Winning Formula
A newspaper that puts a possible day in the future of data and football in your hands.
Project Summary
A Newspaper from a possible future of sports! How did we get this? Well, we got into the Near Future Laboratory's new used, slightly wobbily time machine and went to a possible future of sports. Found ourselves at an Off Track Betting Parlor, in a back alley with a gruff bookie, watching degenerates pull their hair out yelling at the crooked dog race trainers, and pondering who has the better algorithmic assistant for prognosticating the outcomes of the World Cup — and we brought back a newspaper.
Winning Formula touches on more easily seen aspects of performance analytics, and new ways to depict and consume football in media. It also explores future possibilities hiding just below the surface, possible phenomena such as data manipulation as a kind of doping, the impacts of high-frequency sport betting, or politics related to data-based services like media, measurement and reporting.
Client: Manchester UK, National Football Museum
Client URL: https://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com/
Team: Near Future Laboratory, Changeist/Scott Smith
Project Year: 2014
Event On: Mar 1, 2014
Published On: Jan 21, 2024, 12:18
Updated On: Jul 3, 2024, 13:08
Written By: Julian Bleecker
Project Semantic Tags ARCHETYPEARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEDESIGN FICTIONFUTURE OF XNEWSPAPER
The Project
A Newspaper created for The Museum of Football in Manchester, UK to celebrate the museum's opening and to represent the way Big Data, Algorithms, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Betting might shape a possible future of sports.
The Outcomes
This project successfully represented the value of Design Fiction as a heuristic for imagining possibility. The newspaper itself is a grounded tapestry through which can be woven imagery of things other than they are, and things as they could possibly be given a set of questions and considerations: Big Data; Sports; Betting; Simulation may possibly look like 'this.'\n\nThe newspaper served a useful and creative purpose to support the opening of the Museum of Football. It provided an engaging and vivid depiction of a world in which sports, data, simulation, AI, and entertainment have followed a curious trajectory. The engagement helped bring notice to the museum opening, and reflected a forward-thinking perspective without being opinionated. Rather, the newspaper was an entertaining, thoughtful conversation starter.
The Question(s)
Question: How will the so-called beautiful game of global football be different in a world where sport itself, and the culture of the fans who love it, is altered by the rush of data, quantification, analytics and digital delivery?
Question: What might a high-stakes match of the near future be like when every move is measured, and every tactic forecast by silicon?
Question: What will the technologically savvy supporter and the lifelong fan alike experience differently when Big Data takes on the game?
The Brief
Consider these questions.
Now, travel into these futures.
Have a look around.
Find a newspaper.
Grab the sports section.
Now come back to the present.
Now, create the newspaper that will help us appreciate and see the implications of these trends and possibilities in sports.
The Process
We approached this project by exploring the emerging cultural and technological trends. Then we had ideation sessions and workshops while observing the kinds of stories that appear in a traditional sports newspaper. Subsequent to this we developed parallel stories — from reportage of events, personalities, scandals, matches and so on — that made an issue of the newspaper seem whole, and familiar.
We worked to create the vividness and character of a newspaper through visual design using excessive typography to make the newspaper “shout” with enthusiasm and love for sport. We created drama, intrigue and conflict — ‘Men vs. The Machine’ is the lead headline, and presented a journalistic view of the possibilities implied. We also included advertisements and other elements that help build the full range of this world’s culture and entertainment.
We pulled some assets for ads from previous projects, creating a curious larger world between projects and clients. Finally, the mechanical design and flatplan was performed in a typical 3 column newspaper layout, and the document was made print ready in time for the museum’s opening. We also managed to have Winning Formula included int he evening edition of the local Manchester newspaper.
Outcomes
The newspaper served a useful and creative purpose to suppor tthe opening of the Museum of Football
Excerpts
Big Data
High Frequency Betting
The Molecular Football™ Algorithm Automatically Produces Snapshots of Systems and Micro-Tactics
Data Manipulation is the new Form of Doping in the world of Big Data and Sports Simulation
24 pages printed in Tabloid format on standard newsprint paper.
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