20 Identical Logo Designs – Copy or Coincidence? |
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Plagiarism has become a widespread problem. People often plagiarize stuff that is easily and readily available. Be it the education field or the corporate world, the curse of plagiarism is prevalent. The same nuisance is existent the logo design industry. You will witness hundreds of logo designs that either resemble other logos or are a downright copy. But I wonder the reason behind it…is it done intentionally or it’s a coincidence? Irrespective of how you come up with a logo design, you have to make sure it does not inadvertently fall into the parameters of logo theft. |
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The risks of plagiarism in logo designs:Logo plagiarism is an ever increasing nuisance for logo designers, especially with the advent of the internet. With a simple click or just a little search on Google, anyone in the world can copy your corporate logos. In fact, Google itself has not been spared of this unethical practice. Google has recently warned a Chinese search engine to change its logo design as it is a clear copy of world famous Google logo. |
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1. Google and Goojje: |
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Original VS Inspired logo design:There is a vast difference in creating an original logo design and a logo design inspired from another. Originality is something that many logo designers claim but getting inspired from a logo design, making slight modifications to it and then claiming it to be new and unique is not called “originality”. However, many designers have been defending themselves saying “creative minds think alike” and I think they are not completely wrong. What happens is that a logo designer observes so many logos in his life. Intentionally or unconsciously, he follows those logo design ideas when designing for a client. |
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2. VOLVO and Quicktime |
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3. British Paints and Pagan Osborne |
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4. NBC and Nebraska ETV Network |
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5. Belfast City and South Hams Food & Drink |
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6. Blackburn Market and Barrow |
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7. Britney Spears’ believe |
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8. Quark, Alcone, Scottish Arts Council and Artworkers: |
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9. DoshDosh and David Airey |
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10. Carrier and Ford |
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11. BMW and BYD |
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12. FDA and SEGA and CNN |
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13. Toyota (Japan) vs Jincheng (China) |
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14. PEPSI and Korean Airline |
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15. One Spa, One, Penzeys One |
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16. Sun Microsystems and Columbia Sportswear |
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17. Sinar Mas and Airbus |
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18. Unilever and Swiat Zdrowia |
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19. Bacardi and Swiss air force logo: |
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20. Quiznos Sub and New Quest |
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February 22nd, 2010 at 4:44 am
Very interesting collection ! Thx 4 sharing
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:45 am
Great post! I’d definitely vote for ‘Copy’. Most of these logos look copied. The google buzz logo similarity with UNO is amazing. And while I would not defend Google ever however I think this is likely to be coincidental. Google has used its 4 colors in the cloud and I guess it’s apparent what it means. But again… great post!
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:37 am
Swiss Air Force impressed me the most
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:05 am
nice catch .. i think its creative copy
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:30 am
As far as I know, David Airey and Maki (DoshDosh) are friends
It’s a big surprise to know how a logo may have its twin somewhere out there
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:25 am
jajaja very funny, i really like it
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:44 am
think the Korean airline’s is more like the rip off of the Korean Flag…
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:44 am
Great post! Similarities will exist within logo design but saying that, the Barcardi bat has got to be a straight copy! Shocking! Get your own bat!
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:14 am
i believe most of the designs here are not copied. If any of you are a designer, you would know that design is problem solving mostly and sometimes solution and idea may be simple which produces these results that many people can come out with a similar or even same solution. Designers tend to use bright and easily readable colors and shapes in logos because it makes them flexible in means of application. If we today made logos like oil paintings with many shades of colors, none of them would look like same (even reproduction of same logo wd be different)
Only logo i would admit here as a copy is swiss air force logo and bacardi. Its a very specific bat design, its far from coincidence. But the others, no. If you research enough you can add hundred more logos that look like Quicktime logo or circle with one square corner.
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:54 am
We all know that China is one of the makers of copied merchandises. So I think Goojie logo is no coincidence
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:33 am
The first example, between Google and Goojje is definitely a ripoff. The Goojje logo has also stolen the pawprint that is the logo of China’s largest search engine, Baidu.
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Some of these are eerily too similar like Bacardi vs. Swiss Air Force or Unilever vs. Swiat Zdrowia that make me suspect copying since they are such unique concepts. However, I think most of them are universal ideas like the heart icons in #5 & #6 which just seem to lend themselves to the icon that took shape. I could see how different people could come up with that same solution.
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:14 pm
The Google Buzz/Uno comparison totally made my day.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:39 am
Nice one.. really similar design or concept. thanks for sharing!
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:35 am
Swiat Zdrowia is a Unilever company, that’s probably why they used the same concept for the logo.
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 am
Interesting twist on how this post started with Google vs the total rip-off (that includes Baidu’s paw print) and how Google’s Buzz looked suspiciously alike with Uno.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:00 am
most of them so obviously copied. some of them probably didn’t even realise they are copying another design.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:05 am
Don’t forget Sears logo for Sega, CNN….
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:17 am
The bacardi-swiss air force is shameless
Great selection !!
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:26 am
Very interesting post! The bacardi one has to be a copy. It’s totally indentical. Down to the fill colors!
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:45 am
I really hope this post doesn’t influence Google to add games to Buzz. Thanks for the post.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:51 am
Excellent post. Some real confusion on Google branding. Surely Google’s lawyers can not let that brand infringement pass. I love the Chinese Toyota Brand. I bet they wished they now had brand ‘passing off’ legal issues with a car brand that was not beset by product recall.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
I cant believe the Bacardi / Swiss Air Force to be a coincidence.
Who had theirs first?
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:50 pm
a estas altura del mundo, ya nda es original
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Co-incidence – Other than 1, 4 and 9 there are only fleeting similarities which can be explained by just good graphic designers doing the same research for their chosen field.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:39 pm
The Bacardi bat symbol originated in the 1860’s, so if anyone copied it had to be the Swiss Air Force.
Most of them are styles (Carrier/Ford or FDA/Sega) or symbols (O1ne or Belfast B) that have that are overused by “clever” designers or marketing folk.
BMW might have a reasonable case with BYD. It’s close to infringing on the spirit of the BMW mark and could cause consumer confusion.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:46 pm
And compare the XO and the new Targobank
http://laptop.org/en/
https://www.targobank.de/de/index.html
Coincidence?
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:52 pm
This is not the first blog post I see with some these logos (another copy?).
But all posts, as far as I remember, fail to tell which logo of each bunch CAME FIRST.
That would be crucial for a better understanding of who copied who.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Great post! Similarities will exist within logo design but saying that, the Barcardi bat has got to be a straight copy!
The Google Buzz/Uno comparison was incredible.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
I think with design your going to find some similar ideas…however some of these examples are little more than similar. Your suppose to draw inspiration from others work…not copy it. Overall I don’t like it…but if you want a bright side it can be looked at like a compliment and a reason to step it up a little.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Where did you find that Swiss Air Force logo? It looks like a fake… This is their logo according to Wikipedia: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/Swiss_Air_Force_logo.gif
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Burlington Coat Factory uses the heart shaped “b” as well.
Fabulis.com uses the teardrop shaped “s” too.
I think that some if these are coincidence. A lot of these are now common shapes. Others are just plain obvious.
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Very interesting. Nice collection…. Makes you wonder!
February 24th, 2010 at 4:10 am
The “Swiss Air Force” logo is actually a custom unofficial badge and officially has nothing to do with the Swiss Air Force. Do a little basic research before posting this sort of post, yeah?
February 24th, 2010 at 5:32 am
the swiss air bacardi force logo must be a joke from somebody with sense of humor.
the real swiss air force is using other logo.
with love from switzerland
x.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Some of these are almost too similar not to be copies.
But you are clutching at straws with some of the others. The FDA / SEGA / CNN logo’s only look similar because they all use a similar typeface – that is hardly copying is it?
And as for the Pepsi / Korean Airlines one – are you joking?? Have you ever seen the flag of South Korea? Clearly that is where the Korean Airlines logo comes from – and you can hradly call that copying, almost all national airlines use their national flag in the logo.
The worst copy on here (presuming the Swiss Air Force logo is not real) has to be the BYD / BMW logo – that is shocking!!
February 25th, 2010 at 9:29 am
some of them may be copied or made by armature logo designers, but not all of them are intentionally copied.
Like 5 6 8 9 10 12 15 20 are all have very basic element/treatment of a logo design. With very few basic geometric shapes our world we made billions of logos & icons till now & keep making. So out of those billions more than 20 sets could look same.
It says there would be 7 people in this world who’ll look like each other, that means 1 billion identical sets out of 7 billion people in the world. Yea you never seen one if you don’t have a twins, not even me. Still our mother nature is also not that creative to make all of us unique, than there will be no celebrity look-alike or body-double.
I’m not trying to say here that be a copycat not creative, I’m saying 2 mind CAN think look a like, that’s it. According to me both of the google logo (1st & last) case could be the best contrast example. 1st one is total rip-off & last one (buzz) is nothing but accident, it has all the element of google brand.
d-!-b
February 26th, 2010 at 2:42 am
Some of these designs are very similar to each other. I think that many are just similar but there are a few that look a bit like direct copies. Having an original logo is important if you want to build a recognisable identity so it only really weakens two identities if there are very close similarities. Thank you very much for sharing.
February 27th, 2010 at 10:37 am
…because the swiss force drink Bacardi
March 4th, 2010 at 12:30 am
I love that Sun logo and Columbia sportwear company logos…which are almost similar….
Some logos sensing not following plagiarsim….
but wont be possible unless plagiarism..
March 4th, 2010 at 7:02 am
great collection! this gives me an idea hmmm…
March 7th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
[...] 20 logos étrangement ressemblants : copie ou coïncidence ? [...]
March 8th, 2010 at 7:52 am
As has been said – some of these are too similar just to be coincidence. However, many of them seem to be a simple case of a very basic logo design unfortunately looking similar to a more well known simple design – for example the ‘Carrier’ and ‘Ford’ logo’s, the ‘Quark’ logos and it’s couterparts and the logo’s which take advantage of the fact that a ‘B’ can be manipulated to look like a heart.
April 17th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Very nice collection and interesting …ome of them might be coincidence, there are many designers and for sure 2 might have same thoughts …
that is possible !
April 20th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Nice collection.
Yes, some logos looked like clear copy-edit-paste jobs.
However, I am sometimes a bit liberal about calling it real plagiarism. Unlike words or text plagiarism there is no clear parameter for detecting design plagiarism. Today there are billions of logos in the world. So there will be similarities out of coincidence occasionally, quite natural.
Just think about choosing an id for an Yahoo! or gmail account or domain name for a website. So many thousand of people think of the same names, words or keywords when looking for a business.
June 19th, 2010 at 11:21 am
looks quiet similar,
Very good information on brand