Hasta La Ideas

Michel Platini likes it – the official logo, identity and slogan for football’s 2012 European championships have been unveiled…

And, in comparison to the stuff usually dreamed up for these events, the logo’s not half bad. Well, at least it’s, er, interesting.

Designed by Portuguese group Brandia Central, it features two flowers symbolising the joint host nations Poland and Ukraine who will, as the official slogan has it, be “Creating History Together” at the tournament. Platini, who is Uefa president, said at the launch (the whole painful event is captured here) “The symbolism of a plant that grows is fully in line with the aspirations of the two host countries, and I am sure that we will be creating history together with the staging of the Uefa European Football Championship in central and east Europe for the first time.”

According to Uefa the logo symbolises “the emotion and passion of the competition, while the stem denotes the structural aspect of the competition, UEFA and European football. Nature has inspired other features of the visual identity, with woodland green, sun yellow, aqua blue, sky blue and blackberry purple being the crucial tones of the palette of colours to figure in official tournament branding.”

A film here attempts to justify the cost involved explain the thinking behind the symbol.