GenCup

GenCup, a contraction of generative and World Cup, is a data-driven art project that transforms football matches into textured visual compositions. Based on structured data such as possession, goals, passes and match intensity, the project translates the rhythm and emotional tension of each game into shapes, densities and movements.

Rather than offering a conventional or literal infographic reading, GenCup creates a visual memory of the match: different encounters leave unique imprints within the image.

The experience invites viewers to first perceive the raw atmosphere and emotion of the game, before gradually connecting this language of shapes and textures to the real data generated on the field.

For Zeh, this is the whole point — perception comes before analysis. Our brain recognizes patterns far faster than it reads numbers.

When you draw data in different ways, you create new pathways for understanding. You activate the brain beyond the analytics: people start to perceive the data instead of only rationalizing it.

GenCup is a single project that has evolved across several World Cups. Crucially, each edition reinvents its own visual grammar — not just a new palette, but a brand-new logic for encoding the match data. Below, each tournament is shown with its own posters and its own reading key.

2018 — World Cup, Russia

The founding edition that established the idea. Bold condensed type and grainy gradients turn each first-stage match into a tense, textured poster.

2019 — Women's World Cup, France

A sharper, geometric language of intersecting lines and hatched circles, orbiting a central gravity point.

Reading the 2019 system

• Ball possession & result — the central gravity point where the lines converge.
• Distance covered (km per team) — the size of the hatched circles.
• Number & completion of passes — the reach of one triangle.
• Attempts on target — the reach of the other.
• Goals & attempts — the dot grid.

2022 — World Cup, Qatar

Warm, rounded forms and saturated gradients give the 2022 series its own unmistakable identity, built on a system of two stacked capsules.

Reading the 2022 system

Each match is drawn as two stacked capsules — the home team on top, the away team below:

• Ball possession — how far each shape stretches.
• Pass accuracy — the width of the form.
• Number of passes — the length of the capsule.
• Number of goals — the rounded caps on the right; each goal leaves its own circle.
• Attempts on goal & on target — the spread along the base.
• Game intensity — the turbulence where the two teams meet.

2023 — Women's World Cup, Australia & New Zealand

The most recent completed edition switches to a quadrant grid, where the match literally unfolds across the canvas over time.

Reading the 2023 system

• Each quadrant represents 1/16 of the game time — the match reads across the grid.
• Ball possession — the width of the top band.
• Number of passes — the right-hand extent.
• Attempts on target & distance covered — the left bands.
• Goal from inside — a filled circle; goal from outside — a diamond.
• Score — the marker in the top corner.

Seen together, the editions form a growing visual archive of football — proof that behind every scoreline lies a texture, a rhythm, and a story waiting to be felt before it is read. A new 2026 edition is already on its way.