Typophile - Blatant Plagiarism / Infringment - Comments

Thanks for that insight,

Hildebrant — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 12:54:00 -0700

Thanks for that insight, Jeff.

I have a feeling, with all of the uproar that is going on, we will see something happening with LogoWorks very soon.

Here’s some more info on

LogoMotives — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 14:16:11 -0700

Here’s some more info on the LogoWorks issue:

Just wanted to pass on some information about the “logo design” company LogoWorks. The firm has been getting a lot of major glowing press lately:

Wall Street Journal
http://tinyurl.com/9o4w5

Entrepreneur Magazine
http://www.entrepreneur.com/logocontest/0,7353,,00.html

Over the past few days more and more people have discovered that numerous LogoWorks designs have actually been blatantly ripped off from other designers. You may want to take a look at some of the discussion and evidence at some of these links:

The Origins of Brands Blog - written in praise of LogoWorks.
The comments offer a great deal of info:
http://tinyurl.com/bs8gb

BadDesignKills
http://www.baddesignkills.com/logoworks/index.htm

ThePreparedMind
http://tinyurl.com/bbv9c

Morea’s Photos
http://tinyurl.com/dmhrr

HOW Design Forum Discussion
http://tinyurl.com/bej4q

A HOW Forum “discussion” with a LW designer
http://tinyurl.com/a9rry

I’m sure this will get more interesting as the week continues. Personally, I feel such “logo mills” do a huge disservice to the graphic design industry. The outright stealing of the work of other designers is another issue and its blatancy is incredible to me - and should outrage all designers and the clients being taken for what initially may be an inexpensive ride to get a new logo. How many stolen designs have been repackaged and sold to unexpecting clients by LogoWorks?

- J.

Jeff Fisher :: Engineer of Creative Identity
Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Author: Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success from HOW Design Books

Here’s another case - from

LogoMotives — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:06:43 -0700

Here’s another case - from the logo mill LogoWorks:

Here’s a link to a blog touting the LogoWorks company:
http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/2005/08/no_more_ugly_lo.html

These links are from one of the comments posted -

This link shows a LogoWorks.com logo design:
http://www.baddesignkills.com/logoworks/markfox_hacked.gif

Here it is in context of their site:
http://www.baddesignkills.com/logoworks/incontext.jpg

Here is the source of LogoWorks.com ’Top Quality Design’ as you described it:
http://www.baddesignkills.com/logoworks/markfox.gif

Comes from the book: ’The New American Logo’ (See page 133)

- J.

Jeff Fisher :: Engineer of Creative Identity
Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Author: Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success from HOW Design Books

Perhaps the problem is that

dezcom — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:48:43 -0700

Perhaps the problem is that the traditional monogram style is such a longstanding tradition in Enlish speaking countries that the odds of seeing such similarities is not far fetched. Using the monogram for TDC makes sense because it speaks to a typographic tradition. The “Desert Troon” however makes much less connection and does not seem to be a good fit. I have no idea if the similarity is intentional, I only say that to me it suits TDC far, far better and that “DTC” would be far better served using something different.

ChrisL

jlt: Thanks for the

Hildebrant — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 21:27:03 -0700

jlt: Thanks for the clarification. They are too a local company here where I am. I had considered contacting them so they knew — but that is already taken care of.

I will be curious to see what comes of this. I know that TDC has been in contact with DTC.

Cheers!

Kyle, I have communicated

jlt — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:44:19 -0700

Kyle,

I have communicated with a principal at I-Ology and do trust him. He tells me that the logo was already in use by The Desert Troon company when their association with the client began. The client is “investigating” the origin of the logo and how it came to be used by them; hopefully we will soon know who presented it to them as their original work.

Plagiarism is not copying

timd — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 01:18:26 -0700

Plagiarism is not copying exactly it involves taking somebody else’s work or idea and passing it off as one’s own.
And if you look at the DTC logo it does have differences from the TDC logo background pattern, slightly less well drawn serifs, broader stroke – obviously taken from the TDC logo but because it has been redrawn badly it is different. The pair that I linked to are currently the subjects of an argument between the two groups , of course it doesn’t help that the two are linked to the opposite sides of the UK political spectrum.
Does Coca-Cola make their product from polar bears? Perhaps they farm them in remote locations, do they employ herders and what are their dogs like? They could market an organic version. The wages for milking polar bears would have to be pretty good.
Tim

See, that’s just a

cerulean — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 23:31:55 -0700

See, that’s just a similarity. They are different flocks of birds arranged in different ways with different type. The Bruges Group no more owns all flocks of birds than the Coca-Cola Company owns all polar bears, as much as they wish they did.

TDC/DTC is copied exactly. If they had independently thought of the idea of arranging those letters that way, there would be differences, even if they chose the same face. Every little irregularity is duplicated.

Still they are “Committed

timd — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 10:12:07 -0700

Still they are “Committed to Cultural Integrity”
Here is another clash of concepts
EU Presidency and The Bruges Group
Tim

jlt, do you know that for

Hildebrant — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:36:48 -0700

jlt,

do you know that for sure? or is that an assumption?

i-ology did indeed do the

jlt — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 12:08:25 -0700

i-ology did indeed do the website, but they had nothing to do with the logo. I am not sure who did the logo.

Thanks for linking to the

LogoMotives — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 09:55:38 -0700

Thanks for linking to the other thread - I was wondering if it had been posted previously.

- J.

Jeff Fisher :: Engineer of Creative Identity
Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Author: Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success from HOW Design Books

“The TDC logo emblem was

jackson — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 21:57:19 -0700

“The TDC logo emblem was drawn by Gerard Huerta. The banner mark is in Clearview One Black, by James Montalbano.”
from the TDC website. (the type one)

TDC would be the original. I

Hildebrant — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:29:41 -0700

TDC would be the original. I can’t remember at this moment who design it. I thought it was Jim Parkinson, but I know thats not right. Anyone know who designed the logo?

Do we know who copied who,

bergamot — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 16:56:34 -0700

Do we know who copied who, or are we just assuming that a typography club would never do that?

Blatant Plagiarism / Infringment

Hildebrant — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 14:59:58 -0700

First off, I really despise these type of posting with people pointing and saying “hey, look at the ’rip’, thats so lame,” but here I am — doing just that.

This is way too unethical.

Type Directors Club
http://tdc.org/

Desert Troon Companies
http://www.desert-troon.com/

They claim a USPTO registration, but I can’t find an entry for the mark.

http://www.i-ology.com did the website, not sure if the were the ’designers’ of the mark or not.