Comments on: Yet another 99designs logo contest knock-off

By: desbest

desbest — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 03:53:38 +0000

loooooooool at their rework. they forgot the exclamation mark!

By: Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:18:00 +0000

LOL Yep. If there’s something worse that having work jacked, it’s having work jacked badly (Paul was the TLF designer of the original Coffee Lounge logo).

By: Paul Grant

Paul Grant — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:45:34 +0000

If they’re going to rip off my work like that, at least improve upon the original

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:46:13 +0000

This is outrageous. It makes my blood boil.

I am a pretty non-judging guy when it comes to inspiration. I will readily admit that I love getting inspired by other designers work.
But this is THEFT. It’s despicable. And to make it even worse, it’s lazy.

Who submitted the stolen logo? The “designer” should be exposed.

By: Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:37:22 +0000

Heh – “sicknote” – I like that. Know what you mean though. I quit playing organized soccer a few years back (not in the shape I used to be in). Coached my son’s teams for several years, and The Logo Factory has sponsored quite a few kid’s teams in the local house leagues. Kinda cool seeing a soccer team running around the pitch with our logo emblazoned on their jerseys. Here’s a snapshot of one of our teams and their coach (alas, I can’t remember his name).

By: David Airey

David Airey — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:20:12 +0000

I should probably quit playing, Steve. I've been going to physio for a hand injury picked up last year, then I break my toe on Monday (for the second time due to football). There have been many more minor injuries along the way. Just call me sicknote. David Airey’s last blog post..The Chip Shop Awards 2009

By: Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:18:41 +0000

@ David – thanks for popping by. Yeah, feeling a little better. It no longer hurts to think. I believe you have a soccer injury of your own? Trust that is healing well also.

@ Rebel Designer – welcome. I think notifying other designers when their work gets knocked off is a pretty decent route to take. Most people appreciate being told when their work is being misappropriated. Keeping notices to obvious copies (and not designs with only the vaguest of similarities) is one way to avoid becoming a PITA.

By: RebelDesigner

RebelDesigner — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:03:29 +0000

@Steve

Great find buddy…

@Adam

Good response… hope things wont be the same in future…

@all others including me

it is even our duty as well to keep an eye on those copycats and spread the word as it happens, but be fair in it, not just pain-in-the-A**

Thanks

By: David Airey

David Airey — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:21:21 +0000

Glad you're feeling a little better, Steve, and that this one was taken care of swiftly. David Airey’s last blog post..Stretching the Virgin logo

By: Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:04:49 +0000

@ Jeremy – thanks for the comment. Like you, I’m not a fan of logo design contests, but I do have to give Adam kudos for handling this episode in the manner that he did (I also thanked him on Twitter). Getting material removed quickly is certainly helpful for such times when it does happen and I’ll avail myself of his suggestion that I contact him personally if it should happen in the future. At the end of the day, my main concern is for our clients property and the potential dilution of their copyright and/or trademark. I also think these bouts of copied work illustrates a very major flaw in the design contest model itself, something which I’ve discussed ad nauseum on my blog.

In terms of posting material on a website portfolio, there’s no real way to get around it and ‘comes with the territory’ for any designer with an online presence. Watermarks only work to a certain degree (and can be removed by anyone with a modicum of software skill), any technical fixes (disabling right-click-save) are laughingly easy to get around and password protecting a portfolio defeats the entire purpose of having a website in the first place. At the end of the day, having work lifted is a risk for any designer, but I think our material gets picked more often due to ranking fairly highly in Google image search for various keywords and the number of images that we’ve added to our site over the years.

Almost forgot to mention – I’d love to take credit for ‘the catch’ but this was sent in to us by another designer who seemed to be as tired of copied work as we are (I haven’t had much time to poke around the internet – as I mentioned, a nasty bout of flu sidelined me for a few days). Not sure if she’d want me to name her, so I won’t, but it’s her detective skills you should be impressed with.