Now that Gap has announced they’re abandoning their new logo, as well as passing on crowdsourcing for further development, perhaps we should take a look for lessons learned

After an Internet backlash about the new Gap logo late last week, the clothing retailer has now backed down, returning to their original mark, as well as nixing any plans to crowdsource a new design. According to company officials:

“We’ve learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognise that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing. There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way.”

So, as designers, what can we learn? Several things I think. The first is this silly notion that ‘logos are dead.’ Obviously, logos still resonate with a large percentage of the market, consumers and customers. The second is that designers, when they work together, can exact change in their industry. Remember that when you want to gripe about ‘yet another spec work’ article. According to Ad Age, 80% of Gap customers surveyed, had no idea about the online controversy swirling about the ‘new’ Gap logo, so it’s a safe bet that a lot of the dust-up involved designers. It would therefore seem, despite all the spec work talking points, designers as a whole are still very much opposed to crowdsourcing and design contests.

Related posts:

1. AIGA softening positon on spec and design contests?
2. What logo design secrets can we learn from the top 100 brands?
3. SXSW ’09: Is spec work evil?

For designers, displaying images, logos and artwork on a website is a two-edged sword. In order to market design services it’s necessary to show work, but it also makes it easy for people to copy images with a simple right mouse click. Myows is a service that aims to change that by helping you protect your online copyrights, and getting material that has been copied, removed.

When it comes to displaying artwork on the internet, there are two types of designers. Those that have been knocked-off. And those that will be knocked-off. At The Logo Factory, we’ve had a running battle with copycats for years, with copied logos showing up everywhere from local pizzerias to logo design contest submissions and even on the television. Policing our work, and that of our clients, requires a healthy investment of time, effort and is, to be blunt, a pain in the ass. I only wish there was a service like Myows back in the day – it would have saved me a ton of e-mail bickering with would-be plagiarists.

My Own Works

Myows, shortened from ‘My Own Works‘ is the brainchild of Chris Human, Dave O’Reilly, Max Guedy and Steve Ferguson, brand strategist, web programmer, web designer and an IP attorney respectively, all of whom had grown tired of rampant content theft and believed that in the digital age there had to be a better way to register a copyright (other methods, the poor man’s copyright for example, don’t work). The group also worked closely with recognized online copyright expert, Plagiarism Today‘s Jonathan Bailey (we featured Jonathan’s trademark, copyright and logo design a couple of weeks ago). While trying to avoid sounding like an ad, here’s some of the tools that Myows makes available to users.

* Assists in securing the removal of unauthorized copy(s) of your work on- and off-line.
* Provides access to a growing pool of copyright-related knowledge and resources.
* Helps you keep track of permissions granted and active cases.
* Provides you with deterrence measures including custom warning graphics.
* Lets you store, view and manage your protected works in one place, online.
* Creates valuable evidence of your copyright.
* Presents the opportunity to become part of a global IP-savvy community.
* Proves the exact dates on which you uploaded your files, down to the minute.

If you want to see what others have said about Myows, take a gander at these reviews. If you’re a designer, photographer or a creative that has ‘exposed’ material online, I suggest that you give Myows a whirl. For the time being, it’s free (the company is planning pro accounts any day now). Interesting side note – the Myows logo was designed by the supremely talented Von Glitschka who was kind enough to send us the original sketch of the Myows logo character (below). You can check out more of Von’s work at his website.

Related posts:

1. Just around the corner – online copyright registration
2. Best online logo company of 2008 – Logoworks
3. Marketing Online Design Series

The Democrat National Commitee unveil the new Democrats look, logo and party slogan. As with most things political these days, critics wasted no time in piling on the new design

With mid-term November elections just around the corner, one would have thought that redesigning the party logo would be far down the ‘to do’ list for the Democrats, but change it they did, announcing the new look on the redesigned official party website yesterday. Gone is the kicking donkey mascot, stars and stripes emblazoned typography, replaced by a simple capital D in a circle (above).

Critics were quick to pounce, suggesting that while the “Republican Party was eating their lunch” (a reference to current polls that indicate large gains for the GOP in the upcoming midterms), the Democrats were fiddling with logos. Conservative blogger MIchelle Malkin suggested that the new design had somehow evolved from the logo for Acorn, the community service group that was the target of much conservative scorn in recent years.

Others pointed out the design’s similarity to the Obama campaign logo, arguably one of the best political ‘brands’ in recent memory. Though I guess we can be thankful that nobody’s managed to find an Islamic crescent hidden in the logo. Yet.

Announcing the new logo, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine claimed that “This new identity for our party captures the spirit that unites us all. Democrats—all of us—working for the change that matters.” If I were a political wag, I’d point out that the Democrats have been in charge for the last couple of years, so I’m not sure about this ‘change’ thing.

But I’m not. So I won’t.

Related posts:

1. More Obama logo looney tunes
2. GOP & Democratic party political logos
3. Poor Man’s Copyright (again).

Yet another nontroversy featuring Obama and an ice cream store logo

When you’re the President of the US, taking a family vacation isn’t just a matter of loading the Magic Van with the wife and kiddies and booking it for some private time. Nosiree Bob. Everything you do is under the media spotlight, every stop on the way is a photo-op for news outlets hungry for content. Case in point – when the Obamas toured Bar Harbor, Maine as part of their vacation back in July, taking in tourist destinations like Acadia National Park and Cadillac Mountain. Those visits didn’t hit the press however, with most focusing on the First Family’s stop at a small ice cream shop called Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream. Right leaning political blogs fired up their conspiracy machines, wondering if Obama picked the shop because of their logo’s apparent similarity to the old Black Power clenched fist logo from the 1960s (sadly, I am not making this up). One blogger even went as far as to suggest that Obama chose this ice cream shop to send out a message to his “core radical base.” Some even opined that the logo was reminiscent of the Black Panthers (it isn’t – the Black Panthers logo is, well, a black panther). Even the New York Times picked up on the flap, telling readers about “President Obama’s Vast Ice-Cream Conspiracy.” Oddly, nobody seemed to notice the logo (left) for The 9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington, organized by the decidedly conservative organization Freedom Works, featuring similar Soviet Era iconography. The fists are red, and we all know what that means (see – anyone can play).

Alas, this isn’t the first time that a logo has caused a kerfluffle amongst Obama’s political opponents. Anyone remember the Missile Defense Islamic crescent logo that wasn’t? Or how about the Nuclear Security Summit Islamic crescent logo that wasn’t either?

Related posts:

1. Another Obama logo. Another Islamic crescent.
2. Missile Defense Agency logo. More tin-foil hattery
3. Obama logo design – behind the scenes

Nothing illustrates success more than success itself. Accordingly, here’s a look at the corporate logos of the top 10 companies in the 2010 Fortune 500 lineup (plus a couple that dropped out this year). Let’s see what we can learn…

It’s been said that is the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail. The design corollary to that might be, if you’re a logo designer, everything starts looking like a logo. Or at least how things look through the prism of logo design. So, while running the risk of posting yet another worthless “Best Of” post, let’s do just that and take a look at the top ten companies in the 2010 Fortune 500. This was originally intended as a 2009 Fortune 500 corporate logo round-up, but minutes before I hit publish, I realized that the 2010 list was already out on the CNN Money website (the actual magazine version doesn’t hit the stands until May). Luckily, there were few changes (other than two companies getting ‘knocked out’) so after a few quick additions and edits, here is the 2010 version. We’ll try and interpret the design side of things after the jump.

10. Hewlett-Packard

Revenue (in $ millions) 114,552

9. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Revenue (in $ millions) 115,632

8. Ford Motor

Revenue (in $ millions) 118,308

7. AT&T

Revenue (in $ millions) 123,018

6. ConocoPhillips

Revenue (in $ millions) 139,515

5. Bank of America Corp.

Revenue (in $ millions) 150,450

4. General Electric

Revenue (in $ millions) 156,779

3. Chevron

Revenue (in $ millions) 163,527

2. Exxon Mobil

Revenue (in $ millions) 284,650

1. Wal Mart

Revenue (in $ millions) 408,214

Missing from last years Fortune 500 top 10:

15. General Motors

Revenue (in $ millions) 104,589 Dropped from #6 in 2009.

26. Valero Energy

Revenue (in $ millions) 70,035 Dropped from #10 in 2009.

What can we learn?

As it’s highly unlikely that the company logos featured above had anything to do with their rise, or fall, on the Fortune 500 list, we probably can’t garner too much ‘let’s do this on our logo’ kind of information. We can however, for interest’s sake, analyze the ten logos and present a completely unscientific set of data that may, or may not, be factored into your next design project. To whit:

• 80% use blue.
• 90% use a sans-serif font.
• Only 2 use an acronym of the full company name.
• 40% only use one color.
• 40% use two spot colors.
• Out of the four logos that employ spot colors, 3 of them use red.
• Only two (AT&T and Ford) are even vaguely realistic or Illustrative.
• Only two use a script font.
• 40% use iconic portions that can be ‘free standing’.
• Only one uses a text only approach.
• We’ve only designed logos for one of the top ten.
• Absolutely no cartoon characters. None.
• None of this overused crap either.
• One looks suspiciously like the symbol from The Empire in Star Wars.
• I have no idea what the ConocoPhillips red squiggly thing is (a plane?).
• Can’t say I’m sad to see the Valero logo get bumped out.

And thus concludes our completely meaningless look at the Top 10 Most Valuable Logo Properties of the Fortune 500 list. Sorry, but somebody had to do it.

Related posts:

1. Logorama. Short film featuring corporate brands as villains and heroes gets Oscar nod.
2. 2010 World Cup logo protest
3. Famous corporate logos & design contests?

From the Here We Go Again Department. Fox News & right wing bloggers find yet another Islamic Crescent in yet another Obama logo. And just like the last time, they’re completely out to lunch.

In many ways, a symbolic logo design is like a Rorschach inkblot test. Unless they’re particularly literal or illustrative, our mind has to interpret what our eyes are seeing. And like its psychological cousin, interpreting a logo is often heavily influenced by our personal experiences and biases. In other words, we see what we want to see. And once again, a lot of people on the right side of the political aisle are seeing an Islamic Crescent in a logo that represents a US government initiative in general, linked to Barack Obama in specific. Last week, the US President hosted the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit with the stated goal of preventing “non-state actors from obtaining nuclear technology or materials”. Pretty historic stuff too, with Obama being the first leader to convene such a gathering – 47 nations in total – the largest since the formation of the United Nations. Ignoring all of this, and once again, Right Wing blogs and media outlets have sniffed out yet another Islamic Crescent in the logo for the event.

Michael Goodwin, a columnist at Rupert Murdoch owned New York Post got the ball rolling:

“The first time I saw the swirling logo for the Nuclear Security Summit, it looked familiar. I soon figured out what it reminded me of: a crescent moon. The kind of crescent moon you see on the flags of Muslim countries (from left: Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan)…I am certain the crescent-like design of the logo is not a coincidence, especially at an event where Iran’s nuclear ambition and al Qaeda’s search for a bomb are prime topics”.

Right Side News published a long screed that started off telling us that the Nuclear Summit Logo is an Islamic-Shaped Crescent. Atlas Shrugs loon Pamela Geller breathlessly regurgitated the story on her blog. Never missing an opportunity to stir the conspiratorial pot, Murdoch owned Fox News got in on the action,

In atomic physics, the Bohr model, devised by Niels Bohr, depicts the atom as a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by electrons that travel in circular orbits around the nucleus—similar in structure to the solar system, but with electrostatic forces providing attraction, rather than gravity.

And here’s what one version of a Bohr Model looks like:

Related posts:

1. Google logo features Islamic Crescent? Ahm, no.
2. More Obama logo looney tunes
3. Booga, booga. Conservative bloggers find Islamic crescent in Obama’s Missile Defense ‘logo’. Everyone freaks out.

“We provide you the battlefield and weaponry to conquer the creative world. Creative soldiers have the opportunity to battle their enemies for monetary prizes, develop a reputation by climbing the ranks, construct professional profiles and meet new creative allies. Enlist and prepare your artistic weaponry. Victory can be yours!”

Oh wait. Sorry, that’s from the about us page from Guerra Creativa, another one of these design contest sites, when describing their services to designers. [Guerra Creativa]

Several Pint Tips I should get out of the way before we get too much further. Anyone who’s been following the logo design game, especially as it relates to the internet, is probably aware of the shenanigans some people get up to in order to place well in search engine result pages (we’ve touched on it before in our logo wars post from a few years back). Looks like designers are starting to notice, which is good, and starting to tell folks about it, which is even better. UK based logo designer Graham Smith takes a look at what’s going on in a great post on his ImJustCreative blog, delving into some of the questionable (and sometimes downright unethical) approaches some logo design companies are taking. In a similar vein, Australia based designer Duane Kinsey opines that Google doesn’t understand professional logo design on his Logobird site. If that weren’t enough, Logo Design Love reveals the folly of logo design SEO in a post by UK based David Airey. All three articles are excellent summaries of the minefield that anyone’s presented with when they type in the words “logo + design” into a Google search bar.

Speaking of design contest sites (oh yes, we were) there’s yet another game in town. Calling themselves White Label Design Contest, this outfit has a newer angle than most of the others now plying their trade all over the interwebs. Their home page asks us tantalizingly “Want to create a website that works like 99designs?” and then goes on to describe how they can help you “set up your own design contest site with [their] hassle-free application. Our platform has the same functionality as 99designs, you can use it to create a website based on the concept of designers submitting their work to design projects (“contests”)“. Oh, that sounds just peachy. The money bit? Don’t worry your pretty little head: “Our business model is based on revenue sharing, which means that the revenue generated by your site is shared between us and you, and you only have to pay us once your business starts making money“. No mention how designers get paid, though if it’s like most design contest sites, that’s not part of the equation. As they won’t be. [White Label Contests].

Best selling author John Winsor is gung-ho about crowdsourcing and what have you, but as he’s one of the founders of Victors & Spoils, billed as “the worlds first advertising agency built on crowdsourcing principles” can’t really blame him. Brimming with enthusiasm, John’s just published a blog post entitled “It’s only the beginning”, in which he tells us that the current buzz around crowdsourcing is, well, only the beginning. Standard pro spec work and crowdsourcing fare, except for one notable exception. John tells us about the future of the genre which includes “the expectation of transparency, the further digitization of the workforce and the rise of the curator class“. Rise of the curator class? Jeezus, that doesn’t sound snooty at all. John mustn’t have got the memo. [John Winsor]

Crowdsourcing: Opportunity or Time Suck? That’s the question asked by Entrepreneur magazine in a website article published last week. I’m thinking time suck, but then again, no-one’s ever accused me of being the most unbiased cat on the subject. Unlike most rah-rah design contest and crowdsourcing puff pieces, author Michelle Goodman takes a decent, level-headed look at the issue, outlining the generally accepted pros and cons of the practice (unfortunately falling for the crowdsourcing numbers game used by most of the outfits mentioned in the piece). Her overall conclusion? Crowdsourcing may not be for everyone, but it’s here to stay. Alas, she’s probably right on both counts. [Entrepreneur]

Looks like AT&T is messing around with their logo. If the video at the link is any indication, they’re not rebranding completely, but simply removing the AT&T typography that’s been featured below and at the right of their little death starish icon. The people at Gizmodo are less than impressed, wondering if the phone company could focus their funds on addressing dropped calls first. Fair criticism I suppose. [Gizmodo]

Speaking of logo design and video games (we sorta were, alluding to it in the War or Warcraft bit) seems there’s now a company that will design logos for people to use in the Second Life universe. According to this post on the Second Life blog pages, your design will be tackled by someone with “in-game experience so that you receive the highest standards of design“. They also tell us that a logo is important to “establish brand Identity”, “retain loyalty”, “gain more clients” and “increase sales”. Whether this is in the real world, or the make believe world of Second Life is anyone’s guess, but hats off for these cats finding a niche that no-one had even though about. [Second Life blogs]

Designers are always going on about how a logo adds an air of legitimacy to any business offering (guilty as charged). Looks like spammers have now caught on to this principle, using the IRS logo to legitimize a fairly cynical phishing scam to try and score personal information. As this is tax time, the spammers are trying to fool people using subject headers like “You’ve Overpaid” and offering fast-tracked tax refunds. The official looking e-mail will take you to a website that also looks legit, asking you to provide personal information goodies which can then be used for identity theft, or to drain your bank account. To counter the scam, the IRS has put out an official statement that explains they’ll never ask for your personal information over the phone or online so, if you get one of these e-mails either just hit delete or forward it on to phishing@IRS.gov. We got a ton of these last week, pretty well to every mail account at our domain, but while the IRS has a long arm indeed, it probably doesn’t stretch across the 49th. [Channel 9 News Syracuse]

Happy Tax Day.

Have an interesting blog piece, logo or ‘different’ take on the graphic design industry that might make interesting fodder for an upcoming Snippet feature? Feel free to drop us a line. You can also hit us up on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Tip o’ the Pint design snippets. September edition
2. Snippets: Spring Tip o’ the Pint edition
3. Snippets: The crowdsourcing, writing on spec & design contest follies edition

The Logo Factory April Fools Gag. Huge thanks to everyone for playing along with our April Fools gag from a couple of days ago. Special kudos to David Airey who jump-started a lot of the frivolities, twattering to his 7,000+ followers that “Former No-Spec proponent Steve Douglas back-tracks and launches The Contest Factory“. Heh. I’m sure that got the attention of a few folks. Overall, I had a lot of fun putting the irony laden piece together (though it wasn’t that far removed from the realities of most actual design contest sites) and seems like everyone that read it, got the gag, lulzing it around various social media platforms. Everyone, that is, except the couple of designers who contacted the studio, wanting to sign up for our new ‘contest thingy’. And the cat who e-mailed me, suggesting I acquaint myself with the anti design contest initiative No-Spec!. And that I acquaint our new spec work venture with my derrière. Which apparently is both fat, and a sellout. The risks of using irony on a blog, I suppose.

“We didn’t like the hordes of amateur designers cluttering projects with concepts. We liked having a low barrier to entry, but this also means setting a low bar for design quality in many cases. Working for free is hard enough as it is – does every 15 year old with a pirated copy of Adobe Creative Suite have to be included too?”

Gee, doesn’t that sound just a tad elitist and snooty? Just a couple of things too. 15-year-olds with a pirated couple of Illustrator? You should be so lucky. Not paying people for design work attracts folks who might present ‘low quality’ work? Who da thunk it? And at the risk of sounding like a wag, how can you complain about amateur designers tossing their designs into the ring, when nobody’s getting paid for the tossing? Besides, lowering the bar for amateur designers is one of the central themes that all so-called crowdsourcing sites give as a reason for their services, not as a weakness of such services (guessing AdMaven didn’t get the ‘democratization of design‘ memo). Bottom line; the guy doing the reviewing wants professional designers, with licensed software, who just happen to be of legal contract-signing age. Wonder where they’d find such a thing?

Oh, oh, I know…

New Freelance Site: Wednesday marked the launch date of Andrew Hyde‘s new freelance design site Pick.im. Brutally simple concept too. Freelance designers can register and upload their portfolios. Design buyers can search for a service provider with criteria including budget, designer experience and skill set and the localization filters will cough up a list of qualified graphic designers in your area. How much of a market is there for such a service? Quite a bit, if Pick.im’s first day of operation stats (above) are any indication. If you’re a freelance designer, it’s probably worth a looksee. [Pick.im]

The Devil’s in the Details. Or at Least in the Fine Print: Supposed to encourage citizens of St Albert (and the region) to “discover, experience and celebrate the creative endeavours of local artists and performers” the St Alberts’ Cultivates The Arts festival is scheduled for September. The ‘steering committee’ want a logo for it. So they’re having a logo contest (isn’t everyone?). As is typical, they’re offering a prize of $2,000 for the winner. What’s not so typical is one of the contest disclaimers which goes something like this:

“The St. Albert Cultivates the Arts Committee reserves the right to select no winning entry if it deems that the submissions do not meet the needs of the organization”

See, I think these cats are well within their rights to not use any of the designs entered. Ain’t so sure about not picking a winner, or not doling out the prize, especially if you’re advertising the gig as a competition, or contest, and using a two grand ‘prize’ to entice participation. Like, aren’t there rules about such things? [St. Albert Cultivates the Arts]

As this is the Easter weekend, probably won’t be any more posts till Monday. Maybe even Tuesday. Busy hanging out with the family, and digging into our fave Easter treat, those ever-so-yummy Cadbury Creme Eggs. You know the ones. Little tinfoil-wrapped chocolate eggs with gooey insides that look just like egg yolk, are about 120% sugar and who knows how many calories. In the meantime, and in keeping with an Easter theme, you should hop over to the Christian Science Monitor, where they’ll tell you how some online companies, including Google, have set up egg hunts, themed gags and other goodies.

Happy Easter.

Related posts:

1. Snippets: Spec work & crowdsourcing edition
2. Snippets: Crowdspring to offer spec writing, NEA holds a spec work contest & other news
3. Snippets: The Oscar weekend, Logorama, Blog Fail & new Ubuntu logo edition

The bitter-free, Spring Tip o’ the Pint, weekend edition of our regular snippets feature. Throwing a little link love to blogs, websites, logos and logo design articles we kinda dug.

To Upstack. In this spec work, crowdsourcing and design contest era, would be remiss if I didn’t tip a pint towards people who are tilting against the tide. Accordingly, would like to congratulate the good people at Upstack, a web-based design platform that attempts to pair buyers and designers on various projects. In a sea of websites and spec driven companies that all claim to be “doin’ some innovating” (but are merely retreads of each other), it’s nice to see a new operation that’s actually appears, well, innovative. The website, currently in BETA, is lovely, the user interface extremely well done and, as boasted on the front page, the entire operation is spec work free. I’ve given the site a few gears over the past few months, but that was all in good fun (or at least, it was supposed to be) so I’d like to take this opportunity to wish them the best. And if you’re a designer who’s profoundly opposed to spec work, it’s probably worth the effort to hit Wes & Co. up for an invite. [Upstack]

To the Spartan Golf Club logo. Even though I’ve been in this business for way too long, once in a while I’ll stumble over a logo that really grabs my attention, a remarkable piece of design magnificence that works on so many levels. You know, the kind of logo that I wished I designed. And the kind of logo I’ll probably never design. Like this example, a stock logo from Brandstack (we just discussed their fraternal site Upstack) for a business that involves Spartans and Golf. Accordingly, a tip of the pint to Lex Logo (probably not his real name, if you know what that is, let me know.) for creating a mark that has a few of us a little green with envy. Well done sir. And, if you’re thinking about opening a golf club, calling it Spartan, and have $3,600 ready to spend, how could you NOT buy this logo? Comes with the web domain too. Update: Designer of this logo is Richard Fonteneau. [Brandstack]

To Mike Erickson. I’ve known logo designer Mike Erickson for years now and count him among my friends in the industry. We often chat about design, logos (particularly more illustrative logos, one of Mike’s specialties, and our favored style) as well as the personal ups and downs of well, living. Mike’s just launched his new Logomotive site, and have to give him kudos for a particularly nice job. I know it wasn’t easy, as in the re-brand he tossed a duck logo (that he’s been using for eons) in favor of his new train theme (more corporate, and a motif suggested by his business name). Very similar to the angst we went through when we tossed our Factory house last fall, so if they were real pints we’re tossing about, we’d probably be crying into them. I’d also like to bring your attention to this bit of typography porn on Mike’s site. Bottom line, if ever you wanted to find out about what makes up letters, or what all the bits and pieces are called, this page has everything you’ll need to know. [Logomotive]

To the Marquee design agency. We hoist a glass to the people at Marquee, the design agency that developed the new Glasgow Commonweath Games logo. After the design came under fire for looking like previous work, the agency issued a classic example of logo symbolism porn that described in exquisite detail how the mark came to be. The design, based on three concentric circles, two of which are broken, with the letter G in the center, apparently resembles a black and white design created in 2007 by Marquee for The Common Guild, a Glasgow arts group. Not so, claimed Games organizers and agency wonks, insisting that the logo is original, with the broken circles representing “time, data and measurement” something they claim is “the basis of all sport“. The logo is supposed to be based on four numbers associated with the Games – 20 as in the 20th time the event has been held, 17 sports being represented, 11 days of the competition and one host city. Accordingly, the “second ring is 17/20ths of the outer circle, the third ring is 11/20ths and the G stands for Glasgow“. Yowzah. These cats are good. Still not sure if it beats this logo symbolism manifesto though. [Telegraph UK]

To Logo Design Love. Interviews with logo designers are all well and good I suppose, but after a while, many start to sound, or read, the same. Some tips. Sources of inspiration. The usual. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had an interview that was a little off the beaten path? Imagine if there was a designer who specializes in, oh, I dunno, Death Metal and Goth Rock logos. He’d be interesting to talk to, huh? Well, look no further, because it just so happens there is. His name is Christophe Szpajdel (pronounced “shpydel”) and he’s considered “Lord of the Logos” among the Black Metal set. Logo Design Love, the all-things-logo blog curated by UK designer David Airey features a fascinating interview with Szpajdel (by Blair Thomson) and takes a look at his work, his new book and how he finds inspiration for his famous nature-driven work. Alas, I’m a little late to the party with this one, so you’ve missed out on Airey’s free draw for the “Lord of Logos” book. Humble apols for that, but the interview is still worth a read, free book or not. Besides, if you’re really gung-ho, you can always buy it via a link at the piece. [Logo Design Love]

Have an interesting blog piece, logo or ‘different’ take on the graphic design industry that might make interesting fodder for an upcoming Snippet feature? Feel free to drop us a line. You can also hit us up on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Tip o’ the Pint design snippets. September edition
2. Snippets: Battling logos, a couple of Pint Tips, just like 99designs & the IRS logo scam edition
3. Snippets: Crowdspring to offer spec writing, NEA holds a spec work contest & other news

Internet Davids vs. Corporate Goliaths?

While it’s easy to appreciate the avenging angel vibe of these events when they occur, and the idea of some David bringing another Goliath to their knees is appealing to most of us, seems to me that there’s an awful large risk for abuse, either deliberate or by well-intentioned folks that get things partially. mostly or completely wrong. The broken telephone, 140 character editing of Twitter ‘tweets’ can also change the original message dramatically. A Twitter Storm that began as “so-and-so’s design is very similar to so-and-so’s design” can quickly evolve into a hash-tagged “so-&-so is a thief, stole so-&-so’s work and shld B put in jail #thief #crook #asshat“. With the relative anonymity of social media platforms, the multi-jurisdictional legal aspects and questions about who’s responsible for what, it seems like a self-policing phenomenon that’s ripe for trashing the reputation of people that might not deserve it. And even if they do, without the generally accepted principle of “being innocent until proven guilty“. You know, lawyers, judges, courts and lawsuits.

Trashing reps at the speed of fiber optic cable

With the speed that internet freakouts can blow up, and the viral nature of how they blow up, it can literally take a few seconds before half the world thinks you’re a complete and utter tool. And they’re telling their friends that you’re a #tool and a #thief. Who are telling their friends that you’re a #tool, a #thief an #asshole and a #crook. And so on. So that’s the questions we’re going to ask this afternoon. Is social media a social justice tool, or an internet age version of villagers with torches and pitchforks, straight out of the 1931 horror classic, Frankenstein, as they stormed the scientist’s castle, looking for Boris Karloff‘s take on the famous monster? Can social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter be used as a digital age copyright enforcement too, or does it wander too close to mob justice for comfort? We’ll take a look at several recent ‘Twitter Storms‘ that seem to prove the former, and one not-so-recent event that implies the latter.

What is social media?

What exactly is social media? I’m not sure really, but it seems to involve any web-driven platform that allows you to socialize with fans, like-minded colleagues, friends, critics and hopefully (according to those who are still trying to monetize the new phenomenon) customers looking for your services. Wikipedia defines social media as

“media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.”

Think services like Twitter and Facebook. As The Logo Factory‘s go-to guy, I’m sorta involved in social media, if you count maintaining a logo design blog, carping on Twitter, and posting links to the occasional article via our Facebook page, but I certainly wouldn’t consider myself a social media expert of any merit. More of a socal media luddite actually, but that doesn’t stop me finding some social media ‘events’ interesting, or notable, especially how they pertain to design. One of the more fascinating aspects of social media is when it’s used as a sort of copyright enforcement tool, a way for the little guy to take on people, sometimes much bigger guys, who’ve ripped their design work.

Problogger logo gets knocked off

If you run a blog, or know anything at all about blogging, you’ve probably heard, or read, something about Problogger. Published and managed by Australian-based Darren Rowse, a “full time Blogger making a living from this new and dynamic medium” the blog boasts an enormous following and subscriber base. Rowse is followed on Twitter by over 90,000 fans, and in the blog world, he’s a really big deal. You’d think with such a high profile, Rowse would be immune to people knocking off his stuff, particularly his logo. No-one could possibly be that stupid, right? Ahm, no. Butchering Scott Adams‘ famous quote, it’s safe to say that “you can never underestimate the stupidity of some people with an internet connection and a website” because back in February, it began to look like someone had knocked off at least parts of Rowse’s logo. Like most instances of copyright claims and counterclaims, it usually comes down to who had designed the logo in question first. In this case, there was very little doubt. Makalu Media had aleady  blogged about the logo design process almost two years ago, outlining how they built the Problogger logo from sketches to digital (worth a read on its own merit if you’re interested in designing logos). That post was then announced on the Problogger site around the same time, as part of the Rowse’s new brand rollout. Anyhoo, there’s no doubt who this was designed for, who it was designed by, and more importantly, when it was designed. No doubt whatsoever. So why, Problogger fans wondered (very loudly and often) did some new outfit called Beam.my have a logo that looked remarkably like the logo that Problogger had been using for almost two years?

People on Twitter went nuts (some of the Twitter Storm caused by the perceived knock-off is outlined here). Rowse’s followers (and he has many) were quick to jump onto the Beam.my Facebook fan page wall, uploading images that illustrated the similarities between the two designs, while commenting that Beam.my needed to answer the allegations, change their logo, or both. After first ignoring the mounting complaints, denying any knowledge of the alleged plagiarism, then downloading the blame to some poor designer who was supposedly “over influenced” by the Problogger mark, Beam.my finally up and changed the logo. And while the Tweakout has died down, the heart of the matter addressed to the satisfaction of those “tweaking out”, there’s a lot of blog posts, Twitter twatter and fan page comments that outline the controversy floating around. They’ll be in search engines and news aggregators for a long time and might place Beam.my’s reputation in purgatory if you happen to be searching for, well, Beam.my. Certainly, one could argue they had it coming and that they’re the victims of their own hubris. I think that’s the position I’d take I suppose, but what if it’s the Twitter Storm that disappears from view instead, leaving only initial, and blanket denials from the alleged copycat, said denials casting aspersions on the person, or firm, that was originally knocked-off? Witness another event from last month.

The Hidden World of Eloise vs. Paperchase

UK readers will undoubtedly know who Paperchase is. For those who don’t, let’s just crib their website about us page that states “Paperchase is the undisputed retail brand leader in design led and innovative stationery in the UK” that has “over 80 outlets in the UK and an extensive opening (program) in the USA“. In any David vs. Goliath scenario, Paperchase are definitely Goliath. So let’s meet David. The wonderfully talented illustrator Hidden Eloise who displays her uniquely-styled work on her Hide & Seek. The Hidden World of Eloise website.

Back on February 10th, Eloise opened this story by telling us that Paperchase were featuring artwork (above right) that looked very similar to parts of her He says he can hear the Forest whisper (above left) illustration on notebooks, albums and tote bags being sold throughout the UK through Paperchase retail outlets. Apparently, Eloise had contacted Paperchase and asked them to stop (something the company denies) but rather than complying, added more items with the disputed artwork on them (something the company also denies). Big fish ignores little fish with a beef. Not a terribly uncommon scenario when it comes to this kind of stuff. Enter Twitter. After reading about the issue on Eloise’s blog, Neil Gaiman, a fantasy writer, issued this Twitter missive – “Fascinating Paperchase plagiarism over at http://bit.ly/cdrzKZ . Bad Paperchase” With almost 1.5 million people following Gaiman, and many of them ‘retweeting’ his post, didn’t take long for the issue to go viral, becoming a trending topic in a matter of hours. By dinner time the story had spooled into the mainstream press. In an article entitled “Paperchase forced to deny it ‘plagiarised’ British artist’s work after Twitter campaign” company executive Timothy Melgund told the Telegraph UK that the company had received hundreds of complaints, with some of them being “very aggressive”. The Independent UK also wrote about the story, and in that article a Paperchase spokesperson complained about how “cock-eyed” allegations had spread “like wildfire” through Twitter. “We’ve had the most unbelievable amount of emails this afternoon of extraordinary vitriol – and we haven’t actually done anything wrong. It must have damaged people’s perception of us.” At one point, the company was being bombarded with negative messages at such a furious rate, they had to disable their website contact form, replacing it with a message that attempted to explain their side of things. Had to change the message several times too as the situation evolved, claiming at first there was no plagiarism, then outlining how they had purchased the art from some second party without knowledge of any plagiarism. Paperchase held on to that position for a few days until the designer of the supposedly copied work fessed up in a message to Hidden Eloise that they had, in fact, “traced” portions of the illustration. Paperchase announced that they were suspending the sale of products featuring the disputed illustrations, and Gathernomoss, the design firm that had developed the work, offered to turn over any money they had made through the sale to Eloise. A victory for the little guys? Perhaps. Over the long haul? Perhaps not.

Initial Twitter support tends to cool very quickly

Trouble is, now that the blow up has cooled down somewhat, and the Twitter timeline has moved onto other things, Eloise tells us in a ‘tiny’ update that “all the damaging comments they made about me are still online in newspapers and blogs around the world, and will be for the foreseeable future“. The Paperchase contact page has been returned to its original form, any mention of the Eloise situation purged from its HTML. There’s still a few Twitpic images to be found, but the chances of them being found are almost nil. That’s not to say Paperchase escapted the dustup unscatched. Under a ‘Controversy” heading the Wikipedia entry on the company has this to say: “In February 2010 the company was accused of stealing artwork created by an independent British artist – [5] Hidden Eloise. [6] An artist working for the agency Gather No Moss eventually admitted tracing the artwork.[7] The items based on the copied artwork are no longer available from Paperchase“. But even then, at least according to Eloise, the wiki entry links to a “sensationalistic article, complete with ugly propaganda against (her)” and she sums the episode with this poignant statement “Other than you, the people who come and directly learn the truth from my blog, who else knows the whole story? Not many people i bet, and Paperchase would be happy to keep it that way“. She also wonders “what to say to a company that is responsible for a dirty war against my credibility and integrity but are again very comfortable to lay low and hope that the storm will pass?” Bottom line, even though some of the parties ponied up to “tracing” her image, and that “traced” image was sold on Paperchase goods, apparently Eloise didn’t receive a dime in the way of compensation (other than a check for £350 from the original firm), even when she suggested the profits of the Paperchase goods be donated to charity. And even though half of Twitter, a couple of large UK newspapers and dozens of art blogs managed to stir up a hornet’s nest of bad vibery for Paperchase, it appears temporary, and other than the disputed tote bags and trinkets being removed from retail shelves, no real justice was doled out. For that, Eloise will probably have to go the old-fashioned route. Alas, David vs. Goliath legal battles can get very expensive for David. Which brings us to the next internet plagiarism hullabaloo, this time featuring the son of a rock legend.

Nick Simmons gets keelhauled for alleged over-inspiration

Nick Simmons, the son of Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, is quite an accomplished comic book illustrator and writer, having contributed a story for his father’s Gene Simmons House of Horrors back in 2007. He also inked a deal with comic book and graphic novel company, Radical Publishing. for new material via the Simmons Comic Group. So far, so good. Simmons developed a manga-influenced story about a group of immortal creatures, titling it Incarnate, which was previewed at the San Diego Comic-Con International last July, and was released a month later to generally positive reviews. Fast forward to last month, when the internet (at least the comic-centric portion of the internet) blew up over a simple forum post (now removed) that alleged Simmons had cribbed panels from other titles, most notably Kubo Tite’s Bleach, apparently (at least according to my daughter) a very big deal in the Manga world. A very big deal indeed.

The comment gained traction through other comics forums, MySpace pages and other blogs before hitting the Twitter time line feed. Magnetic Rose does a smack-up job of detailing the genesis of the internet kerfuffle, as well as some side-by-each comparisons here.  As a result of the freakout, Radical announced on their MySpace page that they had “halted further production and distribution” of the Incarnate comic book and trade paperback “until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties“. Simmons meanwhile, after ignoring the noise for several weeks, issued a statement that denied any wrong-doing telling fans “there are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect“, his “inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga” and that “this is the nature of the medium“. Manga and comic book fans seem unswayed, and there’s now a Facebook page, with over 9,000 fans, that’s calling for legal action against Nick Simmons for plagiarism of other works. Even the New York Times Art Beat blog got into the action with a March 1st post that detailed the accusations.

A potential PR nightmare

Not being a big follower of comic books, I have no idea whether the gripes are legit or not, and other than being a huge Kiss fan when I was a teenager (one of the best band logos too), and watching an occasional episode of A & E’s Simmons’ Family Jewels, I don’t know any of the players involved. Hell, half the posts related to this are in Japanese. What should be obvious is the mammoth headache that this is causing for anyone who’s in the Nick Simmons’ PR department. While the question remains, and despite some pretty damning evidence, did Simmons knock off someone else’s work? Or not? Used to be it took lawyers and lawsuits to settle this stuff. Nowadays, people are convicted in the court of public opinion before they have a chance to hit up their lawyer on speed-dial. And while I bet the Simmons’ empire has some pretty well-heeled lawyers, and despite some of the more outrageous claims disappearing down the memory hole, any damage control team that may be working this beat, have been unable to quell the tempest.

Our own social media experiences

We’ve had our work lifted on numerous occasions and after getting tired of writing ‘cease and desist’ letters (usually to no avail) many moons ago, I took a “complain loud, complain often” stance whenever logos created by our shop are knocked-off (mostly, for submission to logo design contests). I don’t bitch on Twitter, but write blog posts about the events and these tend to get re-tweeted around Twitter by followers and friends, then their followers and friends and so on, and so on. Not to the extent of the two previous examples, but certainly enough that action is usually taken by the websites, individuals or companies involved in the ahm, design inspiration. Namely, our stuff (and that of our clients) gets taken down. Sometimes right after I hit ‘publish’ on our blog but more often once the link starts spooling out across Twitter. Accordingly, while I’m a little uneasy about some of the mob mentality, I’ve always found social media a fairly effective way to take care of copyright or trademark infringement. But what happens when people get things wrong? Luckily, we have an example of that too.

The curious case of Jon Engle

My first introduction to the power of Twitter as an unbridled social justice tool came in the spring of ’09. Some of you may remember the curious case of Jon Engle, but for those of you who don’t, let’s bullet point. One weekend last April, Jon Engle, a freelance designer, sent out a call for help via his Twitter account, telling us how some stock art company was suing him for $18,000 for allegedly copying artwork from their web-based library. The wrinkle to this story was that Engle claimed the work was his. His angle was that the stock art company had copied his work, and in a Biblical case of brass balls, were now hitting him up for damages for using it. The Twitter outrage from the online design community was swift and ferocious, with one designer after another blasting their version of the original from Twitter accounts around the world.

Hell, I was one of the people at ground zero, retweeting his message via The Logo Factory‘s Twitter page shortly after Engle’s plea first hit light. It spooled out into social media sites, design blogs, and before long, both Stock Art (the site) and Art Laws (their lawyers) were receiving all sorts of e-mail, phone and web vitriol. Death threats even. Legal defense funds were launched. Boycotts, and worse, were threatened. When Engle finally wrote a blog post that supposedly told his side of the story, and despite originally accepting his tale without reservation, I began to have some nagging doubts. Some things in his post didn’t sit right, others sounded downright ludicrous. I messaged a few friends who where tub-thumping the story on their Twitter feeds to hold off “hitching their wagon” to Engle. Something didn’t square so I also decided to do what none of us had done before jumping on the ever-growing Twitter Storm. Ask for the other side of the story.

Twitter rage not always as clear cut as it may seem

Naturally, that was quite different that Engle’s. Not nuanced different as is often the case in copyright dustups. Completely, utterly, 180 degree different. According to Stock Art lawyers, nobody was suing anyone. There was some evidence that Engle had been lifting Stock Art illustrator’s work, entering then into logo design contests (where several had won) and uploading them as examples of his work onto several popular logo design galleries. While half the internet were still calling for Stock Art heads, I wrote a blog post, Stock artwork, logos, copyright and the power of Twitter, outlining some of the investigation I had conducted, as well as some of the graphic evidence I had managed to find. As Engle was now a full-fledged designer cause célèbre, I was hesitant to publish my findings lest the internet anger be aimed my way, but I thought getting the story out was important, so publish it I did. Wasn’t long before that blog post had been tossed into the fracas too, blasted around Twitter, Reddit and Digg (where it managed, for a while, to sit at the number one spot on Digg’s home page, the resultant traffic blowing up our server for the better part of a day). That blog post, a precursor to this one in many ways, suggested that before going off half-cocked on Twitter, perhaps we’ll all be better served doing some cursory investigation before grabbing the pitch forks and torches. Trouble is, just as the internet mob had stormed Stock Art at the beginning, they now turned their animosity 180 degrees, aiming it at the hapless Engle. Don’t blame people for that reaction, many must have felt duped, but any appeals for cooler heads seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Retractions are late in coming. If they come at all

When it became apparent that Engle’s side of the story wasn’t even close to being accurate, some of the many blogs that had initially documented the incident, either removed the blog posts entirely, or added updates, many of them linking to my Power of Twitter post, correcting their stories. Trouble is, many didn’t and to this day, almost a year later, there are many blogs that tell of Engle’s plight and still hurl all sorts of invective towards Stock Art and their lawyers for beating up on an innocent freelance designer. Even though it’s now clear that neither Stock Art or their lawyers did anything of the sort, and were only protecting their artists’ rights, something we should all applaud. Just like traditional media, the internet loves a controversy and exposing characters for nefarious activities, real or imagined. But as unromantic as they are, when it comes to issuing corrections or retractions, all media is notoriously loathe to do so. Blogs forums and social media platforms are no different. And if they do get around to correcting the record, it’s at a tenth of the volume of the erroneous story they’re retracting.

Social media: Community vigilance or mob justice?

So there you have it. All the above examples of Twitter Storms, Tweakouts and general internet rageathons illustrate the power of social media. Of that, there is no doubt. There are differing outcomes, but all seem to share a common starting point, copied artwork and a great social injustice. Perceived or real. All share the same basic plotline – internet gets pissed off. Internet hurls anger at someone. While the goal of the outrage is often reached, that of removing supposedly infringing artwork, in its wake is sometimes left tarnished reputations, death threats, boycotts, vitriolic insults. Earlier accusations don’t always disappear. With the fleeting nature of social media, some, or all of the support the issue originally enjoyed does. It could be argued that the smash-and-trash campaigns stomp through any libel, defamation or harassment protections we have in the real world. Is that a good thing? Probably not. Regardless of how satisfying it is to demo some perceived nemesis via Twitter, Facebook and whatever other social media site that comes down the pike, I think its something that needs to be approached with a lot more caution than is being exercised currently. At some point or another, somebody’s going to get taken to legal task for launching a flame fest. And here’s some words of advice. If you’re running any type of company or corporate entity, keeping an eye on social media for your “turn in the barrel” should be standard day-to-day activity. You should also be well-rehearsed in dealing with it rapidly, and effectively, if or when it happens.

Now, did you hear about Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Airlines? You might want to retweet that.

Related posts:

1. Social media & logo design. An argument for square logos? A look at logo footprints & aspect ratios
2. Twitter graphic $6 proof that design crowdsourcing works? Not quite.
3. Stock artwork, logos, copyright and the power of Twitter. A cautionary tale.