World Cup Brazil 2014

Since it first leaked to the media, the World Cup 2014 logo has been receiving bad criticisms in Brazil.

This week, the Brazilian Association of Designers issued an open letter called World Cup 2014: a wasted opportunity?

This article is interesting because, supposedly, represents a technical opinion by the Brazilian professional designers (the letter is signed by João de Souza Leite, a Director of the Association, also Professor of Design at respected PUC-Rio); besides, examples are provided of what could be considered a good design.

Below, some non-literal translated excerpts of the message:

An event such as the World Cup is an unparalleled opportunity for the host country to demonstrate some of its more significant values and skills.  The World Cup 2014 can make visible our in design, implementation, realization.

In other big events in the past, hosts took the opportunities to expose the culture, make experiments and look even beyond the limits of the events.

For example, in the Olympic Games of Sidney in 2000, Australians elected eco-sustainability as one their main values; and the infrastructure of the venues and city showed it.

In the Olympics of 1964, the signs created by the Japanese – pictograms that overcame the language barrier through the use of meaningful images accessible by any citizen of the planet – set a parameter for all communication to be implemented in similar situations, airports hotels, large areas of the congressional stadiums.

Good logos also incorporate traces of a National image. The logo designed by Josep Trias for the Olympics in Barcelona echoes the language of Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, reinforcing the cultural origin of the symbol. The logo adopted by the Americans for the World Cup 1994 is a direct reference to the American flag.

The logo presented for the World Cup 2014 seems to be in opposition to all these values.

The judging commission can’t be blamed; their members are not used to think about such values – that’s not their jobs.

The logo of the World Cup 2014 is rough and unfinished. Its basic concept- multiple hands taking hold of a ball or a CUP – is open to questioning, since that should not be its primary goal . It is unfinished because of the inadequacy of the design, which sits somewhere between the comic and ironic, with unnecessary details to delineate the shape – the use of shadows in the hands is the most basic of the resources available in graphics software design.

The form of letters, what to say? The typographic tradition started in the 15th century indicates that the shape of the letter always carries some sort of meaning. The 2014 Logo only shows a certain inability in writing, something childish.

Besides, the lack of a reference basis causes a lack of vertical support, keeping it in precarious balance.

By presenting this Logo, we are showing to the World an enormous incapability to work with project and design of symbols.

See full original text.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 5:04 pm and is filed under business, cbf.