The World Cup Logo

With this year’s World Cup all wrapped up, we thought this would be a great time to talk about the design that makes this World Cups’ branding stand out from the rest. 

Theme

The theme of this year's World Cup in Russia is heavily inspired by paying homage to their history in space exploration as well as taking elements from Peter Carl Fabergé. The logo was unveiled back in 2014 by a spectacular live stream from the International Space Station, the design was then projected on to the Bolshoi Theatre.

The brief from Fifa was "To creatively capture the essence of this remarkable, historic moment, inspiration was drawn from both Russia’s rich artistic tradition and its history of bold achievement and innovation.”

Influence

The shape of the official emblem takes global recognition of the World cup trophy. The emblems colours; red, gold, black and blue represent centuries-old techniques see in world-renowned Russian art dating back to the earliest iconic paintings. The ‘ Magic’ ball as its called at the top of the design puts football in the focus with slight references to Russia’s achievements in space exploration. We see iconic Russian symbolism brought into the design with influence drawn from the Faberge egg, the Red Square’s Saint Basil’s Cathedral and references to Sputnik.

The symbol overall combines magic and dreams with true homage to Russia and its history. The Russia 2018 typography Dusha has a unique identity of its own, not one every designer would pick out of their font files. However the curvature of the typeface links well with the symbolism itself and gives an approachable feel, the flicks connotes motion fitting for football.

Controversy

This logo has faced criticism from many people on social media with people saying the ball doesn’t resemble the Telstar ball used in the tournament and others saying it looks like Darth Vader, an electric razor and Edvard’s Munch scream.

Every time I see it I just love it, the bold colours and the unique design and warm typography all leads me to think this is the best design for a world cup in a long time.

Ref: https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/

Twitter user: @KevinRothrock

Twitter user: @LeeThomasMason