Inspired? Borrowed? Too close for comfort?

Just after I'd posted my "The unimaginative and not-so-bright 'designer'" bLog-oMotives entry I noticed a bit of Internet traffic coming my way from the Typophile forum.

A forum member had posted a student project logo design for some input in regards to color selections. Seeing the initial posting kind of stunned me, and as I read down the thread I came across a post from another forum member:

When I first saw it, I thought it reminded me of something... but I’ve just noticed that it looks like the Cat Adoption Team logo from Jeff Fisher.

Good - it wasn't my imagination. At least someone else saw a similarity. It seems that my own post on the Typofile thread kind of brought the discussion to an end.

So, in this particular case is the student design "inspired" by my own, created with a major element "borrowed" from my design, a "blatant rip-off" of the C.A.T. logo, or the result of two brilliant minds thinking alike? All I know is, that from my perspective, it seems a bit too close for comfort - but I haven't gotten my claws out yet.

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's funny, I posted a "borrowing" of my own work to Typophile recently too. http://typophile.com/node/45700

My name is Elizabeth, said...

Hello! I somehow stumbled upon your blog and have added you to my google reader feed :)

In response to this post, I actually don't see too much of a similarity there. The angle of the cat's head is pretty much the same, but they both have completely different looks to me.

It's been interesting, though, reading all the blog posts that have been popping up about logo plagiarism. It's something I hadn't thought about much before, but has been good for me as a beginning graphic design.

Cheers!

Elge Premeau said...

Hey Jeff,

I read your post the other day about your logo being ripped off and came back today to leave my own rant about a virtual assistant who ripped off my website text. I'm leaving my comment here instead of your first post on the topic because, like your logo, it's very similar but not a blatant rip off. The chick who ripped of my website copy has obviously read the copyright laws because she's changed enough words to squeak by legally but when you have the same pages explaining the same concepts and making points in the same order, it’s not an accident.

This is the third time I’ve found a Canadian website that’s ripped off my website. What’s up with that?

The thing that really gets me is that I can't believe she thought I wouldn't find it! I do this for a living! I'm so insulted!

Elge