This past weekend marked the silencing of the vuvuzela and the official end of the 2010 World Cup finals. As Spain walked away victoriously, the world turned its attention towards the 2014 World Cup in Brazil where every nation will once again get the chance to compete for this prestigious trophy.
With the preparations for the 2014 Brazilian World Cup well underway, FIFA and the Brazilians government decided to take full advantage of the world’s attention and to use the momentum and excitement created by the 2010 World Cup to unveil the new logo design for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Here it is:
This is the official 2014 Brazil World Cup logo. It was created by the Sao Paulo-based agency Africa who successfully beat out 25 other agencies in their bid to produce the 2014 World Cup logo design. The logo is called “Inspiration” and it was based on a photograph of three victorious players raising the World Cup trophy above their heads. The hands in the logo design were stylized and manipulating so as to form the shape of the World Cup trophy itself. The yellow and green colors used in the logo design correspond to the national flag of Brazil.
A panel of seven distinguished Brazilians was created to choose the final design to be used as the 2014 Brazilian World Cup logo. Included in this panel were members from FIFA, writer Paulo Coelho, architect Oscar Niemeyer and supermodel Gisele Bundchen. The surprising absence of graphic designers from this panel was met with much criticism. Soon after its selection, an avalanche of criticism of the actual chosen winning logo design ensued.
Some people called the logo juvenile and childish while others said that they thought that the logo design accurately portrayed the Brazilian people’s irrepressible passion for the football and their joyful and creative culture. Still others said that the 2014 FIFA logo design was more suited to a volleyball tournament seeing as it is only the goalies in football that are allowed to put their hands around the football during a game.
What do you think?
Personally, I think that this new 2014 World Cup logo design captures the essence of the game very well however, I think that it completely fails in its execution. Allow me to explain. I think that a good World Cup logo should represent football, the host country and the World Cup itself. I think that this logo design does this very well. It is a simple logo design that uses a depiction of the actual World Cup trophy to represent the game. Also, by using the hands and the colours of Brazil’s flag, it portrays to the world the unity, happiness and friendliness of the Brazilian people. It shows that the whole Brazilian nation is embracing the event which hasn’t been hosted by Brazil since the 1950s.
Although the idea of the logo itself is great, I think that on a whole, the logo is poorly designed. The hand-drawn interlinking hands making up the trophy look too childlike and awkward. The typeface looks unpolished and the gradients are poorly executed. The ’2014′ looks as if it was forgotten and tucked in as an afterthought while the negative space created by the hands look unbalanced. Finally, why is there red in the logo design? Seeing as Brazil’s is green, yellow and blue, wouldn’t it have been more accurate to have used blue instead of red?
Do you like the 2014 FIFA World Cup for Brazil? Let me know your thoughts.
In closing, I will leave you with a video introduction to the 2014 World Cup logo design: