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FIFA World Cup 2014 Logo revealed – The ‘Z’ controversy!

Categories: Logo Design Tips
Written By: Nora Reed
With the World Cup 2010 just days away from kick-off, the management of FIFA has unveiled the official logo for World Cup 2014. The logo design was informally revealed on July 1, 2010 and awaits official exposure on the final of World Cup 2010. After Brazil was voted as the host of the next edition of the coveted event, it was no surprise that the logo would attribute the features pertaining to the host nation.
 
  • The controversial change from ‘Z’ to ‘S’:

The logo contains a set of hands (yet another example of hand logos) that are meticulously shaped into the cup trophy. The yellow and green colors correspond to the national flag of Brazil. While the black and white version had the word “Brazil” written under the cup, it was excluded from the colored version of the logo due to strong censure from the general public.

In poll aired yesterday by Portal 2014, 68% of readers did not like the brand developed for the World Cup. The main reason for the dissent was the use of "z" instead of the traditional "s" in Brazil. Hence, in order to avert the controversy, the word "Brazil" was omitted in the colour version altoghether.

 
  • An absurd jury to choose the logo:

The winning logo was selected among seven choices, but the designer is yet to be revealed by the FIFA management. The most surprising part was the panel of judges who selected the logo. The jury included Ricardo Teixeira (President of CBF), Jerome Valcke (Secretary of FIFA), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazilian architect, designer of Brasilia), Paulo Coelho (international bestselling Brazilian writer), Gisele Bundchen (Brazilian model), Hans Donner (Brazilian, head visual designer of TV Globo) and Ivete Sangalo (Brazilian pop singer). I mean…what has a writer, a model and a pop singer got to do with logo designing?

 
  • What about “Brasil 2014”?

It was three years ago when Brazil was voted as the host of the FIFA World Cup 2014. At that time, the bidding was contested by Brazil using another logo. It featured the word “Brasil” followed by a vividly written “2014”. I don’t want to sound over critical but, the previous logo was far more sober than this juvenile effort.

 

What are your thoughts?
How exciting do you find this new World Cup 2014 logo? Do you think the previously used logo by Brazil was better? If I were asked, I would say that rather than adopting this new logo which omits the word "Brasil", FIFA should have gone with the previous "Brasil 2014" logo…what say?

 

38 Responses to “FIFA World Cup 2014 Logo revealed – The ‘Z’ controversy!”

  1. Mike Wilson Says:

    I wouldn’t say I find the new logo exciting. I don’t think the Brasil 2014 logo was exciting either… in fact I much prefer the new one to the 2014 one.

    I do think that the new logo reflects Brazil’s cultural art aesthetic MUCH better than the Brasil 2014 does, and I think that THAT is the key component that I think you missed when you posited the (albeit good) question “what has a writer, a model and a pop singer got to do with logo designing?” I think that Brazil wanted to chose an logo that captured the artistic aesthetic of the nation so they drew their “judges” from a panel of various national artists.

  2. ujo Says:

    I prefer the old 2014 logo to the new one, the new one is a bit rigid, does not bring out the fun of World Cup and the Spirit of Celebration at all. They should have developed the first 2014 logo into something flashier and catchier, then they would have an Awesome logo!

  3. inspirationfeed Says:

    These logos don’t really grab attention.

  4. FIFA World Cup 2014 Logo revealed – The ‘Z’ controversy! | ControversyToday.info Says:

    [...] Originally posted here: FIFA World Cup 2014 Logo revealed – The ‘Z’ controversy! [...]

  5. James Says:

    Why have a hand logo when the one thing you can’t do when playing soccer, unless you’re the goalie of course, is touch the ball with your hands?

  6. Horse Gifts Says:

    Personally, I don’t like either logo. The first one is, as you said, juvenile, and I really dislike the blue soccer ball(?) with the ribbon (what is a ribbon doing there?) on the second one.

  7. Nick Says:

    I like the new one

  8. Daniel R. Says:

    As a brazilian, living in Brasilia, I must say: AWFUL logo!
    Not to mention the ‘Z’ controversy, the World Cup logo had been done in English language no matter the host country language since 2002 and I don’t agree with that at all, but there are other problems we’ve gotta pay attention to:
    1. This design does not represent ‘Brasil’ at all, despite the Green and Yellow, hands logo are just a trend (will it be in 2014?) and could represent any country in any logo, there’s no brazilian art in that!
    2. The old logo is not that good too, but I think they are trying to hide the lack of organization and seriousness passing a image of union and solidarity. Our stadiums have no conditions to host a single World Cup match, our airports are crowded and have no international structure at all, our crime ratre is too high and our goverment (mainly the state goverments and city mayors) are very very corrupt, I doubt, really really doubt that they will not use this great event in their own benefits!

    This logo is a proof that we don’t deserve to host such a great event. We hosted the Pan-American Games in 2007, and there are a lot of financial scandals being judged in supreme court of law, can you believe that? That event went so bad that politicians now say that they cannot use the 2007 structure for Rio 2016, they’ll have to build all over again, from scratch! Our olympic commite secretary is more focused on trying to protected brands and words (he’s trying to “own” words like “Rio 2016″ and some other 50 similar “brands” from the public domain) than develop our national sports…
    Lame! I’m very disapointed with my country for the upcoming events, 2014 WC and the 2016 Olympic Games…

    That logo and it’s jury is just a proof how things are done in Brazil, always with second, implicit and personal intentions!

    Sorry for my english and for my long comment…

  9. Luiz Santana Says:

    I am totally for the “Brasil 2014″ logo.

  10. Ana from BraSil Says:

    This is one of the ugliest logos I’ve ever seen. It looks like it would have been rejected even by a hippie high on LSD in 1968, the year in which it looks like it was drawn by a hippie high on mushroom tea. “Brazil 2014″ is much, much less ugly.

    By the way, what features of this logo belong to the “host nation”? Do Brazilians have distorted hands or something? Had the logo included a nice round butt or musical notes the author could make this claim but otherwise the comment makes no sense.

    And what controversy with the “s” and “z”? The country’s name has an “s” in it PERIOD. Put the bloody “s” in there!

    To finish off, what idiot included Gisele in the selection committee?!

    What a bunch of idiots running this show.

  11. kre8ivelogos Says:

    I think the new logo creates the better impact than the older one.

  12. Henna Says:

    i m sure the new logo is better than the old one, it is always the same way, when the old logo loses the attraction or appeal for the masses, a new logo is made, this means we should be more accpeting of the new logo and hail the success!!

  13. rakesh khandelwal Says:

    i thik it good logo for 2014

  14. affiliate program Says:

    It??s going to be sad to watch a world cup without Ronaldo, this will be my first World Cup without The Best Player Ever Taking Part Of It .

  15. Jess Says:

    Redesign of new logo i think it ,much better than to stay the old one..

  16. Ricardo Says:

    I’m Brazilian and I think this controversy some Brazilians are creating about writting “Brazil” or “Brasil” is selfish… If you were Hungarian, would you think you were entitled to force people to call your country Magyarorszag instead of Hungary? If you were German, would you make a fuss because nobody calls your country Deutschland? Another example, have the South Africans created their World Cup Logo with Zuid Afrika or South Africa written on it? Of course they did the option for South Africa, right? So, my point is, these Brazilians who want their country to be called “Brasil” (with an S) on a World Cup Logo are just being juvenile and provincian. It’s Brasil with an S in Portuguese —but NOT in English, and you know English is the lingua franca for worldwide events like World Cups, so it should be just written Brazil with a Z in the logo, as it is written in English.

    Now as for the logo themselves, I did not like either. The 2014 one lacks creativity, and the hands logo looks doesn’t remind me the logo of a sports event and it’s not “media-friendly” because media-friendly logos must be larger in the horizontal (so they could fit better on TV screens and outdoors).

    There’s something else you don’t know about the second logo… There’s a hoax out there that it was created as a homage to a Brazilian Kardecist Spiritist (a guy who talked to the dead) called Chico Xavier… This guy Chico Xavier used to cover his face with his hand while he had his communications with the dead, and the yellow hand on that logo is supposed to be his hand covering his face, and the green hands on the top of the logo remind Chico Xavier’s hairdress…

    Put Chico Xavier on the google and you will eventually find a picture of him with his hand covering his face while he was communicating with the dead… by the way, 2010 is the year Chico Xavier would be 100 y.o. if he was stil alive.

  17. Devante Knight Says:

    I don’t understand how France could have lost. Quickest exit ever. I just assumed that they had a solid opportunity to do well in this years world cup. Maybe it was just bad luck. Maybe its time to jump on the Argentina bandwagon. Looks like Demichelis has already scored. Go Argentina. To turn around my day that was ruined by France, I have been watching some funny jokes.

  18. LukeSF Says:

    A FOOTball logo made of HANDS is the most ridiculous thing one could come up with…

  19. mesmerize Says:

    I am a crazy soccer fan, and I was looking for a website where I can watch FIFA 2010 world cup matches live, after searching so many sites and places I finally found out this page http://dewesh.com/soccer.html , where you can stream matches live. I hope this information helped the other reader of this blog who are looking for something like this. :)

  20. Karl Ibach Says:

    I’m glad that the US is out of the Cup. Soccer is sooooo booring IMHO. Of course, I’m not a big sports fan to begin with so who am I to judge? I do believe however, that soccer will someday be as big here in the US as pro football!

  21. brasilnut54 Says:

    I love the colors of the 2014 logo! The official logo look too plain and boring.

  22. Ryan Says:

    Easily the worst World Cup logo of modern times, leaving 2006 light years behind in second place. FIFA, it seems, can make a horse’s rear-end of anything. And I’m watching Blatter talk at the official launch – he’s rambling on and making no sense as usual, and even worse is doing it in Spanish – which they DON’T SPEAK in Brazil.

    I’d rate this logo 1/10, and the 1 is for not being the London 2012 logo. Either way, they’re both complete disasters.

  23. Gabriele Says:

    This “absurd jury” is a joke.. Really, this can be serious! What a model and a singer can say about design?? I’m brazilian and we have so much more to show.. This logo http://www.flickr.com/photos/karina_campanha/4690253672/in/set-72157624125335451/ is an example, was created as work from college (I have no idea who they are) and is really better than this! Disgusting.

  24. Victor Arrieta Says:

    THE LOGO IS HORRIBLE. LOOKS LIKE A 5 YEAR OLD MADE IT. WE ARE ALREADY MESSING UP.

  25. Art Nations Says:

    I think that the new World Cup logo for Brazil 2014 is a great design that all Brazilians should be proud of. I also believe that Brazil should be Brasil, and I am English. This is their World Cup after all.

  26. Wilson Says:

    Unfortunately Brazil missed an opportunity to engage its world class design agencies in developing the logo for the 2014 World Cup.

    Honestly, as a graphic designer I can’t see how someone spent more than 30 minutes doing this thing. Poor choice, really bad design, sloppy work.

  27. Pablo Says:

    I think that the 3 HANDS in this logo are in honor of Maradona of Argentina, Thierry Henry of France and Luis Suarez of Uruguay who used their HANDS to score or to stop a goal to make their teams advance in FOOTball matches.

  28. Aldo Fernández Says:

    The new logo is too naïve, I believe…

  29. David Says:

    HANDBALL !!!!

  30. Brasil 2014 « Braziladelphia Says:

    [...] to deliver on, since he leaves office next year!).  Of course, the logo design did not escape controversy — of the orthographic variety (the infamous ‘s’ vs. ‘z’ debate).  Spelling aside, Brazil has much bigger [...]

  31. Dany Says:

    Fifa World Cup Brazil 2014
    First Wallpaper

    http://wallpapersdb.com/2014_fifa_world_cup_brazil-wallpapers.html

  32. Antonio Motta Says:

    As cores são bem vivas representando a alegria do povo brasileiro,realmente será uma grande festa.

    Translation:
    The colors are vivid representing the joy of the Brazilian people will really be a big party.

  33. beelzebubby Says:

    I think the new logo is far better then the original. honestly that first one looks like it was assembled from clip art by a 12 year old for a school project.

  34. sanitya prajapati Says:

    I didn’t like the world cup trophy at all but the meaning of the color and trophy really inspired me

  35. Brasil Fan Says:

    The name of the country and the year should be on the logo . BRASIL and 2014 should appear. BRASIL should definitely be spelt with an S

  36. sudip adhikari Says:

    the logo should contain some of the energetic kicks of players like in world cup logo of 2010.

  37. Gabriel B. Says:

    I am a Brazilian, and … first place, welcome all the Americans who will come to a brazil in the world cup of 2014, and in second place …. I did not like a great deal of this logo, it might if better.

  38. Chandler Camp Says:

    I think the logo on the bottom is better than the logo above. I like the soccer ball as the zero.

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