Michel Platini and the Ballon D’raw – with Spiel Magazine

Recently, we were asked to collaborate with the excellent Spiel Magazine, to provide the words for one of their beautiful designs in the Ballon D’raw series.

FFW teamster Jeremy Smith wrote this essay on the legend Michel Platini – the original can be seen here, and you can buy limited edition Risograph prints from the series, as well as back-issues of Spiel, in their shop.

We recommend following Spiel on Twitter, and designer Mark Frances.

Our second offering in the Ballon D’raw series is a Jean Widmer inspired piece on Michel Platini. As a player, Le Roi exuded elegance, calm and simplicity as he sauntered round the pitches of Europe; Widmer, likewise, valued simplicity and the clear use of graphics to convey his message. Although they operated in different spheres, Widmer and Platini had many things in common, as Jeremy Smith from French Football Weekly explains.

Spend a few minutes browsing Michel Platini’s greatest moments on youtube (do it – you won’t regret it) and one element that stands out – whether watching his goals for France, or a selection of his strikes and stunning assists for Juventus – is how rarely he takes more than one or two touches.

To Platini himself this economy of touch was a necessity: never one for long lung-bursting runs past opposition defenders (as a youngster Platini famously failed his spirometer test in trials for FC Metz), he claimed that he succeeded by remaining one step ahead of opponents; that he knew already what he was going to do with the ball, before he received it.

To others, not least his opponents, that minimalist approach created an at times unplayable footballer and the ultimate number 10, orchestrating the play from midfield, creating goal-scoring opportunities for others and scoring at an incredibly prolific rate for a midfielder (he ended his career with a ratio of more than a goal every two matches for club and country).

It made him a multiple winner, nationally, internationally and at an individual level. League championships in France and Italy, for Saint-Etienne and Juventus; European Cup and Cup Winners Cup wins with la bianconeri; Serie A’s leading goalscorer for three consecutive years from 1983-1985; voted Ballon d’Or those same three years; and voted the greatest player in the history of both Juventus and France (beating Zidane to the latter distinction).

Perhaps the peak of his career came in the blue of France. In between leading his compatriots to two World Cup semi-finals in 1982 and 1986, Platini appeared to be playing on a higher plane to everyone else as he inspired France to the 1984 European Championship on home soil. His tournament tally of nine goals in five matches included, against Belgium and Yugoslavia, two perfect hat-tricks – right foot, left foot and header, the six goals coming from a total of seven touches. In fact, only 11 touches were needed for the nine strikes, the most dramatic of which was in the final minute of the semi-final against Portugal. Ironically, whilst almost anyone else would have met Jean Tigana’s cross with a first-time shot, it was Platini’s calm control with his first touch that brought him the time and space to power home the winner.

Recognised as one of the greatest players in history, Platini, perhaps more than any player before or since, was the personification of the melding of form and function, using his ability to analyse in split-seconds the situation before him, and immediately to come up with the simplest and most effective solution.

At around the same time that Platini was at his peak, the artist and designer Jean Widmer was using a similar ethos to become one of the world’s leading graphic artists. Born in Switzerland, Widmer studied under Johannes Itten, one of the leaders of the Bauhaus movement, before moving to France in his twenties. He has since become one of the great proponents of the minimalist approach to design, using bold, vivid colour and typography; blending photography and graphics in order to achieve maximum impact and to transmit the desired message to the viewer as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Unlike Platini – never one to hide his light under a bushel – Widmer’s low-key approach means that he is woefully underknown. His work, however, is world-renowned. The striking Centre Pompidou logo, based on a stripped-down image of the building’s façade? That was his. The iconic Musée d’Orsay logo, with the vertically positioned M and ‘O? His too. His work encompasses public function as well as private clients: take a driving holiday around France and you will see his designs through the pictorial road signs indicating national places of interest. His Visual Design company also designed the signage in France’s airports, using colour coding, positioning and typography to create a user-friendly system.

This design by Marc Frances serves as a tribute to both Platini and Widmer, the simple head-on photograph of the footballer highlighting the pride in his work and his country, the image enhanced by a Widmer-inspired addition of bold, dynamic red strokes, completing the Tricolore motif and emphasising a man ready for action.