Bolidea – Giving Rise to Stellar Companies

22 Comments Add your own

• 1. Trent  |  February 3, 2009 at 2:49 pm

  Dache could have easily come up with that without seeing the other one. I prefer daches anyway…

• 2. Jared  |  February 3, 2009 at 3:29 pm

  It doesn’t matter if the redfox logo is on the market or not, it is Mike Erickson’s personal creative property. The only real difference between the two logos is 3 triangles. 3. The ArtFox version put on logopond even had similar kerning to Mike’s RedFox. I’m not saying that Dache knowingly plagiarized by any means, it’s the fact that you are still considering using the logo that bothers me. Mike said he was offended by this article and rightly so.

  Do the right thing. Please. You are making your brand look bad by dragging this out.

• 3. Jack  |  February 3, 2009 at 5:50 pm

  [comment redacted due to explicit language use]

• 4. Jack  |  February 3, 2009 at 5:51 pm

  [comment redacted due to explicit language use]

• 5. Quadzilla  |  February 3, 2009 at 6:12 pm

  [comment redacted due to explicit language]

• 6. Toni  |  February 3, 2009 at 4:37 pm

  “Finally, while ArtFox could have done without this episode, the logo certainly does not make or break a company…the product and the team do.”

  Correction, the product and the team only steer the company, the market, however the users, well they can break a company.

  I’ll tell you something else that breaks a company, dishonesty, out right blasphemy, and if that doesn’t do it, then thousands members protesting on their websites/blogs/social network profiles/pages and calling a single company out on being dishonest, disrespectful and boy can they come up with words and terms to label a company that you’ve never even heard of.

  Yeah, that Oliver, breaks a company, that’s how people lose jobs and their reputation. That my friend is what breaks a company.

• 7. Olivier Cabanes  |  February 3, 2009 at 4:45 pm

  Thanks for your comment,

  @Trent and Jared – I also believe it is possible that Dache came up with the ArtFox logo on his own. The link in my post does showcase various big brand logos (of which, several Fortune 500 and high profile companies) that have very important similarities.

• 8. Olivier Cabanes  |  February 3, 2009 at 4:46 pm

  @Jared – I think we did the right thing. Raphael spoke with Mike yesterday for the first time and the main concern was to take down the logo from Artfox, which he did today. When I said we’re looking into options, you need to understand that Raphael is in a situation where he needs to reconsider his branding (i.e a lot of work). The options are not only whether he will use Dache’s logo, Mike’s or none of the two. Any change to his branding will have a huge impact on Raphael’s project and he needs some time to assess the situation correctly.

  Please don’t jump to conclusions too quickly.

• 9. Olivier Cabanes  |  February 3, 2009 at 4:52 pm

  @Toni

  I’m not sure why you imply that we’re being dishonest since we acted pretty quickly in recognizing the problem and taking down the logo.

• 10. Jared  |  February 3, 2009 at 5:05 pm

  @Oliver

  I wasn’t necessarily jumping to conclusions. I was reacting to my interpretation of the article’s wording. I’m not trying to attack anyone, I just think that anyway you cut it it’s an unfortunate situation that maybe could have been avoided. Dache and Mike are both outstanding designers who inspired me to go into the field which is why this is such a regrettable situation.

• 11. Jon  |  February 3, 2009 at 6:45 pm

  I believe that Toni was making the point that any further use of the logo in question would result in a huge backlash from the design community. Yes, rebranding is hard. Thank goodness you caught the problem before launch. That will save you considerable expense in correcting the problem.

  If the companies listed in the Logo Design Love had caught the issue early on then I’m sure they would have taken the necessary steps to achieve a unique identity. They may yet see legal problems due to similarities to existing brands.

• 12. David Blanchet  |  February 3, 2009 at 7:34 pm

  dache and Mike have been members of logopond for more than a year, they are both highly visible members and know of each others work, to say that dache could have come up with this on is own is valid, but highly doubtable being that the red fox logo has been on logopond for a very long time. For you to assert that merely because the redfox logo isn’t in play for that company even though it is in long standing on logopond is beyond the pale.

  Would you be ok If someone learned of your art fox concept and created and launched a site almost exactly like it before you are able to launch? I think not and any lawyer worth their grain will assure you that legal action can be taken in this instance.

  I will say in dache’s defense that he could have certainly had Mikes logo in the back of his head and subconsciously remodeled this logo after it. Wouldn’t be the first time this has ever happened to someone, wont be the last.

  The solution to this issue is simple, dache needs to recreate your branding of no additional cost to your company and move on.

• 13. Trish  |  February 3, 2009 at 9:04 pm

  Dache did not do his research. That makes him initially at fault. That Raphael did not then require Dache return his money and then buy Mike’s logo, or require Dache to design a completely new logo for no additional charge I do not understand. (Or that Dache did not offer those two solutions himself.) Those were the only two option once copyright infringement is confirmed. As quick as Raphael thought he was, he must not have been that quick, because the only reason I can think of that he did neither of those things, is because he’d already dropped a bunch of money on print with Dache’s logo. Well, Raphael could have done the same research Dache should have done. Simply run some descriptive and key words through a search engine. Such a quick and simple exercise would have saved all parties embarrassment. And you’ll have to know that friends of Mike took it upon themselves to jump all over this before Mike even knew what all was going on. At first he thought it was simply a comp Dache put up. He did not know it was a bought and paid for logo until after the sh!t hit the fan. Is Dache a good designer? Yes, without a doubt. Was he stupid in not doing his research. Yes, again without a doubt. Doesn’t matter how good you are, how old you are, how experienced you, how knowledgeable you are, mistakes happen. Sucks it was this public for all. But then you are never too old to learn from and pay for your mistakes.

• 14. Olivier Cabanes  |  February 4, 2009 at 8:36 am

  @Jon – I agree, it’s better to catch this kind of thing sooner than later…

• 15. Olivier Cabanes  |  February 4, 2009 at 8:39 am

  @Trish – The solution you suggest (“Dache to design a completely new logo for no additional charge”) is certainly the most probable

• 16. Olivier Cabanes  |  February 4, 2009 at 12:21 pm

  @Jack
  @Quadzilla
  If you want to rewrite your comments using appropriate language, I will gladly reply and address your concerns.

• 17. Raphael Ettore  |  February 4, 2009 at 12:33 pm

  I would like to inform you all that I will not be using either Dache’s nor Mike’s logo for the branding of ArtFox. Despite the time and effort that this change will require, it is very important for me to change the direction of the branding as I highly respect artistic integrity.

  I do not wish to promote something that could be perceived as plagiarism as I am and will always be against it.

  I apologize for all the grief caused by this issue and I want to reaffirm that it was never in my intentions to do so.

  Raphael Ettore for ArtFox

• 18. Toni  |  February 4, 2009 at 2:59 pm

  Raphael, don’t worry, neither you nor your company are in bad standings with any of us, this post was annoying but who cares, you’re not the one who plagiarized the log.

  In a way you too were a victim. Much respect (although i had hoped you’d buy Mikes logo after all that heartache and trouble) but this public apology was very big of you.

  I plan to retract comments/posts (or reword them) in a way that bolidea/artfox are not directly mentioned or involved, dache’s act is another matter all together now.

  I would think twice about who you get to design your new logo.

  Good luck.

• 19. Toni  |  February 4, 2009 at 4:34 pm

  Raphael, just as a heads up, have a read of the comments here before you decide to do further business with Dache, at least till this is cleared up of course.

  http://milliondollardude.com/logopond-under-plagiarist-attack/comment-page-1/#comment-60

  take care

• 20. Raphael Ettore  |  February 4, 2009 at 4:56 pm

  Toni:

  Thanks for your previous comments. I am still unsure as to how I will be moving forward with the design as I have been busy figuring out what I want in the new logo. I surely will be keeping a close eye on how all this unfolds.

  Raphael

• 21. David Pache  |  February 4, 2009 at 5:21 pm

  I’m David Pache, the designer of the first ArtFox logo.

  I’d like to apologize to Raphael from ArtFox and to Bolidea for designing a logo that is similar to Mike Erickson’s RedFox. It was clearly not my intention. I did not do enough research and in the end it was my mistake from which I have learnt.

  Most importantly, I’d like to apologize for all the trouble and bad publicity this incident has caused. I also thank ArtFox, Bolidea and Mike of logomotives for efficiently dealing with the situation. You didn’t deserve this.

  Again, my apologies to all parties involved.

• 22. 3 Steps to Getting a Great Logo for your Startup « Bolidea - Giving Rise to Stellar Companies  |  February 18, 2009 at 3:44 pm

  [...] infringements. We added this because one of the companies we work with, ArtFox, recently had to take down its logo as it resembled an already existing fox [...]

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