No, I don’t think so.

There are lots of people who think they are bad.

They give reasons like –  the logos submitted in the logo design competitions are sometimes copied from the works of other professionals.

Yes, this is true, but only sometimes.

There are lots of people who copy other peoples logos and submit them as their own, but not everybody. Remember, many professional companies (who work directly with their clients) also do that.

I have experienced this problem myself.

Once, (when I was starting my career as a designer) I had submitted my resume, along with a sample of my portfolio, to a company that was in the process of hiring. My application was rejected, citing the reason that my work was not good enough. But after a few months I saw one of my designs in an ad produced by that same company.

What can you say to that?

If someone copies any work from any other person and submits it as his / her own work then it is really bad.

Design competition websites should take strict action against that designer.

But, this is not enough of a reason to write off design competition sites. If someone kills with a knife, you can’t blame the knife for the killing nor can you ban the use of knives. The actual solution is to catch the killer.

There are lots of people gaining from these design competitions.

Some people are making a living because of these sites. These competitions give exposure to many unknown designers, who without these kinds of service would never get noticed.

Yes, there are some problems, like sometimes the money given is too low and sometimes the designs that win may not be all that wonderful. But it is up to the contest holder to decide what he / she wants and how much they want to spend for it.

It is also up to the contestants how much work they want to do for that money.

Everybody is free here.

So, it isn’t that bad after all, on the contrary it’s a very good idea.

We should thank these sites and the people who got this idea.

Note from George: Although we do sometimes hire the authors who contribute to LogoDesign.org, and this particular author received payment for his contribution, the subject matter and tone of this article were in no way solicited, and the thoughts expressed within this article are solely those of the author, Gairick Mukherjee. If someone would like to publish an article on LogoDesign.org expressing a different view than the one above,  just let me know.

The downside to it is that even if you were still able to buy one (the manufacturers website does not appear to exist anymore) it would apparently cost you in the neighborhood of $4500. Which may be too much to spend on a chair. Maybe. Then again, maybe not.

Hapodi’s snaffu occured when it debuted it’s new logo, not only is the logo truly ugly, it also uses a copyrighted font created by an employee of France Telecom in 2000, designer Jean-François Porchez.

Now, this font isn’t part of the regular “pay a fee to use it” font libraries, it is a completely unqiue, custom creation that is only supposed to be used by France Telecom, as Writer Julien L from French news site Numerama explains:

“The problem is, this font was an ‘exclusive corporate typeface’. It couldn’t be used for other purposes than France Telecom/Orange products,”

That’s a big mistake!

Hadopi has issued an official apology.

Now the real question is, if they get caught two more times, will the agency lose it’s internet access?

Turn out that in addition to adding the phrases “Olay is my secret to brighter-looking eyes” and “Because younger-looking eyes never go out of fashion…[it] reduces the look of wrinkles and dark circles for brighter, younger-looking eyes.” to the ad, the artists at Olay also did some “minor retouching” of the skin around Twiggy’s face, in effect creating the very same changes that the product was supposed to be responsible for.

According to the Guardian, the U.K’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received hundreds of complaints from the public, claiming the Olay images were “socially irresponsible” and could have a “negative impact on people’s perceptions of their own body image”.

After much deliberation the ASA came to the conclusion that the ads should be banned, stating that altering the image gave a “misleading impression of the effect the product could achieve.”

Photoshop: helping to sell the snake oil of the 21st century.

Hazelton collects the dust from places where it tends to congregate, such as window sills and furniture, and then gets the dust wet, shapes it, and carefully dries it.

He credits his hobby to the fact that he was brought up in a spotless environment, his latest creation is a full bedroom, with a bed, bookshelf, tv, wardrobe and armchair.

He was also recently featured in an article on Metro UK and will have some of his creations on display in New York this Christmas.

A website I found the other day, Clients From Hell, has taken upon themselves the monstrous job of collecting and categorizing records of some of the worst.

Below are a few of my favorites from their site, although I had to stop reading after a little while as the craziness was starting to get me in a bad mood.

Enjoy! (sort of):

RENOVATING DESIGN:

I had been working with a client since Feburary creating a full identity package. After countless teeth pulling sessions and geting the greens “just right” we were ready to print in September. I get a call from her saying “I put a stop payment on my cheque because we want to get some renovations done on the house”.

TESTY TESTER:

After developing a custom e-commerce site we received an irate phone call from the client on the day of the launch…

“We’ve been hacked!” he shouted down the phone, “How could you let this happen?”

“Why do you think you’ve been hacked?”

“There’s an order right here and no payment!”

“Who’s the customer?”

“It says ‘Mr Testy Tester, 1 Test Street, Testville’… It’s clearly a hoax order!”

“Do you think we might have been testing the site?”

“Oh, I see…”

GOOGLES:

CLIENT: “Make sure you tell the Googles of the world that the site will be launching soon so it places high in their results.”

I have a feeling I am going to be borrowing this next guys line sometime in the near future:

Prospective client: $400 for a logo?! Why are you so expensive? My nephew has Photoshop—I can just get him to do it.
Me: Does your nephew have Microsoft Word?
Prospective client: Yes.
Me: Then have him write you a novel while he’s at it.

NOTE: This is a completely unsolicited post, I am not being paid anything by DBH, I’m just a HUGE fan.

Blackbird’s Attackin’ in the Dead ‘O’ Night

by shantyshawn

Umibozu

by thestray

TREE

by oliver

Journey to the City of No Horizon

by TangYauHoong

Red Riding Hood

by shantyshawn

To see the changes yourself first go to http://www.google.com

..and then copy and paste the following into the browser bar and hit return:
javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);

The new design, as seen below, makes some updates to the style of the logo and makes considerable use of the color blue.

There have also been some changes to  the results page:

We’ll see if this actually goes anywhere…

Here is a collection of some of the Photoshop image hacks that have left me with a knot in my stomach and a vague feeling of uncertainty. Enjoy.

1. “Face Vs. Fist” by  Erik Johansson via VillageOfJoy

2. “Sushi Mermaid” by  Petrosini via 1stWebdesigner.com

3. “Human Displacement“  via behance.net

4. by Matias Argés

5. by Matias Argés

6. “Hero“  by Cristiano Siqueira

7. “The Downside of Shredding” by  Erik Johansson via VillageOfJoy

8. via  Yeeta.com

9. “Voices” by echoburst

10. “Pumpkin Warrior” by Zurhorst

11. via  Yeeta.com

12. “Waterfall” by rasiresi

13. via  Yeeta.com

14. via  Yeeta.com

15. via  Yeeta.com

Want more? Check out these other collections of cool Photoshop manipulations:

Inspirational Photo Manipulation By Philip Johansson

22 Amazing Real Life Photo Manipulations

52 Just Awesome Photo Manipulations

45 Strange and Funny Photoshop Manipulations

40 Incredible Examples of Photo Manipulation

80 Funny and Realistic Photo Manipulations

I called the toll-free number listed on the site and got voicemail, so I ended up sending a firmly worded Cease and Desist order to the contact email associated with the site, I included my contact details.

The next day I received a panicky call from a guy that sounded like he was still in his teens, he was extremely apologetic,  terrified that I was going to sue him, and adamant that the pirated images were his website designers fault and he had no idea that they were not original.  He was, however, unable to explain why every example in the site portfolio of “his design work” had been lifted from other sites. We ended the call with him promising to take the site down and stop his advertising campaign. The site was down within the next 6 hours and has not been up again since.

Now the happy ending (for me at least) to that story is not typical. I have had my content stolen repeatedly and many times there isn’t an awful lot you can do about it without hiring a lawyer (you can try contacting the company hosting the offending site but that doesn’t always work).

And in case any one is wondering what a “cease and desist” is, you can find a good template here. If you are now itchin’ to try sending one out you can use Copyscape to find out if anyone has stolen your content.