8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
French artist Thieb Delaporte-Richard sees World Cup poster as a love letter to L.A.
For Thieb Delaporte-Richard, the Parisian cafe within walking distance of his home in Santa Monica was the best spot for an early-morning chat.
While standing in line, the aroma of baking croissants wafted, and the buzzing of espresso machines reverberated off the skeletal remains of an old church that now houses the café.
'This kind of feels like home, to be honest, and I think that's the reason I like this place,' Delaporte-Richard said of both the cafe and Santa Monica.
Born in Strasbourg, France, Delaporte-Richard spent much of his childhood bouncing around — from eastern France to Paris to French Guiana in South America — never living in one place for more than a few years and never quite sure how to answer when asked which place he truly called home.
He eventually returned to Paris to attend Gobelins design school. While there, he had the opportunity to travel to the U.S. for a three-month internship in Santa Monica — his first taste of the beachside city, where he says he 'had this vision of Hollywood, palm trees, the sunset,' and wanted to have the 'California experience.'
A decade later, Delaporte-Richard, 30, wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Every day, he's still drawn to the Santa Monica Pier, Pacific Coast Highway, the Santa Monica Mountains and the iconic seaside sunsets.
'Every city, everywhere, you can see the sunset,' he said. 'But here, it's so unique — with no clouds and those colors. For some reason, it feels like I only see those colors here. The way it bounces — it's so red at the bottom, then you see hues of orange, purple and then blue, nothing to hide it. That makes it so unique.'
In a year's time, when teams and fans arrive in Los Angeles for the 2026 World Cup — with Los Angeles set to host opening stage matches and quarterfinals at SoFi Stadium — Delaporte-Richard's interpretation of that sunset will blanket Southern California. From walls to billboards to screens, the striking visual will serve as the focal point of the official L.A. poster for the tournament.
Delaporte-Richard's pièce de résistance.
Like many in L.A. County, Delaporte-Richard is a transplant drawn to the area in pursuit of a dream. For him, that dream is art, and the region city welcomed him. His L.A.-centric poster stands as a love letter to the place he adores.
'My story is L.A.,' Delaporte-Richard said. 'Moving here, I realized how much deeper it is — how L.A. is also all of the stories that people told me. That really changed my vision and made me realize it's much more than what I thought. When I moved here, it was just supposed to be for a short time. And I realized, well, I love this place.'
Delaporte-Richard didn't want his poster to be just a checklist of landmarks or symbols — his initial instinct was to include every aspect of the city. But once he scrapped that idea, he focused on subtlety: a careful balance between representation and cliché, aiming to capture an authentic L.A. feel.
He settled on the concept of a silhouetted footballer mid-strike — a composite inspired by countless goal-scoring moments, including one by his childhood hero, Ronaldinho — launching a left-footed shot against the setting sun over the downtown skyline. The city's signature palm trees stand tall, while Easter eggs like the sweeping searchlights of a Hollywood premiere reveal themselves on a second glance. The player's outline remains ambiguous enough to let viewers imagine their favorite star in the scene.
'A lot of people reached out to tell me, 'Oh, it truly captures the spirit of L.A.,'' Delaporte-Richard said. 'There is nothing more meaningful to me than people who've lived here their entire lives, for generations, telling me it feels like home. A poster like that is not just a marketing visual. To me, it's a piece of culture. It becomes part of the history.'
The chance to showcase his art, however, nearly slipped away. Delaporte-Richard learned about the contest close to the submission deadline. Pressed for time, he put together a storyboard in a few hours in his apartment. During the next few days, he feverishly sketched and digitally painted the piece. By the end of the week, he finished the project and submitted it with just two hours to spare.
'I knew I wouldn't have much time,' Delaporte-Richard said, shuffling through his black notebook filled with original sketches and concept art explaining his goal of capturing the energy and motion soccer brings. 'I searched for an idea that would work and created that connection between soccer and Los Angeles.'
When Delaporte-Richard hit send on his submission, he wasn't sure what to expect. At first, all he received was an automated message thanking him and highlighting that more than 900 people had entered the poster contest.
Then came the waiting game. In December, he was notified that he was one of 16 finalists whose work was getting evaluated by five Los Angeles County experts in public art and cultural exhibitions. Several months later, Jason Krutzsch of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission reached out with a message.
'I received an email that said, 'Congratulations, your poster has been selected,'' Delaporte-Richard said. 'I had to send an email just asking, 'Is it for real? Is it literal? You're not joking?' And he was like, 'I'm dead serious.''
It took a phone call for it to finally hit Delaporte-Richard — he won. It was a big moment he shared with his wife, who moved to California with him from France, and with friends and family back home in Paris.
For the first time, the soft-spoken, introverted Delaporte-Richard found himself in the spotlight, with his first major project now available for the world to purchase — unfamiliar territory for him. Initially, the poster's release left him anxious, unsure of how people would react.
Would they love it? Would they hate it? The weight felt heavier because of how deeply personal the project was.
Delaporte-Richard's decision to enter the contest comes from a lifelong love of soccer that began in his youth in France, where he first learned to kick a ball. To him, Brazilian legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, Argentine star Lionel Messi and French hero Zinedine Zidane were magicians devoted to their craft, inspiring Delaporte-Richard to follow his path.
When he was 16, his first designs were soccer banners and photoshopped graphics. A chance to celebrate soccer sparked his love of art.
Having never been to a World Cup, Delaporte-Richard says it is an honor to now have his work be part of the games. He plans to attend matches at SoFi Stadium, the venue he passed through a months ago when his artwork was first put on display by the L.A. World Cup host committee.
'If you ask the person who's got into design, creating football banners, about doing the World Cup poster, 15 years later, I would not believe it,' Delaporte-Richard said. 'I wouldn't believe it at all. So this experience in L.A. and in the U.S. made it a reality.'
