Search engine giant Google has been using their logo to celebrate happenings and significant dates for years – draping visual accents and graphics onto their corporate mark. They’ve used the Google logo to celebrate the Olympics, Earth Day, holidays and other special events. Last week Google posted a ‘Miro-icized’ version of their logo in order to mark the birthday (April 20) of late Spanish surrealist painter and sculptor Joan Miro. Kinda cool, too, as I suspect that few outside the art/design world have ever heard of Miro and Google’s homage probably introduced the artist (or at least the artist’s style) to a whole new audience.
Many design forum posts indicated that the Miro logo was a hit. Until, that is, the family of the artist and the Artists Rights Society that represents Miro’s family happened upon it. The fired off a letter of protest, claiming copyright infringement of the artist’s work and name, and demanded Google remove the image – which they did. I find it hard to believe that this was, in fact, copyright infringement and if anything, was a nice little homage to the painter and sculptor.
Related posts:
