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World Cup Qatar 2022 Countdown Clock wins Innovation in Design Awards

22 November 2022

We’re honoured to have won the Innovation in Design Award for our recent World Cup Qatar 2022 Countdown Clock project at this year’s Design Middle East Awards.

Our innovation story:

Briefed to design, develop and build the official countdown clock for the World Cup in Qatar 2022 by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Imagination Middle East created a design that came to represent a historic symbol in time for Qatar on a global stage.

Conceptually crafted to celebrate the journey to 2022 and beyond, building excitement around Qatar as the Host Country & around the world, enhancing the country’s reputation & cultural relevance.

Brought together by The World Cup and united through the beautiful game, our concept was simple and born from a single thought - The Sands of Time. Representing and celebrating both football and Qatari heritage.

Inspired by the symbol of the World Cup Qatar 2022 logo, we created a three-dimensional sculptural form that transforms as audiences walk around it, and celebrates the notion of time through two unique mechanics.

Firstly, the mirror-finished stainless steel Möbius and secondly, the three-dimensional hourglass. Both design features meant we had arrived at a physical and digital expression of ‘time’. The latter would become a canvas for virtual stories - a time capsule leveraging the power of social media worldwide through a series of hashtags.

We devised a new approach for this visual content so that as audiences walked around it, they could always see falling grains of sand. These appear to have depth, are three-dimensional and importantly fall within the centre of the hourglass shape and not just run down the side following the LED curve in a 2D format.

Designed to be viewed in 360 degrees giving audiences striking views of not only the content generated but also the exceptional landscape of its location and surroundings, framed by the spectacular Doha city skyline.

Here are just some of the numbers behind the design:

  • Over 2 years in design and making

  • Crafted with specialists from 3 continents

  • 400 bespoke LED panels

  • 10,000 hours of precision engineering and craftsmanship

  • Over 1m live views from visitors to the Corniche

  • A hero visual asset for coverage to be seen by billions worldwide

Underpinning all of this was the installation itself visually ‘floating’ over the water line - a stunning piece of design and legacy for the first-ever World Cup in the Middle East.

You can read more about the awards here.