Event Design · 2022
Varzesh3 — World Cup 2022
A full visual campaign for Varzesh3's coverage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar — social media content, posters, chart and data design, and motion graphics, all built to move fast across a month-long tournament while staying consistent with one identity.
Design Strategy
01 — The Problem
Varzesh3 had never covered a single event with one unified visual identity before. Graphics, posts, and charts for a tournament were chaotic and disconnected from any shared visual identity, with no visual language holding the coverage together.
02 — The Approach
For the World Cup, I designed a core concept — a color system, typography, and a set of visual elements built specifically for this event — so every piece of output stayed recognizably part of the same identity, no matter how fast it had to ship.
03 — Working Under Pressure
Speed was the real constraint. News, match summaries, and reactions happen in real time, so new graphics had to be ready in minutes, not hours. This was before AI tools existed for this kind of work — everything was made by hand, under pressure, with nothing but craft and a strong system to fall back on.
The Matchday Chart
A single chart mapping out which teams played each other and when. It ended up everywhere — downloaded and shared across social media all over Iran, and the company printed it out in a large size and placed it in the office so nobody on the team missed a match. It was built entirely in Illustrator, so it could scale up to poster size or down to a phone screen without losing any quality at all — click the chart to see it at full resolution.
Matchday Motion Graphics
Ahead of key matches, I designed motion graphics to introduce both squads — lineups, head-to-head results, and kickoff time — so fans had everything they needed before the whistle.
Player Posters
A series of standalone posters made to capture the tournament's standout moments — from Messi's 1,000th match to Ronaldo breaking a tournament record.
Marking Messi's 1,000th career match.
View on Varzesh3 InstagramFor Messi's incredible performance at the World Cup.
View on Varzesh3 InstagramFor Gonçalo Ramos, who scored the first hat-trick of the Qatar World Cup.
View on Varzesh3 InstagramFor Cristiano Ronaldo, who broke the record for most Man of the Match awards.
View on Varzesh3 InstagramFor Mbappé's incredible performance at the World Cup.
View on Varzesh3 InstagramFor the African teams, who showed a strong level at the tournament.
View on Varzesh3 InstagramThe Javad Khiabani Head-Shave
Javad Khiabani, one of Iran's most prominent football commentators, said on a TV broadcast that if Iran reached the World Cup knockout stage, he'd shave his hair and beard for the first time ever. Taking that idea, I made a photomontage imagining that moment — giving audiences a fun look at what might happen. It spread everywhere across Iranian social media and sparked a wave of memes.
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The France Photomontage
Long before AI image generation existed, this piece was built entirely by hand — blending photography of Mbappé, the France flag, and the well-known Ninja Turtles/Mbappé meme into a single believable composite. Every texture, shadow, and edge was matched and retouched manually in Photoshop, relying on nothing but classic compositing skill and Photoshop craft to sell the illusion.
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Reference photography used to build the composite
On Varzesh3's Instagram
A daily countdown series posted in the lead-up to the tournament — each post paired a football fact with the number of days left until kickoff, giving us a full run of posts all the way to the start of the tournament.
Countdown post
Countdown post
Countdown post
Live on Varzesh3's Instagram
Click the post to see it live on Varzesh3's official Instagram page — followed by more than 6 million people.
World Cup Facts Series
A set of graphics built around football facts, designed to prime Varzesh3's social media for the World Cup — quick, shareable content that injected a real World Cup atmosphere into the feed before a ball was even kicked.
Group Stage Draw
A four-slide design built to be viewed in sequence as one connected set, introducing the tournament's groups right after the draw. The design was prepared in advance and updated live during the draw itself, so it could go out on social media the moment the very last group was drawn.
Ready for Either Champion
Before the final, I designed a championship poster for both France and Argentina, so whichever team won, the post could go out immediately after the final whistle. Argentina ended up winning, and their poster was the one that got shared.
Published — Argentina, 2022 World Cup champions.
View on Varzesh3 InstagramUnpublished — the backup design made in case France won instead.