1) A discovery of a logo in the LogoWorks company portfolio which is a direct rip from a logo by Mark Fox - LOGOWORKS.com or LOGOWORST.com?
2) HOW forum members look closely at LogoWorks and come up with more, which are included in LOGOWORKS.COM RIP-OFFS.
3) 'The Prepared Mind' becomes the top blog/podcaster during the saga, coining the phrase 'LogoWorks or LogoJERKS?'
4) CMO, LogoWorks steps in and starts posting on the HOW mag forum. The exchange quickly deteriorates. "Now you went and pissed our designers off."
6) Interview with a LogoWorks designer "I know for a fact that a regular practice is to find a logo that already exists and merely change it a bit and send it off.."
7) LogoWorks states they are putting better checks and balances into play, but "our sheer volume (over 30,000 customers) makes this issue particularly challenging for us" will indeed be an interesting challenge. I imagine many people around the internet will be watching to see what exactly gets put into place as it seems a near on impossible task to accomplish given their business model (see Robert Wurth's article LogoWorks: Who is to Blame? for a rounded look at the problem).
by Steve Douglas from The Logo Factory Inc.
It's been opined more than once that a lot of LogoWorks design work is actually better than much of the material that is posted in the HOW critique section.
Many of the designers on the HOW forum (and on other boards) have stated that they are *impressed* with LogoWorks marketing, and ability to get press in a business niche that is generally ignored by the mainstream market. I've often stated (publically) that they should get 'kudos' for that. AND that, like the two points above, is neither here, nor there.
OTOH - What a lot of designers are pissed about (myself included) is LWs complete distain and trash-talking of *every other kind of design business* unless it happens to be LW. In fact, if you read their web site, you'll see that they state their distain for large studios, mid-sized studios and yes, even *freelancers* - amazing considering the fact that their core business is built *from* freelance designers. Designers (are you a designer?) are also concerned that companies like LW are breaking the back of an industry that requires skill/talent and training to get into. Whether or not this is the case, is not important. It is the fact that designers feel that their very livelihood is threatened (other than working for LW for $20 a design - plus ALL rights). If you believe that LW wishes to co-exist peacefully with other designers and studios then I ask you to read *their* material.
If you're advocating paying peanuts for design work, you'll find the business 'community' (especially publications like the WSJ) are more welcoming. But then again, the business 'community' prefers Sam's Club over Costco, solely on the basis that Costco treats their employess with *too much* respect, pays them *too much salary* etc, all the risk of a minimal slip in profits.
In the marketing biz, you need a 'hook'. In this particular discussion, the 'hook' is that a company wandered into the design industry, showed nothing but distain for the people who make their living in that industry (read their web site), and then turned around (and at the very least), 'borrowed' from those very same designers to further that company. This is obviously going to make some people see red.
