Who better to lay the design smack down on the current wall of World Cup noise than Germany's own Erik Spiekermann? He takes his boots to the logo ("…it just flies in the face of effective communication."), the mascot ("…a typical effort by too many parties."), and the designers behind the project ("Don't give up your day job.") Ouch. If anyone knows a little something about information design, it's probably Herr Spiekermann. Via Newstoday
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There's definitely a zero and a six in there... of course, they're surrounded by so many other superfluous elements and ball-shaped effluvium, that it's difficult to discern. Sadly, many of the previous World Cup logo designs are only marginally better.

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Oh c'mon, Mexico 86 is *awesome* (and very reminiscent of the Expo 86 logo). And the designer of Italia 90 is obviously the spiritual forefather of the current crop of stencil artists...
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Absolutely. That's why I said marginally 'better'. I personally like the fact that the Mexico 86 logo has a built-in copyright symbol. Although that didn't prevent the trademark holders from a snit of redundant bugging.
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Speaking of which, take a look at this site. Eleven agencies. One mission. That's what creatives should do, ya?
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Mr. Spiekermann flunked in this one. Too many elements disturbing the eye and none of them communicating football which is the main element to me.
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Paulo, I think that is Mr. Spiekermann's whole point... Remember, he wasn't involved in the design of the logo or anything else pertaining to this year's World Cup. He's simply complaining about the same things you are mentioning.
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Agreed - there are too many elements in the logo. It seems that the target audience are little kids. The best part of the logo is the typeface for 'Germany'. What an eyesore.
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If you do like the typeface for ‘Germany’, go over to the FontShop Germany website and check the free download font. ;)
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Small correction: it's Erik.
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Thanks for the smack, Stewf. That's not the first time I've inadvertently misspelled Erik's name. Done fixed.
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That logo is very much geared toward kids. I actually had a hard time seeing the '06' the first time I saw it. My eyes went every which way but up. Also I think I was trying to find the '20' of 2006.
But a lot of (world) football's advertising is for kids, and how they can enjoy the game with their parents and other family; since there watching it no matter what the logo is.
But the logo gets zero points for that obscure wannabe stencil/handbrushed version of the trophy in the lower circle. That I think really kills it.
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It may be me - but I cannot suss out the World Cup logo. Is there supposed to be a '2006' amongst all the faces?
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