The Telstar was the first World Cup ball to use the now-familiar truncated icosahedron for its design, consisting of 12 black pentagonal and 20 white hexagonal panels.

[5][7] The name came from the 1962 Telstar communications satellite, which was roughly spherical and dotted with solar panels, somewhat similar in appearance to the football.

[2] Developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories for AT&T Corporation, Telstar was the world's first active communications satellite[8] and was the first to send live television signals, telephone calls, and fax images through space,[9] which inaugurated an age of instant worldwide communications via satellite.

[2] The 1974 model's "Durlast" polyurethane coating provided waterproofing as well as protection from damage such as scuffs and tears.

The design maintains the general pattern, except the corners of the pentagons are stretched into pixellated gradients.