With two million users, Kickbase is the biggest fantasy football manager in Germany. Kickbase realized that the world of football has changed over recent years and that the audience now enjoys talking about numbers and stats, expected goals and defensive coverage, as much as they love the experience of the game with all of its real emotions. Answering the needs of a new era of football fans Studio zur Strassen, together with designer Mark O’Neill, was presented with an opportunity to rethink how football should look and behave.

The new identity is built around distilling the essence of football and understanding what makes the game so captivating. Two essential layers in football combine like no other sport in the world. To win the game you need tactics, metrics, and the predictable. Conversely, you need the creativity, the raw emotion, the unpredictable.

The dotted grid underpins every part of the visual identity. It acts as a database of what happens on the pitch and shows the plays and the movements happening on the field. This layer is data-driven and analytical. Underlined by the constructed typeface KB Volksans from Radmir Volk. The rest of the identity is layered on top and is thereby heavily influenced by what happens on the pitch. Both the images and the variable typeface KB Pitch – designed with Nolan Paparelli – stand in contrast to the information-based layouts and represent the emotional, wild, and often chaotic side of football.

Yannick zur Strassen: Strategy, design & creative direction
Mark O’Neill: Design
Paris Seawell: Animation
James Richardson: Copywriting
Nolan Paparelli: Type design (KB Pitch)
Radmir Volk: Type design (KB Volksans)