As a designer, you come across situations where, through no fault of your own, you end up spending hours coming up with a unique and creative idea, only to find that.. wait a second, it has been done already. This can cause a lot of frustration so doing your homework in advance is wise. Of course, we must not forget that inspiration is perfectly okay, but sometimes inspiration can go a step too far. I have put together a collection of logos which may or may not have been based on each other, but with the best respect in the world, look awfully similar don’t you think. I have compiled this collection with similarity based on style, colour and general layout.
Scottish Arts Council VS Artworkers
You have to admit that this particular symbol is used the world over in logos to represent companies, however both of these logos are operating in a similar industry and use the exact same colour tone. Suspicious or coincidence?
Unilever VS Swiat Zdrowia
These two logos, although different shapes and different colours use the exact same style of make up. You can see some of the same vectorised symbols inside each of the two logos and although one could think that the second of the two was inspired from the first, the similarities are a bit too close for for comfort, especially with the Unilever logo and it’s contents being a copyrighted registered trademark.
Chanel VS Gucci
Nobody wants to mess with designers, especially two as prolific as the two above. But the symbols above are very similar and to the untrained eye (like my own 
) may be easily mistaken. Oversight perhaps.
Ubuntu VS Human Rights First
This particular symbol of a circle of people like figures has been pretty much done to death at this stage and these two companies are not the only ones using it. However it is hard to believe that any organisation would be using something remotely similar to that of a company as big as Ubuntu.
Sun Microsystems VS Columbia Sportswear
These are two of the closest logos i have come across. The icon is incredibly similar in style and a bit too close for comfort in my opinion. I think Sun have stopped using this logo and are branding themselves more under Oracle these days however this logo is still floating around online.
Love Irish Food VS Food & Drink Devon
These two logos raised an awful lot of controversy in Ireland a few years ago where the Love Irish Food logo was distributed on more than 30 irish food products, only to be recalled due to copyright infringement. It’s pretty obvious why the logo was pulled don’t you think.
Britney Spears Believe VS Mondonation’s Believe Campaign
A complete and utter rip of a logo is not acceptable, especially when it’s being printed on millions of bottles of perfume associated with none other than Britney Spears… and what did it rip off?? A charity fundraising and awareness campaign no less. Sheesh!
Freesat VS Glasses Direct
Hmm! Familiar me thinks. Again, this layering of colour is not completely unique, and tons of logos use it, but they could have mixed up the colours a bit maybe no?
Korean Airlines VS Pepsi
Korean Airlines and Pepsi have extremely similar logos. Although the Korean Air logo is no always represented as the shape and is occasional built into the the logotype of the brand name, the colours, style and overall layout is remarkably similar in my opinion.
Virgin Media VS Tunisie Telecom
To end off nicely on another popular logo we have Virgin Media and Groupe Tunisie Telecom. Different Colours, different sides of the globe, but very similar style, layout and pattern.
There are tons of similar logos out there but these are a few that caught my eye. Let me know your thoughts or if you have seen anything similar recently!
