Another Logo "Ripoff" controversy

[Billct2]

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/bl...-steal-its-Olympic-logo-from-a?urn=oly-302825
Personally I don't think it's plagiarism, close but not the same. But really, how original is any design? Dig deep enough and you can probably find similar designs to just about any logo.

 

[SignManiac]

Influenced yes, plagiarism no.

 

[formanek]

Influenced yes, plagiarism no.

Ditto.

 

[jiarby]

not plaigarism to me

 

[Mike Paul]

Top looks like a kids Pacifier/binki...

Bottom looks like gay cave art.




Wait... that's a guy w/ 4 babes

 

[Rick]

I don't know... The Rio logo kinda looks like a butt plug, not that I would know what that is....

 

[GAC05]

I don't know... The Rio logo kinda looks like a butt plug, not that I would know what that is....

I dunno Rick, I think it looks better than the first one they were going to go with....

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

geez picky I say no it;s fine there many differences except same type of sport

 

[jmcnicoll]

I think it is too close and is not professionally acceptable to me.

jim

 

[B-RAD Graphics]

What is the minimum percetage you need to change something to make it LEGAL then??

I know this has been a thread many of times.. but really that is different by a good bit... idea yes..ACTUAL LOGO NO!!!

That like saying if you hit the same note in a guitar solo you stole it?????

 

[Joe Diaz]

Legal or not, at that level, a logo for an event such as the Olympics should be more unique. With the amount of money the firm that designed that logo probably got, you would at least think they could have spent more of their time and resources creating their own ideas.

 

[B-RAD Graphics]

Legal or not, at that level, a logo for an event such as the Olympics should be more unique. With the amount of money the firm that designed that logo probably got, you would at least think they could have spent more of their time and resources creating their own ideas.

true....

 

[vinylbarry]

I agree with Joe D. there paid big money to be original and thats not.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

Just like Bill said in the first post, you can probably find similarities in just about any logo, intentional or not

Look half way down at this link at a design trend article. Many of those companies could say the same about each other

http://www.logolounge.com/article.asp?

I have seen at least a dozen logos that look like the Telluride logo with human figures drawn this way

 

[Billct2]

Who's to say that that wasn't an "original" idea? Was Matisse the first guy to paint symbolic dancers in a circle? I don't think so. Was Telluride the first to create a logo with dancers in a circle? I doubt it. So these designers came up with a similar design too. And how do you go about searching the millions of logos in this world to see if someone has something similar to yours? After all the Telluride logo is even for a completely different type of entity, why would you even look at charity foundation logos to see if there is a similar one? Really, what is the search mechanism for making sure your design is "original"?

 

[Joe Diaz]

Who's to say that that wasn't an "original" idea? Was Matisse the first guy to paint symbolic dancers in a circle? I don't think so. Was Telluride the first to create a logo with dancers in a circle? I doubt it. So these designers came up with a similar design too. And how do you go about searching the millions of logos in this world to see if someone has something similar to yours? After all the Telluride logo is even for a completely different type of entity, why would you even look at charity foundation logos to see if there is a similar one? Really, what is the search mechanism for making sure your design is "original"?

In THIS case, If it were just dancers in a circle you would have a point, but the way they are illustrated... the colors... There are just too many similarities going on there. Could it just be coincidence? maybe, but I think it is more likely that the one design heavily influenced the other. Had they just borrowed one idea, rather than the over all essence of another logo, I think that would be fine.

Again, at this level, those firms should be setting their own trends, not following others. But that is my opinion. I'm not at that level, and I'm guessing most here aren't either, so I don't know what that environment is like. A small part of me wants to give them the benefit of the doubt, but a larger part of me knows they are making a killing on logos and I expect more out of them.

 

[jfiscus]

Either way, it's much better than the last olympic logo...

I say they stole the idea, tweaked it & rolled with it. Someone probably mentioned they liked its style to one of the designers & the committee chose it. For legality purposes I'd say it's fine, but ethically & from originality it's borrowed. The heads & shoulders are pretty much identical along with color schemes.

 

[Marlene]

Influenced yes, plagiarism no.

if you look at the Telluride logo, the weird people form a heart, not a circle. there's a trend to use weird shaped people in logos, it's everywhere so I would think they were just going with that trend.

 

[Gino]

In THIS case, If it were just dancers in a circle you would have a point, but the way they are illustrated... the colors... There are just too many similarities going on there. Could it just be coincidence? maybe, but I think it is more likely that the one design heavily influenced the other. Had they just borrowed one idea, rather than the over all essence of another logo, I think that would be fine.

Again, at this level, those firms should be setting their own trends, not following others. But that is my opinion. I'm not at that level, and I'm guessing most here aren't either, so I don't know what that environment is like. A small part of me wants to give them the benefit of the doubt, but a larger part of me knows they are making a killing on logos and I expect more out of them.

It doesn't take a person to be in the same league to understand right from wrong. You're 1,000% correct Joey. There are so many similarities that it almost has to be influenced by the first logo. If the firm which created the Olympics logo couldn't do better than that, than they should be fired.... especially if they have no comeback to justify their copy techniques.

But it seems to be the general direction they're all going. Now, why doesn't it appear here ?? This one looks different.

 

[wetgravy]

The article pretty much sums it up. Logo's come in trends almost like a plague of locust. Wasn't it but a few years ago that buttons and orbs were the thing to have for a logo? Almost impossible to not make something incredibly similar to someone else when the idea is to make it look like a ball of etherial photochop layer effects with a few grunge textures. Now ... you barely see them. The few times I've been in a corporate logo design session (gotta love freelancing sometimes) by about the middle of the process there are about 100 different designs on a wall all slightly different (I'm being ficisous with that number but not really) and about a couple hours of people talking about what they like about every ... single ... one of them ... after that they start narrowing and consolidating and modifying. Could be that the design/marketing team who made it really didn't notice how close it was towards the end but you never really know. The legal side of it should have noticed it since anything that is that big ussually passes everything through legal at all stages and said no.