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

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.

Couple of days ago, we told you about the internet flap about the Missile Defense Agency logo, in which conservative blogs found an Islamic crescent, (or stripes from the Barack Obama campaign logo) on an obscure National Defense website and staged a collective freakout. Some even claimed that the MDA design cribbed the Iranian Space Agency’s logo too. You thought this thing was over? Hardly. Bloody thing’s gone mainstream now. Fox News is now referring to this as ‘Logogate“. Yeah, like Watergate, only with logo design. Slipping on the tin-foil hat, CNN is now looking into the issue too. And some poor sap at the Missile Defense Agency has to keep telling people it ain’t a logo, was designed under the George W. Bush Administration (back in 2007, before the introduction of the Obama campaign logo) and doesn’t feature a crescent. In fact, the design was picked because, in a rare case of government watching the spendatude, it was cheaper to reproduce than other presented designs. Liberal-leaning TV host Rachel Maddow gives a great account of this nonsense in the MSNBC video upstairs. If you’re in a rush, we can always take a look at the comic book version of how Logogate – A Vast Logo Conspiracy, took shape…:

Related posts:

1. Missile Defense Agency logo. More tin-foil hattery
2. Booga, booga. Conservative bloggers find Islamic crescent in Obama’s Missile Defense ‘logo’. Everyone freaks out.
3. More Obama logo looney tunes

Obama Missile Defense Agency logo apes Iranian space agency logo
Compare the new logo to the Obama campaign 2008 logo and the Iranian space agency logo. Could TMP Government possibly come up with something else that does not seem to remind people of an American campaign long finished or a space agency whose nation’s leader is a tyrant that wants to see our country’s demise?

Sigh. One more time folks, one more time.

[Illustration courtesy: Plognark]

Related posts:

1. Logo design schadenfreude. Missile Defense Agency ‘Logogate’ goes mainstream on CNN & FOX
2. Booga, booga. Conservative bloggers find Islamic crescent in Obama’s Missile Defense ‘logo’. Everyone freaks out.
3. More Obama logo looney tunes

If you’re the curator of a niche blog (in this case, one centered on logo design) it’s generally ill-advised to get involved in politics, especially in these extremely divisive right-wing vs. left-wing times. No real mileage in doing so, as we always risks alienating 50% of our audience, and as this isn’t a political blog, I tend to avoid the subject altogether, unless the issue involves logos. And is particularly noteworthy. Or involves a certain level of schadenfreude that’s worth discussing for a few laughs. I think when several high-profile conservative bloggers ‘find’ an Islamic Crescent hidden in “Obama’s” “new” missile defense “logo” and stage a mid-level freakout about it certainly qualifies. If it’s true. And especially so, as in this instance, if it’s not. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what all the fuss is about. And as the logo isn’t new, probably isn’t a logo and doesn’t feature a crescent if it were, why it’s a load of malarkey.

Tell me, is it a coincidence it also looks like an Islamic Crescent?

“Call me paranoid, but isn’t that a kind of star and crescent?”

and ultimately making this connection

“That butthole Obama is just FLAUNTING that he is a Muslim in our faces, but the kool-aid drinking Liberals in the media will deny it even when they see Obama on his knees facing East praying on a flying carpet 5 times a day before strapping on a dynamite vest.”

Jeebus on a crutch. All of this over one logo? Alas, we’re not done yet.

Conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart was next up, twattering to his 15,000+ followers via his Twitter account this ominous question “Can this be true? New Obama Missile Defense logo includes a crescent“. If you don’t know who Breitbart is, he’s the darling of the right-wing, an anti-mainstream media maverick who runs several websites including Big Government, Big Hollywood and is the dude behind the media barrage about the video ‘sting’ of ACORN last fall (you may remember that episode in which student journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles went ‘undercover’ as a pimp and prostitute, soliciting advice on running a brothel from unsuspecting ACORN staffers). Anyhoo, if you clicked on Breitbart’s Twitter link, you’d be taken to his Big Government site, where another conservative pundit, Frank Gaffney would also ask “Can this be true?” suggesting that the “new logo” was evidence that something “nefarious is afoot” and that the new Missile Defense Agency shield “appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star“. Gaffney and Breitbart aren’t the end of it either. There’s much, much more. Even this morning, Pamela Geller wrote about the fracas on her tight-tilting blog Atlas Shrugs, calling the logo an example of “cultural jihad“. The comments over there weren’t any, ahm, kinder:

“I suspect this design was created by a muslim artist, and probably given preference in the name of diversity.”

And this one

“Barry is flipping America off right in the open. How can anyone look at his actions and say that he is not muslim?”

Those are the ‘quotable’ ones. Just a few problems with all of this:

It ain’t new. There’s no crescent. May not even be a logo

Bottom line, a lot of heavy hitters from the conservative side of the aisle had found an Islamic crescent in the “new” Obama MDA logo, and that wasn’t very cool at all. And I guess if it were true, it might not be. Just a few itty, bitty hitches in all this wondrous tin-foil hattery. The “new logo” may not even be a logo. It isn’t new. The old logo hasn’t been replaced. And the design that can be found on the agency’s website doesn’t even feature a crescent.

Let’s take a look at the Missile Defense Agency website. You pulled it up? Good. Now, scroll w-a-a-a-a-y down to the bottom. Well, I’ll be. The “old” Missile Defense Agency logo (technically, as there’s no “new logo”, it ain’t an “old logo” but it’s simpler this way). You can view the “old logo” in the screen cap above (and right). See, the item at the top, the one that everyone’s peaking about, may not even be a logo. It’s more than likely what’s known in the design biz as a “design element” or a “graphic accent“. That translates loosely into “meaningless eye-candy that we place on a website to make it look prettier“. There’s not one shred of evidence that the logo’s been changed at all. Ah-hah, some bloggers will exclaim, “the new logo was unveiled last October. The ad agency twittered about it“. Okay folks, just a couple of things. If the design agency in charge twattered about the new logo last October, it ain’t exactly new, is it? But let’s take a look. You’re right, TMP Government, the ad agency responsible for the new website design, did in fact post about the new design last October. Here’s the Tweet.

Like any proud web design firm, they announced the launch of the MDA’s website and new “branding” (and a logo isn’t a brand, remember?) Not a single word about a new logo to be found. A look at the Wiki page about the agency features the “old logo” too and while Wikipeadia often misses the boat on small details, they’re usually pretty fast at updating pages about stuff like this. Nada. And what about the claims that this “new logo” contains an Islamic crescent? Nope. Should point out that like most religious symbols, the so-called Islamic Crescent and star has very specific methodology in its portrayal. If there was a crescent in the MDA’s not-logo, it’s not only backwards and tilted the wrong way (the logo Drudge used was actually The Nation of Islam flag) but the star is inside the crescent. That alone makes it not an Islamic crescent. If some radical graphic designer was trying to secretly “sneak” an Islamic logo into government funded paraphernalia, they did an extraordinarily bad job of doing so. Not only that, but technically, this crescent symbol (right) isn’t universally accepted as a Muslim symbol and while it’s sorta accepted by people in the west (an important distinction) the symbol isn’t Muslim in origin at all, and its use is often controversial among, well, Muslims themselves. While the symbol IS featured prominently on the flags of many countries in the Islamic world, notably Turkey and Pakistan, the symbol was actually the insignia of the Ottoman Empire, not of Islam as a whole (Hat tip: Religion Facts). We also touched on all these religious symbols a few years ago when the Red Cross got a new logo. So what’s the deal? Sigh.

Our old nemesis. Bevel filters

Here’s the thing. The “not new logo” looks like it may feature a crescent because of one, very simple thing. The overenthusiastic use of drop shadow and bevel filters. If we dissect the design using fairly obvious logo symbolism as our guide, we can see several elements at work. The star obviously represents a missile in flight (but can also represent the “star” bit of the Stars and Stripes (see our logo symbolism feature from yesterday for more of his kinda thing). Maybe even a rocket blowing up real good, after getting smacked by aforementioned missile, the purpose of this entire exercise. The red swooshes obviously are meant to represent a missle plume, broken into three components to represent the American flag. You know, the “stripes” part of the Stars and Stripes. The round thing that the swooshes are, well, swooshing around, is the Earth. You know, as it would be seen from space, the space bit of the Space Defense Initiative. Rather than some “nefarious” symbology, the “logo” is standard patriotic fare that one would expect to find on a US Defense Department website. Still not convinced? Okay, let’s take away the colors and lose those infernal bevel and drop shadows.

Seems that when the design firm wanted to turn the website dashboard and navigation bar into a sci-fi themed design worthy of Star Trek, they placed the graphic into a circle and applied a liberal dosing of Photoshop filters for that added “something” that people who use bevel filters are always looking for. Trouble is, bevel filters work in two ways. They can add an outer bevel, which gives the object 3D mass, or they can be used as an ‘emboss’ effect, which adds a concave effect, making the object appear to be carved out. Guess which way our hapless web designer rolled?

Left-wing design conspiracy? Hardly

As some point in all the tin-foil fun, it was opined that the not-insertion of the not-Islamic Crescent into the not-logo was evidence of a liberal conspiracy. Some sort of clandestine socialist takeover of a vital national defense organization. If it wasn’t Barack Obama himself, perhaps some crazed liberal design agency, furthering the cause of America’s enemies from within. A Manchurian Candidate graphic designer perhaps? Tin foil’s on a little tight folks. If we take a look at TMP Government’s portfolio, we’ll see that they boast a wide range of clients including Blackwater the private security firm, and hardly a cause célèbre amongst the liberal set. Seeing as how Blackwater re-branded themselves as Xe at the beginning of the Obama administration, it would appear that this agency was involved with designing government stuff during the George Bush administration too. See, TMP design government and lobby group websites from all over the political landscape, describing themselves as an agency that “develop(s) and implement(s) interactive and traditional outreach communications programs for government, contractors and associations“. Hardly a bastion of liberal elitism.

Lessons to be learned?

Politically speaking, it would be wise before freaking the feck out, to do a little bit of fact-checking. Perhaps some common sense reflection before pressing the Full Metal Jihad button (pun intended). In this heated political climate, it’s always tempting to smash ideological opponents with unbridled joy but if not careful (and I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re from) someone might just end up creating what amounts to a very high profile tempest in a teacup. Or looking like a tool Or a drawer full of tools. Before I forget, blog commenters may want to tone down some of their bigoted blather, as some of the comments on the blogs upstairs are, for lack of a better word, nasty. And that’s about as much political advice as I’m ever going to give, on this blog anyway.

In terms of what all this means for designers, heh, that’s easier. First, this illustrates the very real power of a logo, and why tossing something, anything, on a website isn’t something that should be approached lightly. Second, it’s always advisable to keep the logo above the fold on a website, regardless of how tempting it is to turn the top half into a navigation system worthy of the starship Enterprise bridge. Finally, and this is advice that’s always good, whenever you’re tempted to go Full Metal jihad (pun intended) with bevels, drop shadows and other Photoshop effects, don’t. And if you insist on using them, for the love of all things holy, make sure they’re pointing in the right direction.

Update:

Looks like we were right on this one after all. The Missile Defense Agency’s Richard Lehner has stepped forward and dismisses the controversy thusly:

“It’s ridiculous. It isn’t a new logo to replace the official logo. It’s a logo developed for recruiting materials and for our public website. Also, it was used prior to the 2008 election and it has no link to any political campaign.”

Heh.

Related posts:

1. Missile Defense Agency logo. More tin-foil hattery
2. Another Obama logo. Another Islamic crescent.
3. Logo design schadenfreude. Missile Defense Agency ‘Logogate’ goes mainstream on CNN & FOX

According to news reports, Google has taken legal umbrage with Goojje, a Chinese language search and social-networking site whose logo (above) bears a striking resemblance to the design made famous by Big G. If that weren’t enough, the Goojje logo also features a paw print component, nicked from Baidu, China’s most popular native search engine. Google knock-offs in China are nothing new with a copycat site of YouTube (YouTubecn.com) offering videos from the real YouTube as a way around Chinese censors who’ve blocked the originating site.

Google’s ongoing woes with the Chinese government

Google’s issues with the Chinese government have been plenty in recent months, with disputes over censorship issues and cyberattacks on the G-mail accounts of free speech advocates and human rights critics. The relationship has become so strained that there were several reports of Google leaving China completely, including a post on Google’s own blog, unless authorities didn’t get their collective act together. Ironically, the knock-off site was launched, practically overnight, as a result of that threat when the group behind Goojje saw a potential opening in a very big market. They’ve become cyber-heroes of a sort, with their website shelling out an average of three million page views per day.

Google has stepped things up a notch, sending cease and desist notices to the allegedly infringing site, demanding it quit using the trademarked logo design. Been some action too, perhaps at the ISP level with Goojje no longer resolving at its original domain, www.goojje.com, but redirecting to another site that seems to be offline more than it’s on. Officially, Goojje’s response has been something along the lines of “get bent”.

Goojje is Chinese play on words

For what it’s worth, the phrase Goojje is a clever little word play – apparently the “gle” in Google sounds similar to the Chinese word for “older brother“, while “jje” sounds just like “older sister“. Interesting turn of events, as the Chinese government has been reluctant to enforce intellectual property rights, especially from the west, and are probably still a little sore over the very public shellacking they took in the press, blogs and tech forums last month.

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Truth to tell, I’ve been wiped out by a particularly virulent cold and didn’t watch the Super Bowl on the weekend. Actually, while we’re playing “truth or dare” I should probably admit that I’m not a big football fan, and wouldn’t have watched the game, even if I didn’t spend most of Sunday hacking up a lung, figuratively speaking anyway. I did, however, take in the famous Super Bowl ads (as is tradition) and even though we’re a couple of days late to the post-game party, thought it would be interesting to take a look at my personal fave, the Audi Green Police spot (if you’re one of the few people who missed it, the video is above). As this is supposedly a logo design blog, we’ll quickly crowbar the Green Police logo into the piece (left) before moving on. While we’re at it, might as well toss in a Super Bowl logo too (below right).

Some people weren’t too crazy about the ad, with conservative blogger Michelle Malkin going as far to write a critical blog post, entitled About that Green Police Super Bowl ad. In the piece Malkin tells us that “Some of you think Audi’s Green Police ad that ran during the Super Bowl last night was brilliant satire. Others were creeped out. Count me in the creeped-out camp” and goes to great lengths to argue that the Green Police are more real than they seem. Other blogs, mostly from the right side of the political aisle chimed in, decrying the “slide” into something they’re calling “ecofascism“. Wasn’t just conservatives though. Even the left-leaning LA Times got into the act, opining that the spot was “Gorewellian“. Yeah, that’s right. As in Al Gore. Sigh.

Personally, I dug the ad, not only for its brilliantly satirical edge, but because of the great music by Cheap Trick, the Rockford, Illinois rock band who’ve been kicking around since 1974. Originally, I thought the soundtrack was the rock band’s smash 1978 hit Dream Police (the title track from their third album). But no, after a second listen, it’s obvious that this is a re-recording, and the song does, in fact, refer to the Green Police. Despite the slight lyrical alteration, the song still smokes, more than thirty years after it was first recorded. If you dig the track, you can always download it for free from Audi’s Green Police Facebook page (you’ll need to log in and become a fan).

So what’s all this twaddle got to do with logo design you ask? Glad you did. Here’s how. As a high school student, Cheap Trick were one of my fave bands. Hell, when I went to see them in the mid-70′s at the now shuttered Maple Leaf Gardens, they were my first ‘stadium’ concert. It was at that gig that I purchased my first Cheap Trick T-shirt (the first of many) and I always loved the stressed typography style of the band’s logo. In fact, I loved the artwork so much, that when it came to designing The Logo Factory‘s first official logo almost 20 years later, and wanting to avoid the streamline computer-driven fonts of the day, I took a page from the band, incorporating Loveletter into the design. If you check out our logo at right, and the Cheap Trick logo above, the influence is apparent. To be honest, I’d almost forgotten about the Cheap Trick ‘homage’ until the Audi commercial jogged my memory. I still find it interesting how things in our everyday lives manifest themselves into our work, even if it’s only a font selection. Alas, our old logo’s pretty well gone now and those of you who’re regular readers will remember that we ditched that font and changed our logo last fall.

As for Cheap Trick, the lads are still touring, were in Toronto last week and according to this review put on one helluva show. Dammintall. Gotta pay more attention to those Ticketmaster alerts I signed up for, but routinely ignore.

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In a fit of copyright pique, the good folks at Protectmarriage.com (sponsors of California’s same-sex marriage ban) took a whole bunch of umbrage with their political opponents at Prop8trialtracker.com (a website monitoring the current Prop 8 federal appeal trial). At issue was the Prop 8 Trial Tracker logo (right), which the anti-gay marriage organization claimed is a blatant knock-off of their design (left). First they sent a strongly worded cease-and-desist letter. Then they sued ‘em too.

As part of their court filing, the Protect Marriage folks argued that the family in the pro-gay marriage logo (featuring two women with two little kiddies) is “substantially indistinguishable” from the family in the anti-gay marriage design (featuring a man and a woman with two little kiddies). Yeah, replied the pro-gay marriage folks, no doubt savoring the irony. That’s kinda the point.

The judge in the case agreed, letting the logo stand, citing parody allowances. [Prop 8 Trial Tracker]

Speaking of California’s Proposition 8 and logos (you know we were), Cindy McCain, wife of Senator (and former presidential candidate) John McCain has joined a growing list of celebrities and public figures to pose for photographs as part of the NOH8 campaign. NOH8 (abbreviation of No Hate) is a campaign to overturn California’s controversial constitutional amendment, and a project in which subjects are photographed with their mouths taped shut and a NOH8 logo stenciled on their faces (visit the NOH8 website).

This is sorta ironic when we remember that hubby John McCain’s staunch opposition to same-sex marriage was a key part of his presidential campaign. To make matters more interesting in the McCain household (and in conservative circles), the McCains’ daughter Meghan also posed for the campaign. [Guardian]

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Wiki defines Schadendreude as a German word that translates into “pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others” and often involves some form of chronic, comical irony. If there was a case of logo design schadendreude, this might be the poster-child, as French-based file sharing enthusiasts are taking great glee in pointing out. To wit:

As a result of a controversial ruling late last year, the French government tabled a series of copyright centric HADOPI laws, the lofty goals of which are “promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the internet”. Using a fiercely contested “three strikes you’re out” principle, HADOPI attempts to encourage compliance with copyright laws and is an acronym for “Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet” (High Authority of Diffusion of the Art Works and Protection of the (Copy) Rights on Internet), replacing a previous agency, the ARMT. Anyhoo, despite howls of protest, the French government unveiled a web police force – also known as Hadopi – and touted them as a agency that was going to stop piracy and clamp down on illegal downloaders. Fair enough, I suppose, and like any other government agency Hadopi needed a logo, the final version being breathlessly introduced to the public by French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand, who told everybody that with the new design, Hadopi “finally had a face”. Nifty so far.

Que up the schadenfreude…

Only took a few hours before graphic designer Jean-Francois Porchez realized that the logo incorporated Bienvenue, a font he had created for, and sold the exclusive rights to, communications giant France Télécom back in 2000. Oh dear. So who’s Jean-Francois Porchez? Glad you asked. Only a world-renowned French typographer and former president of ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale), a leading organization of type designers. Porchez has designed custom typefaces for customers such as Beyoncé Knowles, Costa Crocieres, France Télécom, Peugeot, RATP (Public Transport in Paris), and distributes his retail typefaces internationally via his typofonderie.com website (Facebook page here). Further, Porchez has won a slew of international awards and prizes for his work and he is, in the French typography industry, a very big deal.

Logo Faux pas used by opponents of HADOPI

So what we have here is a government anti-piracy organization, quite possibly using a pirated font set, from a very high-profile typographer, in their logo. Worse, the logo had already been officially registered for 2 months with the National Institute of Industrial Property. After a lot of red faces, Plan Creatif, the design agency responsible, had to admit it used the typeface “by mistake” and a hurriedly “tweaked” version of the logo was rolled out using officially licensed fonts purchased from several other foundries. France Télécom have stated that they’re not going to take legal action, but Porchez is quoted on several websites as being “in talks” with his lawyers. Naturally, this faux pas is being used by opponents to the HADOPI law, particularly the “three strikes” portion, to illustrate how draconian the copyright infringement punishments are. Official launch of that bit has been delayed until August.

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