Big company rips off local blogger
Jenny is now just "parannoyed."
A couple of years ago, Jenny Frazier came up with the idea of Boston Blogtoberfest, an annual get-together for local bloggers. Being a graphic designer, she also came up with a logo to go with the event - and the concern she set up to promote other blog events.
And now it looks like Brown Brothers Harriman & Co has ripped off her design for some T-shirts. Granted, it's for a good cause (a charity road race tomorrow), but sheesh, don't big companies have lawyers to check stuff like this?
... If you're in Boston and you go to the Corporate Challenge, please let everyone from that company wearing that shirt know that you've seen that design before. IN BOSTON. AT A BOSTON EVENT. DESIGNED BY BOSTON-BASED GRAPHIC DESIGNER JENNY FRAZIER. ...
Outrageously close to Jenny's concept
Jenny:
I think it is worth a call to the managing partner's office.
Unacceptable.
not an exact copy or "ripoff"
It's stylistically similar, but not a copy by any means- the skyline is completely different, the colors are different, and the text isn't there (duh.) Christ, is she going to claim copyright on the profile of the Boston skyline?
Someone needs to get off her high horse, and if anything, be flattered that another designer thought it was clever and did something similar.
PS:Ask her if she owns a license for all the fonts and software she uses. Graphic designers throw the most remarkable shitfits when someone "steals" their design, but are more than happy to pirate fonts, software, etc.
No need to get shirty about
No need to get shirty about it, anon, and irrelevant anyhow, since the question is about the design.
However, as a sometime dabbler in design myself, I'd have to say that it's much more likely to be coincidence than an intentional ripoff.
The designs are similar, true. Basically you have a silhouetted Boston skyline with a sort of neo-Japanese-circa-WWII sunrise behind it. Two elements. How many different ways can they be combined?
In fact
Google image search on "skyline rising sun" pops this up in fourth place (it's Dallas, not Boston):
Looks like Jenny has
Looks like Jenny has withdrawn her complaint. If you follow her link now, it just says "Charity is good. The End", and all the comments are gone.
Hold on a tic
Another site with almost the same image: http://www.skylinedesigns.co.uk/
Is this a visual meme or plagarist plague?
City skylines are a common visual element. Sun rays, a-la-japanese imperial flag are also a common visial element. Your combination of those elements is unique, and ripping-off designs is wrong, but it's possible the person who did the corporate challenge t-shirt simply came up with the same idea. I'd recommend trying to meet with the designer to have a conversation and learn what happened. Maybe you have something in common.
Funny, that. It's a British
Funny, that. It's a British company, but the skyline is easily identifiable as pre-9/11 New York (and Brooklyn). Notice the Statue of Liberty, WTC, Brooklyn Bridge ...
Anyway, I think it's more probable than possible that the similarity of design is coincidental.
(I'd posted the Dallas image - which, incidentally, originally appeared on the 'net in Feb. 2006 - and some thoughts as a comment to Jenny's blog. The last time I looked, it hadn't been approved yet, and I guess it's gone now.