The 5 best World Cup posters

The World Cup poster is a piece of art that becomes engraved into the minds of soccer fans after they’re continuously exposed to them in commercials, billboards and websites leading up to and during the tournament.

Looking back on the history of World Cup posters gives soccer fans the opportunity to visualize the different forms of creativity host nations utilized to showcase their country and the world’s biggest spectacle.

There are different variations of posters for any given World Cup, with the 2014 World Cup poster blending much of the historic features together. From the basic poster, featuring the country's name, ball and year, to the more artistic interpretation of the beautiful game.

Here are the top five posters since 1930.

1. 1982 - Spain

Soccer balls are the dominant theme in the majority of posters, however, some countries went against tradition and featured some creative pieces of art, with only Spain’s 1982 poster, though strangely hypnotic, leaving observers wondering what it could be.

Although it might be hard for the non-artistic eye to capture everything that’s going on in this one, everything about the design screams Spain.

2. 1930 - Uruguay

Amidst the art deco craze after World War l, the first World Cup offered an artists’ fantastic slant on the sport, as it depicts a goalie stretching to make a save behind the words “1st World Soccer Championship”.

While the inaugural tournament was marred by boycotts from most European nations who refused to travel to South America, the artist behind the first World Cup poster generated a superb poster for the inaugural tournament in Uruguay. Which is probably the reason Switzerland’s organizers created a similar poster, this time with the goalie watching the ball going into the net

3. 1958 - Sweden

Many of the early posters featured displays of the globe or the flags of nations taking part in the World Cup, but Sweden captured it best when they produced this classy bit with a scarf featuring the flags of various countries wrapped around a soccer ball as it hovers above a player in its shadow.

4. 1966 - England

The eighth edition of the World Cup was hosted in England for the first time and its poster also featured a first. England was the first host nation to develop a mascot for the tournament and displayed it on their official poster. They gave him the name World Cup Willie and showed him launching a soccer ball into the air. However, it would likely receive a failing grade from an art teacher for the amount of blank space between Willie and the ball. Tisk, tisk.

5. 1990 - Italy

While the 1990 World Cup in Italy produced the worst mascot in history, the poster made up for it with a simple and classic design that featured the country’s most iconic landmark, The Colosseum, painted in black and white with a bright green soccer pitch in the middle, surrounded by the flags or participating nations.

Feeling nostalgic? Here's the rest of the World Cup posters.