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Add Linefeed to Google ReaderRant: The Difference Between Uettbein? & Wellbeing
The rise of the ‘logo designer’ is an interesting phenomenon. The logo designer is freed from the shackles of ordinary graphic design conventions. They actively shirk the responsibility of creating cohesive and rigourously designed visual identities in favour of creating mere stamps for clients to stick wherever they please. I imagine it’s quite an easy life, doling out logos like bites of candy (expensive candy, some logo designers may charge up to £600 for said ‘mere stamp’ without having to worry about implementation or ‘after sales care’). In the case of Gareth Howell’s ‘Optical Pleasure’ [opticalpleasure.co.uk] you don’t even have to bother with generating your own ideas for said logos. Just visit a website you like, grab a bit of artwork and away you go.
Am I sounding a little sarky? You might too is you opened up Computer Arts magazine [computerarts.co.uk] and saw you’re own original carefully considered artwork (in this case a typeface) with someone else’s name under it… and reworked so badly. In the image below, the top graphic is Gareth’s butchered rendition of the word ‘wellbeing’ which actually reads something like ‘Uettbein?’; in the middle there is the graphic posted on my foliosite which I guessing he used to make said logo and below is how the logo should have looked had Gareth actually had the ‘Bubbleblock’ typeface and used the letters correctly.
Gareth’s biggest blunder was mistaking a typeface for straight artwork. The typeface in question, Bubbleblock, is still in development and he could have asked for a Beta version which I have been gingerly distributing to a handful of fellow designers to see if it’s any good (it also comes with a legal notice outlining terms of use which Gareth’s wellbeing logo has breached). If you’d like a version of the Bubbleblock typeface, email [michael at boico.net] and if you’re especially nice I’ll email you back a Beta Test version for you to have a play with… then we can all start to create logos as special as the one Gareth has chosen to fling out into the world (well, into Swansea anyways).
At the risk of sounding like an accident insurance advert… have you had your work right royally ripped off (and I don’t just mean ‘re-appropriated’) by a another so-called ‘creative’? If so and you feel the need to vent, send us examples and we’ll post the best… er, most well jusified examples up here on Boicozine or just repeat after me… out with anger, in with love, out with anger, in with love…
First published: February 8th, 2008
Filed under: Graphic Design, Rants, Typography
Posted by: Boicozine
A tutor once said to me “You are the product, not your work”, meaning someone can rip your last piece of design, but they can never be you, so there’s nothing to worry about. His advice in this situation was to contact whoever purchased the knock-off piece and offer your services for real – so I would contact Computer Arts, and say “why not hire me next time”.
ARF — Feb 19 08 at 11:43 amI would have liked to maintain some sort of ‘professional detachment’ but the whole thing got me pretty miffed, mainly because it was so blatant. If Gareth had nicked the design from my website and done something new and surprising with it, then cool. But he didn’t.
I did consider writing to both Gareth and Computer Arts separately about it but in the end it just seemed easier and more, well more interesting, to air my grievances online and send them both a link to this post. Their individual responses I’m keeping private for now but, suffice to say, I feel sated at least… which is better than growing an ulcer.
Michael — Feb 20 08 at 12:13 amRightfully so you should be pissed. He even used the same colours, how lazy.
Plus, as you say, the entire act shows complete disregard for the concept of developing a logo that reflects and/or represents the company/project/whatever.
I guess nobody credits Tobias and Jonathan when they create a logotype in Gotham. But on your site it does look like it’s an individual piece of work, which makes it worse to have stolen. And even if you had the typeface available for download, what kind of idiot would copy the layout and colour of a typeface specimen/example image? He’s got balls, I’ll give him that much.
Bless the internet, hope he has read your post and experienced the appropriate amount of Design Shame! He has to live with himself AND a lot of other people knowing that he didn’t have an original idea or approach in his head. How embarrassing.
Nicole — Feb 23 08 at 12:57 amI hope he’s learnt something too… ’cause it was either that or sue the guy.
Michael — Feb 24 08 at 1:10 amGareth not only used this, he stole a bunch of logos and published them on the magazine, and he is being sued. Here’s the link: http://arpad.deviantart.com/journal/17007646/
Alberto Orsini — Mar 03 08 at 7:06 pmHello.. I’m sad. Like I suspected, his other logos are ripped off too. He took two of mine. Please see this: http://arpad.deviantart.com/ On the right panel there’s a journal entry called SCANDAL – project rip by Gareth Howells… I really don’t know what to do. I spoke to Garrick Webster, CA editor and he is going to put my letter on the next edition.
João Franco — Mar 03 08 at 10:36 pmA friend at a shitty branding company in Dublin told me that they had created a promotional poster of my work! For them! Without ever contacting me! They just scanned in a personal piece and printed that shit out with their logo!
Some people have brass balls!
squid — Apr 23 08 at 7:29 pm