Initial ideas and concept development
I kicked off with some moodboards pulling together the visual language of previous World Cups and the bold graphic energy of the official 2026 poster series. The tone we’re chasing sits somewhere between archive documentary and street culture something very raw nostalgic but with enough edge to feel like something massive. From there I moved into audience thinking building out user personas to understand who’s actually searching for these shirts and why. Our personas range from the passionate collector to the casual fan riding the World Cup wave but also social media trends each with different intent and different platform different moments of discovery. The site work came next I started to map out potential wireframes and low fealty prototypes that go along with the our site map that the team came up with.Once I hade a strong idea of the layout I mapped out a World Cup 2026 menu within the existing Classic Football Shirts navigation/homepage organised making it easier for fans to land and explore the World Cup products faster.
Tone – Heritage meets fashion and nostalgic.
Imagery – illustrated, layered, vibrant alongside traditional close up photography shots.
Font – Clean oversized bold.
Platforms – Instagram Pintrest and Tiktok.
(Evidence of art direction decisions From Initial Posters and social media mock ups on Figmaboard)
FIGMA BOARD WITH ALL OF THE INITIAL IDEAS
But here’s where our thinking shifted digging deeper into Classic Football Shirts we realised the brand already has a massive social following and that’s exactly the problem. For a brand sitting on that kind of audience the existing social content wasn’t doing enough. It lacked real connection with the fans who follow them. Engagement felt surface level almost like the community was there, but it wasn’t being activated that realisation became our turning point rather than spreading the campaign thin across every channel we made a deliberate decision to go all in on social developing content that actually earns attention rather than just filling a feed. Instagram Pinterest and TikTok moments built around player culture all rooted in the nostalgia and passion that already lives in that fanbase.
The Big Idea
Our big idea started with a simple but powerful insight the 2026 World Cup is hosted across North America, meaning UK fans will be watching highlights the morning after not live. That’s not a problem, that’s an opportunity. We identified that highlights are the dominant way UK fans follow tournaments. YouGov data confirmed it millions intend to catch up via social rather than watch live. So instead of fighting for attention during games Classic Football Shirts becomes the home of the morning after moment.
The concept has two connected ideas.
First, a highlights-led content hub — built as both a social presence and a potential app giving fans World Cup updates match recaps player stats and breaking news all wrapped in Classic Football Shirts branding. Results drive shirt trends so the content and the commerce are directly linked.
Second, challenge campaign #WhoGotTheKit. Fans wear their most iconic vintage shirt, post their crew on TikTok and win a free one. The call to action is simple: Wear It. Post It. Win It. The mockups show this living natively across TikTok and Instagram scroll stopping and completely on brand.
When we presented this direction to the client, Ash and Alec, the response was clear and direct -keep going, this is exactly what the industry wants. They responded strongly to the social mockups validating that the platform-native approach and the emotional tone were hitting the right note. That praise wasn’t just encouraging, it was directional. It told us we hadn’t just made something that looked good we’d made something that actually understood the audience.
Review of the Big Idea
I began with low fidelity wireframes across both desktop and mobile starting with the basic layout blocks to figure out structure before style. Navigation, image placement, product listings, dropdown menus all roughed out without any visual polish so I could focus purely on how the experience would flow. I built these across multiple screen states, mapping out how a user would move from homepage through to product.
L5_session_23_03_26 Going through this presentation gave me a real insight it forced me to step back from the aesthetics and actually think about the design, what it needs to do before how it looks.
From there I started to look into the highlight app concept the three early prototype screens were built in Figma were I started to tink about possible content to include in it updates, player stats, and match recaps. These were deliberately bare grey blocks, no colour just enough to test whether the layout logic worked before committing to anything visual.
L5_session_23_03_26 Same for this session this is when I came up with the idea of designing the app.
Alongside this, I developed platform specific frameworks for TikTok and Instagram. Rather than adapting one design to fit both I started from blank platform templates. TikTok For You frame and an Instagram feed frame and built content concepts directly within those constraints. This kept the design decisions native to each platform from the start.
Reference
Image Reference
Moodboards – Pintrest (2026) – https://uk.pinterest.com [Accessed 01/05/26]
Menu Adjustments (Final outcome) – Classic Football Shirts (2026) – https://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk [Accessed 01/05/26]
Phone Frame for Mockups – Figma (2026) – https://www.figma.com/files/team/1474787993624976885/recents-and-sharing?fuid=1474787989365674573 [Accessed 01/05/26]
Actually Usage Visual Mockups Content Images – Pinterest (2026) – https://uk.pinterest.com [Accessed 01/05/26]
Giveaway Posts Mockups Shirt -Nike England World Cup 2026 Kits (2026) https://www.englandstore.com/en/england-national-team-football-kits/t-36946060+d-9005329493+z-91-3556219275?_s=gppc&utm_campaign=Soccer+INTL+-+2026+Kit+-+England+FA+-+UK+-+EN%7C23680698391&utm_medium=ppc&ks_id=7083_kw39899968&utm_term=england%202026%20world%20cup%20shirt&matchtype=p&utm_source=g&target=kwd-2459795541250&pcrid=801259909102&adposition=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23680698391&gbraid=0AAAAAD3455_NgqorOVojPNFJv5lcmiyhm&gclid=Cj0KCQjwh-HPBhCIARIsAC0p3cdgx9hm722NtzwSsAAAKUuBf0DilRDg-929hfrLCGTCArJo3PGvq34aArNFEALw_wcB [Accessed 01/05/26]
Giveaway Posts Mockups Marcus Rashford – https://www.instagram.com/p/DWILQCViU5H/?img_index=2 [Accessed 01/05/26]