They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Down-right thievery? Not so much
People nicking logo design examples and other stuff from our site happens so frequently, I’ve given up (more or less) grousing about it. Getting material pinched is part and parcel of being on the internets, and if I were to moan about every instance that’s all I’d ever write about. On the other hand, I had a couple of WTF e-mails over the past week on this, so figured we’d post a blog to square things away.
Seems there’s some outfit calling themselves The Logos Factory (notice the S) and their website has been cobbled together with a slew of material, both graphic and written, from ours, leading to a bit of confusion about whether their site TheLogosFactory.com has anything to do with us.
Ahm, no, it doesn’t. Even though they’ve pinched a slew of logos from our portfolio:
And their about us page credits me as the founder of the company (imagine my surprise) though that’s just been nicked verbatim from our ‘what’s our story‘ page. Their terms and conditions, privacy policy, trademarks pages and other bits and pieces are lifted whole-cloth from our site. I’ve dealt with plagiarism issues umpteen times over the years, and have grown somewhat immune, but this is a a bit much. Even for this jaded old designer. For lack of a better word, it’s identity theft. Who are the folks behind Thelogosfactory,com and why do they think it appropriate to copy our name (a registered trademark), material from our portfolio and verbiage from our site?
I tried asking:
To no avail, These cats, based in Mexico I believe, just won’t play nice. Oddly, and if it weren’t so many levels of breathtaking douchbaggery, it would almost be flattering – they’re obviously trying to mimic our humble shop to sew confusion with potential clients. Here’s the serious issue about all this though – would you trust an outfit that’s so obviously not opposed to stealing other people’s artwork, copy and identity to design your logo. an exercise in originality?
Didn’t think so.
Video mash-up shows the Universal studios logos over the past 100 years
A little late to the party with this one, but pretty cool stuff nonetheless. Celebrating 100 years of movie-making, Universal premiered their new logo with The Lorax this past weekend. This is the first change of the logo in 15 years, the previous version having been launched before The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997.
From our archives – a logo and stationery design project for an upscale sports bar & grill in Tracy, California
It could be argued that logos created for restaurants and food service companies have the widest design latitude available, and that in no other service industry does the company logo more reflect the essence of the business itself. The design direction is generally dictated by a mix of economic factors (does the restaurant want to market itself as upscale cuisine or economical fast food?), cultural factors (is the restaurant to specialize in ethnic fare? – Indian, Chinese or Mexican to name a few) and any market segment that the restaurant is to appeal to (is the restaurant to be a trendy eatery or a party-hardy sports bar and grill) which brings us to Covey’s Sports Grill, the subject of this, our latest logo design case study.
Despite grousing by NoSpec this, and Antispec that, everyone and their dog are opening up design contest sites, so we figure it’s time to pitch our less-than-principled hat into the crowdsourcing ring. At least, until people start catching on
Getting something designed at our new design contest site is easy. Real easy. Even though you could totally do it yourself, we’ll help you run a contest, using something everyone’s calling “crowdsourcing”. That’s where a whole bunch of anonymous designers compete to create sort of design – usually a logo – to meet your needs. All you really need is a clear idea of what you want designed and how much you’re willing to pay. Don’t fret over the amount you promise to pay either, cause if you want, you can always ask us for your money back, and you won’t have to pay any stupid prize. You can even help yourself to the ideas that our zany designers have uploaded, and get someone else to render it, before asking for a refund. That’s a lot cheaper than awarding the prize. We’ll keep your $29 ‘listing fee’ if that’s all the same with you. We’ll also keep the money you paid for all those contest listing upsells – bold titles, screened boxes and a link on our front page – ’cause that’s only fair. Running a spec work website is hard, and while designers might be willing to work for free (yeah, we find it hard to believe too) we certainly aren’t. Appreciate if you’d keep that little nugget between us though, as someday, a whole bunch of designers are going to wise up to this whole working for free deal, and then we’re pretty well finished. Torches and pitchforks kinda thing. Obviously, we’d like to put off that day as long as possible, so for the time being, here’s how it all works…
From our archives – A kid-friendly logo for a water-themed amusement park in Draper, Utah illustrates that even fun logos are serious business.
The logo for Cowabunga Bay Water Park was a cool little project from a few years ago – and I figured it would make a good addition to our ongoing series of case studies, especially with Spring (and then Summer) just around the corner. For what it’s worth, Cowabunga Bay is one of the largest water parks in the world, and boasts as the park centerpiece, the world’s largest tipping bucket, a fact that we’d use in the later stages of the logo design process. The creative brief on this project was fairly straight forward – we were to design a logo that represented the water park, appealed to kids (and their parents) and was to have a fun vibe. Colors were no object, in fact the more the merrier, but the logo had to be adaptable for a wide range of applications – everything from signage, to print advertising, clothing and embroidered goods to traditional business staples. Our designers were given free range throughout the project and started, as with most illustrative logo design projects, with a series of sketches and idea-doodles. In early rounds of concept sketches, we threw around the idea of having a Hawaiian themed character who could be used in various situations and activities.
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