TEMPLATE – FRANCE98 – Press Release

Paris, 23 November 1997

The official FRANCE 98 poster

“The Official Poster and the competition’s winning team are the two things about FRANCE 98 which will live on in the collective memory” says Michel Platini, Co-President of the French Organising Committee for the 1998 World Cup.

Alongside the Mascot and the Logo, the Official Poster is the third linchpin in the 1998 World Cup visual identity programme.

As it was keen to include young people in the project, the French Organising Committee decided to assign Beaux Arts (Art school) students and local artists at the 10 host cities the job of dreaming up a poster.

In the Spring of 1997, according to a schedule of conditions set down by the French Organising Committee, the cities of Bordeaux, Lens, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Etienne and Toulouse launched the contest among Ecole de Dessin (design school) and Beaux-Arts students, as well as local artists and independent organisations.

On 31 October, a jury of 8 representing the French Organising Committee, the French Football Federation, the National Football League and FIFA’s marketing agency, selected the entry by Nathalie LE GALL, a Beaux-Arts student from the Montpellier region, as the winner. “The World Cup has to be a celebration! I wanted to portray it as an event that fizzes with excitement by using brilliant colours evoking France and the whole world,” says the young artist.

Aside from the Official FRANCE 98 Poster, the programme of official posters for the 16th Football World Cup also includes a series for each Host City. Each poster is also the work of a young artist from the city represented.