Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Copy Cat?

The city of Chandler, Arizona is out ragged; Barack Obama has stolen their city's logo! Both logos are round with a white circle in the middle and red and white lines distinguishing a perspective point. A round red, white, and blue logo?! Call me crazy, but the concept of this design was not invented by the city of Chandler.

Resident Michael Rivera says, "I know this sounds like a petty issue, but if our city has that logo trademarked we should be at least charging Senator Obama a licensing fee." An attorney for Chandler's mayor has said that it isn't likely Chandler will make any demands of Obama (despite the logo being trademarked in 1993).

The debate over the originality of a logo design is not a new topic for designers. Multiple corporations and businesses have been in legal battles for years over the design and trademark of their logo, but lets face it-no matter how clever your idea, the chances are someone has created a very similar logo. The reasons for these copy cats is no coincidence. We’re all surrounded by the same influences, exposed to the same shapes, forms and patterns. Logos follow certain trends in the marketing place and designers take note of these changes. And lets not forget the old saying 'Imitation is the best form of flattery.'

Below are some the most famous and controversial logo copy cat examples.




Via Logodesignlove.com and azcentral.com ••••

4 comments:

Tess Mattern said...

Interesting! I think it is highly doubtful that the Obama campaign even saw the logo for the city of Chandler. But some of the other copy cat examples are a bit more questionable...

I remember being shocked by the close resemblance of the Quark logo to that of the Scottish Arts Council, but I do believe it was an honest mistake and that the two could be logically derived by separate designers working with the letters "a" and "Q." That being said, designers, do your research!

Anonymous said...

The quark/scottish arts one is very startling. as for the Sun/Columbia, I think that motif is probably derived from ancient runes. Very elemental and universal... I've seen the carrier logo and assumed it was a subdivision of Ford. I guess not!

Fascinating stuff.

Anonymous said...

The only copy is the Quark one? All the others might use some of the same techniques but they are not copies. Is someone puts script text in an ellipse sape...no one can ever do it? Are we saying that the first person to use a photoshop technique owns that technique? No, that's wrong.

Anonymous said...

Hmm I'd really have to say that the two have more differences then similarities. It would seem as if the city of chandler is simply looking for free publicity.