They belong to the “Country of Soccer” (o País do Futebol), they are famous, they have some of the best soccer players in the world, and they own five FIFA World Cup Championship titles. Yes, we are talking about Brazilian Soccer. How did soccer make it to this South American …

They belong to the “Country of Soccer” (o País do Futebol), they are famous, they have some of the best soccer players in the world, and they own five FIFA World Cup Championship titles. Yes, we are talking about Brazilian Soccer.

How did soccer make it to this South American country? Thanks to Charles William Miller a.k.a. the father of football in Brazil. “At age ten he was sent to the Banister Court Public School in Southampton, England, to get a better education and where he learned to play cricket and football. A natural at both sports, Miller developed a particular passion for football.” Writes the Readex blog, “He returned to Brazil in 1894, carrying a Football Association rule book, two soccer balls, and lots of excitement. “What have you got there, Charles?” asked his father John when he saw him on the dockside for the first time. “My degree,” Charles replied. “Your son has graduated in football.” At that time the country didn’t manufacture soccer balls, it was only in 1900, the first ball was made in Brazilian territory.

Brazil currently has a total of 29,208 teams, 2,1 million registered and 11,2 million non-registered players. They hold a number of 27 States Tournaments and more than one-hundred championships a year.

In this blog post, we will review, critic, and talk about the graphic design of 20 football team badges. The main teams currently playing in the ‘Division A’ of the 2015 Brazilian Cup.

Before we go though it, it is important to cite that the review written in here has nothing to do with the team’s performance in the field, but only and exclusively about the design of their badges. We must understand the badges are the symbols the teams have to (or at least should) represent their story, their pride and their brand message, and that is not achieved by just setting the name on a shield and try to make it work by randomly mishmashing the design elements, messing and polluting the potential visual impact of the symbols. I mean, the majority of the soccer teams uses some sort of shield to represent them, it is traditional and remits to ancient times, when crests were used to represent families, social groups, knights and monarchy.

On the other hand, soccer teams today are a very lucrative business with their symbols used as brands and applied to endless number of applications. Therefore, their badges must be a twofold; an accurate representation of what the team stands for for the fans, and also to distinguish themselves from their adversaries. A good badge must sell and I’m talking beyond tickets. Values, mission, history, attitude.

20. Goiás Esporte Clube

With a nice origin history, the Goiás Esporte Clube was created under the lights of the vision of a group of friends debating about it in the streets of Goiânia, the creators of the symbol should also have envisioned a better badge for the team.

Pending to the extreme simplicity, the designer of the current badge might have opted for developing the shield idea, at least it would have more field to explore instead of a mere green “G” inside a white circle. It looks too corporate and it doesn’t represent the importance of the team for the state of Goiás at all.

19. Joinville Esporte Clube

Run, rabbit, run! To the right, to the left! Put some stars, delete the stars! Those were the only different upgrades made in the Joinville badge in its almost 40 years of existence. Without any creativity, this badge is messy and polluted. The rabbit could have been better used as a symbol for the team, but instead it was a wasted opportunity as a simple clipart form. If you look closely, the rabbit looks like he is a bit too tired. In general badge also looks a board full of bad advertising stickers in it.

18. Associação Chapecoense de Futebol

No, it is not Scooby-Doo or a Ghostbuster company logo, it is a badge for a soccer team. Hard to believe I know. If the reason for using this typography is to scare their adversaries, they got it. Created with the objective of improving the soccer in the city of Chapecó, the team actually needs to improve their own symbol.

Now seriously speaking. This logo may be playful and have some different characteristics from the other teams, but that doesn’t mean it is a positive thing. Next!

17. Figueirense Futebol Clube

Like other teams, the Figueirense has had better designed badges along its graphic history but, unfortunately, it ends up with a poor one.

The existing one uses the basic shield, basic stripes, basic types, and… a tree. What? A tree? Yes, a tree. It is supposed to be a Figueira, representing the same name place where the founders used to meet at the team’s creation. But for this childish tree representation could be any tree in this world. Get your tree straight, guys!

16. Clube Atlético Paranaense

Is this the logo for an alcoholic beverage brand? Yes, I think it is, and I should try it. But no, it is not; in fact, it’s a badge for a soccer team. That’s all I have to stay.

15. Sport Club do Recife

Created by the Humberto Araujo, the mascot of the team has been in use for more than 25 years. It alludes to their historical conquest by winning the North Lion Trophy.

Overall, the concept for the badge is not so creative, it reminds me of ancient medieval families’ shields and that’s all.

14. Cruzeiro Esporte Clube

This badge is not too bad, indeed. Despite the mixture of many disparate elements, it manages to look good. I believe, if re-worked properly, it has visual potential to become something interesting, but either way it’s not there yet.

Regarding its color palette, and in the midst of so many black and white, red and green colors, The Cruzeiro Esporte Club stands by introducing a sky blue. It escapes from the regular stripes as well and clearly shows the team’s symbol, the Crux Constellation. The crown st the top is the unofficial title given to the teams which have won tree important competitions in the same season.

13. Avaí Futebol Clube

With its name based on the Battle of Avahy, the Avai team has a traditional badge, but it sins by not representing in the best way possible its origin symbols. The team is recognized as the Lion of the Frorianópolis Island, but we don’t see any reference to this strong figure in their shield. Whereas the Sport Clube Recife overstates their lion, in the Avai’s case is non-existent.

12. Santos Futebol Clube

Owning some of the greatest football superstars of Brazilian soccer story, the Santos Futebol Clube has had players like Neymar, Robinho and Pelé playing for the team and making them achieve great victories.

Well, ok. But now, what about their badge? Opting for being very traditional as others, Santos uses the shield with stripes to represent it. It is very safe and it is not refined. The composition has elements such as a soccer ball, but it is drawn very poorly and is too literal, differently from another one we have in this list (which I mustn’t spoil, but it’s in a really good spot).

11. Associação Atlética Ponte Preta

Some people may confuse the Ponte Preta badge with the Santos one. Individuals who don’t know anything about soccer, of course. They do look very similar and that’s why they are basically in the same position in our review.

Talking about composition: They are constructed in the same way, a stripe in diagonal cutting the vertical stripes switched in black and white, with bold types for team’s name. Some differences like a ball in the left top and serif types for the Santos badge can clearly distinguish both. All and all, it is not that bad, but it is not that exciting or new.

10. São Paulo Futebol Clube

With too many simple and weak lines, the famous São Paulo team really needs to rethink their symbol, it looks as it was made by anyone using the simplest drawing software.

The color palette is inspired by the São Paulo State flag, it also represents the colors of the team founders. The five-pointed ‘heart’ came out of a competition for the design of the badge by German designer Walter Ostrich, bringing a new aesthetics to a soccer badge. It was different from any other existing at that time, which is a plus point. in 2015, I guess its glory is over, and it’s time to rethink their badge design.

9. Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras

Just for being totally green this badge deserves this position. I’m kidding, of course, but the Palmeiras badge caught our attention for the too many elements it has and for bringing different ways to compose a badge. But different doesn’t mean good or even satisfactory. The Palmeira’s Badge could be divided in two independent, but beautiful ones. Instead of it, we have a badge with a badge inside of a badge. We can also mention the small-turns-big-tuns-small effect of depth a little bit much than needed.

Now lets talk about the good things: the shield inside the circles has a beautifully drawn shape and the capital letter ‘P’ flaunts a very nice form and subtle stokes around it. Overall, this badge is weird, but somehow it works.

8. Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama

This is a very literal symbol for a team, the composition has plenty of references and tributes, messing up a little bit the full graphic effect.

Referring to the Portuguese Navigator, Vasco da Gama, the badge was modified since the original creation in 1903. From a circle to a shield, it has the final version composed by the caravel with the Maltese cross in the center, black background cut by a white stripe in diagonal and sea waves underneath it.

Personally speaking, it doesn’t bother me, but it is true the badge has so many elements that could have been placed and designed in a simpler way, so it deserves our 8th for over-references.

7. Clube Atlético Mineiro

Simple and clean, the Clube Atlético Mineiro’s badge follows the steps of other teams by using the same graphic elements: the badge shape, the bold stripes and black and yellow color to represent them. In this case they have made better design choices when it comes to the composition and the relationships between the elements.

The Star at the top, obviously because of the team being winner of a championship and not a visual choice, interacts nicely with the shield. The white sans serif, bold type is an interesting choice to contrast with the black background, it has presence.

6. Clube de Regatas do Flamengo

The Flamengo badge has a beautiful, stylized and designed monogram inside of a square which is located in the top left side on a striped black and red shield. It’s bold and unapologetic. All of these are the reasons why we chose it to be our 7th place.

Differently of the others, while this symbol is safe, it takes some risks at the same time. Although, each element has its own place, the rigid horizontal stripes compete with the organic lines in the monogram. The colors are working ok, but the interaction between black and red should be rethought as it looks a bit aggressive.

5. Coritiba Foot Ball Club

It looks the mysticism behind the “Coxa” team really helped them to make a nice badge and get the 6th place in our review. “Coxa,” the nickname firstly used to offend or make fun of the team by their rival fans, has since became the official team name and fans are proudly recognized.

The green badge for the Coritiba team won this position exactly because it is pretty different from most. It uses organic and rounded shapes in its composition making it distinguishable very quickly.

According to their official website, the circle represents the earth and the colors refers to the official colors of the state of Paraná. The elements in the top and the bottom of the badge are controversial. Because of the region’s folklore, some say it is the stylized picture of pinecones from the araucaria tree, an abundant type of tree in the south states of Brazil. Officially, it is the representation of the polar extremes of the world. For any of these two explanations, this badge has a very nice concept and not another literal drawing.

4. Sport Club Corinthians Paulista

Corinthians has a special place in my heart for being my family´s team. But I must be impartial and focus solely on the design of the badge (…I apologize family).

The Corinthians symbol, as well as the Vasco da Gama one, sins for the over use of references, but not enough to make it ugly or badly designed. One of the most popular and traditional teams in Brazil, the Corinthian symbol has a red water anchor with red paddles in cross referring to the water sports practiced by the club. This version was created in 1922 by the Modernist painter Francisco Rebolo Gonsalez.

The badge went through a series of changes until 2011 when they settled in the design being used today.

P.S: I prefer the badge used in from 1939 to 1979, it is cleaner, bolder and looks modern without being digital, making it visually comfortable.

3. Fluminense Football Club

Here, at Alfalfa Studio, we love typography and everything that has to do with type design, that’s why the way these three letters are placed and interlaced together in a monogram spoke to us.

But not only for this reason, obviously more things caught our attention besides the monogram. The green and incarnadine colors are used beautifully together, having a white stripe dividing each color field gives each color a place they can call home.

2. Sport Club Internacional

If you guess correctly the reason why we chose Internacional for the second place, you win a prize.

You got it, right? Yes, a well-designed monogram. Bold, victorious, memorable.

The International symbol is beautiful since it was originally created in 1960. The first version of the badge had the typography in red color inside of a white circle surrounded with red borders. Lately, the combination changed for a red circle background with the letterforms in color white.

Having gone through lots of visual transformations, the current badge has some new elements like the white stripe border outside it with the name written in full, which only enriches the badge instead of making it worse. It doesn’t hurt that the tracking and kerning is carefully done as well.

1. Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense

Finally, our first place comes to life in the figure of the Grêmio badge.

This is by far the most different, in a good way, from the others in any category mentioned here, either design, or concept or composition, or colors, or typography. All of these things are noticed in this badge, which is not a traditional shield, or anything else. It is simply an allusion to the soccer ball with the stitch lines. Very simple, understandable, beautiful and works as a fair team symbol.

The graphic elegance and streamlined design of this football soccer team makes it timeless. It could have been designed 100 years ago or 100 years from now. A classic!

Do you agree or disagree with us? Have different perspective visualizing the Brazilian teams badges? Give us your feedback, we are excited to hear your opinions!

Did you like our review? Take a look at our other reviews here and here.