Glasgow 2014 Identity – Demand a discount?
by David Waters on Mar 11, 2010
After the launch earlier this week of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games identity, at which John Scott, chief executive of Glasgow 2014 Limited proclaimed – “I believe it is a classic piece of graphic design. I think it will last the test of time and serve us well as we launch our commercial programme. We are both delighted and excited about our new identity. We believe it is truly iconic and befitting of a world-class city.” – it now seems that the newly unveiled mark does in fact bear a rather striking similarity to not one but two existing pieces of identity work, one of which has been designed recently by the very same Glasgow based agency, Marque Creative.
The first similarity to the Covent Garden London logo could be dismissed as coincidence – it is of course often the case that many ‘original’ and ‘unique’ pieces of design overlap and bear similarity to one another, or are used as reference, inspiration or exhibit unintentional sub-conscious nuances. The striking matter in this case is that a previous piece of work created by the same agency for the Glasgow Common Guild bears a very close resemblance to the newly revealed 2014 identity.
This similarity has been highlighted by an article on the Scottish Herald newspaper’s website, proclaiming that ‘A discount has been demanded for work carried out on the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games logo amid accusations it is almost identical to another design produced by the same firm.’ and the Glasgow Common Guild themselves have been said to be ’surprised’ at the new 2014 mark.
The judging panel themselves are said to have been aware of the Guilds exisiting logo but despite this, judging panel organiser Andy Crummey conceded he would be “telling a lie if [he] said that if you put the two together there isn’t a strong similarity”, and added that the 2014 logo would stand the test of time.
Although such an issue would more than likely be dismissed without incident owing to coincidence or unintentional similarity as talked about earlier in this post, the decision of the very same agency to reveal a ‘copycat’ (as described by the Scottish Herald) design of their own work that was previously produced for a Glasgow based client appears at best, slightly bizarre.
All the links can be found below or by clicking on the relevant sentences within the article above.
See the three below… what do you think?
Links
http://www.marquecreative.com/