The World Cup through Logo Design
Here at Soul Graphics, we love soccer.
Our Founder & Creative Director spent a huge chunk of her childhood shuttling around from soccer tournament to soccer tournament. It’s a pseudo-religion at our company and the World Cup always brings about a high level of excitement among the group. That being said, we can’t say we’re thrilled with the location this time around.
While we have a lot of ideological disagreements with the host state, our enthusiasm still lingers. As a marketing firm, we’re always excited to see what design and logo they’re going to go with. Brazil was a great design. And now we’re in Russia. Let’s check it out, there are several design elements that stand out to us:
Color
There’s a design phrase: if you can’t make it pretty, make it red. We actually don’t agree with this (our company logo is maroon), but it is an interesting choice. Red evokes power, intimidation, clout, and strength. We’re not surprised to see this choice throughout their design elements. Also, when you think of traditional Russian architecture and eastern orthodox religious imagery, red often comes to mind. We like it.
Font
Oh, fonts. This is a huge area of debate within the graphic design community. Everyone has strong opinions of font choices. In my opinion, they did well here. There’s a great blend of nostalgia and traditional.
Modernity
Every host country wants to appear as a modern, successful country. Russia is surely no different. I’d imagine one of their desired themes is being an innovative, powerful country. The logo surely feels modern, however; they may have gone too far. When you start saying, “oh, that that looks like…”, you’ve probably missed the mark. I can’t help but think their theme looks, well, it looks like a mushroom. And if I’m thinking it, someone else likely is too.
Symbolism
We love looking for logo design symbolism. All the best logos stand for something. Russia is certainly adding a space element to theirs and we applaud that effort. When looking at it broadly, there seems to be a planetary element with the soccer balls. Also, the multiple blue elements may lean towards the world sport — soccer. We like!
What do you think about the World Cup logo design? Curious to hear your thoughts!
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