While the 2014 World Cup champions continue to celebrate, the rest of the world waits for 2014 when the World Cup will be in Brazil. I thought it might be a good time to take a step away from corporate branding for a day and have some fun with sports branding, specifically, the 2014 World Cup logo.
The official 2014 World Cup logo was revealed last week, and as with most global sporting event logos (e.g., the Olympic Games), everyone seems to have an opinion on this attempt by Brazilian agency Africa. You can see the official 2014 World Cup logo in the image to the left. The official press release explains that the logo is a representation of, “an iconic photograph of three victorious hands together raising the world’s most famous trophy,” and the colors are representative of Brazilian culture.
There is a even a video representation of the logo, which is actually interesting. You can check it out below.
The most vocal critiques of the logo claim that it’s too “crude” and the illustration and execution are “unrefined”. I can see that point, but I really don’t have a problem with this logo. I think the concept is strong and the design seems to be purposefully loose. While I can definitely see that a stronger illustration could make the logo even better visually, I’m not certain that was the designer’s actual goal.
What do you think of the 2014 World Cup logo? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
