July 09, 2010 from abduzeedo's blog
Yesterday was unveiled the logo of the next World Cup that will take place in Brazil in 2014. With the new emblem came also an avalanche of criticism that started last month when the logo was first seen. Among critics there are some that say the logo is reminiscent of Chico Xavier, a famous brazilian psychic, or that it is more suited to a volleyball contest than for football/soccer because there are hands holding the ball, which is not allowed in the sport. So in this post I will share my opinion among with the other Abduzeedo writers.
Before we express our opinions take a look at the new emblem and the video shown during the introduction of it yesterday in South Africa.
Video
Logo
Opinions
Alexis (Aloa)
What you can see in the history of the world cup logo is that its gets simpler with less texts and shapes every time. The 2014 Logo for brazil is by far the most plain logo of them all, that is why I liked it the most.
Amanda
I really like the concept, however I do think it was poorly executed. I think a big part of that is due to poor placement. I like the idea of hands forming the iconic shape of the trophy, but for some reason, to me, the negative space in between the fingers seems kind of awkward. I wish they'd played around with that a little bit more to where the fingers didn't appear frail and dainty, which I guess is why it has gotten criticized as shameful to the nation. It reminds me of Symbolist painter Edvard Munch's The Scream. You know what I'm talking about? The painting where the distressed man holds his hands up to his face, representational of the universal anxiety in modern man. Also: 2014 in red? I would have liked for it to be in blue as a more clear depiction of the Brazilian flag. All in all, I do appreciate it for its simplicity, I just think it could have been developed better.
Fabiano
As for every logo design, there will always be those who like it or dislike it, but I believe that for this 2014 World Cup logo there's too much buzz. I particularly didn't like it, I don't know if it's either because of the form or the concept with hands on a trophy. I don't think it's something terrible either as a lot of people have been saying...that's a bit of an exaggeration.
In my opinion the idea behind it is showing the happiness and friendliness of the Brazilian people with the colors of our flag all of that while creating a trophy with hands, so it sounds pretty cool but the outcome is not. It's not a logo that WOWs us. Nevertheless, it's a logo with concept but could be much better executed.
Fabio Sasso
Well I will start off by saying that I quite liked the new logo since the first time I saw it on an article where Alexandre Wollner, a famous Brazilian designer which I admire and respect, was pretty upset with it saying that it represented hands covering a face of shame. Interestingly enough I saw something totally different.
First, it clearly reminds me of the World Cup trophy and usually the captain of the team who wins the World Cup holds the trophy with his hands, not his feet, as do the rest of the team when they run around the stadium carrying the trophy and celebrating the triumph...so that would explain the hands.
Second, there's no question that Brazil is the country of football/soccer/futebol. If you live in Brazil and watch any sports on TV it will be at least 80% football and 20% all other sports if not more. The logo reminds me that the whole nation is embracing the event and will root for our team so that in the end we can be the ones holding the trophy as winners, something that unfortunately didn't happen in 1950, the only time the World Cup took place here in Brazil.
Last but not least, the graphic execution. In my opinion they looked for a very loose style as we can see on the shapes of the logo, something very hand-drawn. I believe it's a good choice because of culture and carnival, however, in my humble opinion it could be better executed. I also didn't understand the red on the 2014 and I hope it's not because of a major sponsor. Nevertheless I don't know the briefing or even if there was one so everything I say here will be based on my opinion and on my taste and that's like saying that blondes are prettier than brunettes and vice-versa when it comes to design.
With that being said I believe the thing that concerned me the most is that they hired an advertising agency to do a design job and I believe that was the cause of this discussion among the design community which is totally understandable and I agree with that. However I think criticizing logos is very easy because we simply do it based on what we see and our own taste. Now if we think about how this logo has a target audience of 190 million Brazilians and billions of people around the globe...damn, that is a hard task.
I think the discussion here has to be about how to avoid that other professionals do the design work that we are supposed to do and why that happened, that is really important to understand because that we can change, the logo whether good or not it is done and cannot be changed.
Gisele
To be honest I expected more from our 2014 World Cup logo. Yeah, I know that several people will say that Brazilians like to complain and all that, but I believe that the logo could be way better. With such great designers and logo pros we have these days, this is not exactly a master piece. Of course the logo is nice, the idea of the hands forming the trophy is very interesting, but I still think it's not that impressive.
Paulo Gabriel
Poorly done, it looks like those cliparts that come with Microsoft Word. It also looks like they spent 30 minutes doing it and were inspired by Chico Xavier, the psychic. It has become a national joke. Actually, I am still waiting for them to announce that it was just a joke and show the official emblem.
To make matters worse they applied some cheesy gradients, it's for sure a national shame and they should fire the intern who did it.
Paulo Canabarro
In my opinion the World Cup logo should mainly represent 3 things; football, the host country (Brazil), and World Cup. Most of the old logos do that well on their own way but this one kinda fails to well represent these elements.
I personality don't like it but I don't think it's that bad of a logo, it will do the job, even though it could be a lot better by taking a different approach to it. I would love to see the brainstorm prior to this logo design and that would help everyone see the logo with the same eyes of the creator.
Some World Cup logos
Discussion
We here at Abduzeedo want to make the blog an open channel for the design community to discuss these subjects towards an evolution of our industry through sharing experiences and opinions, always with respect. We really want to hear from you, share with us your thoughts about the new logo always trying to explain your opinion so we can learn from you as well.
