance to use the FIFA Trophy. This required an immediate pivot—reworking the graphic within three hours and replacing the trophy with an equally impactful focal point rooted in Seattle’s culture and identity.
🚀 APPROACH
Started with research—studying iconic event posters, global announcement graphics, and major-moment visuals to establish the right tone and aesthetic.
Leaned into the Pacific Northwest: the landscape, skyline, atmosphere, and visual cues that immediately signal “Seattle” to both locals and global audiences.
Collaborated closely with the Creative Director and Director of Digital to refine early concepts, align on priorities, and ensure the final direction balanced brand alignment, city pride, and global appeal.
200K Impressions
•
85.4k Likes
•
50.8K Shares
•
200K Impressions • 85.4k Likes • 50.8K Shares •
Total numbers of impressions, likes and shares across the main social media platforms. X, Instagram, Facebook.
Impact, Insights & Contributors
📈 RESULTS
The announcement graphic became the most-liked and most-engaged post in the account’s history at the time of launch.
The visual system proved highly scalable, allowing me to quickly create additional assets for multiple departments with consistency and impact.
Internal feedback from leadership was extremely positive. Both the organization and the collaborating @SeattleFWC26 account felt the creative matched the magnitude and honor of the announcement.
💡 KEY LEARNINGS
Fans gravitated toward visuals that blended global football culture with Seattle-centric identity, showing that localized storytelling strengthens major-event announcements.
The collaboration between Sounders FC and the Seattle 2026 local organizing committee showed that shared visual language helps unify multiple stakeholders behind a single moment.
🤝 TEAM
Sara Molina // Creative Director
Abby English // Director of Social Media & Digital
FIFA World Cup 2022