Below left: a graphic designed by Thomas Porostocky, used since 2008 (or 2007) as a logo for More Party Animals, a group seeking more choices besides Democrats versus Republicans.
Below right: a graphic "designed" by Dave Warren, used {since|up until} mid-December 2010 as a logo for No Labels, a group seeking more choices besides Democrats versus Republicans.
And now let us watch the babbling evolve over time.
In a NYT City Pages blog post timestamped "December 13, 2010, 6:13 pm," this:
Dave Warren, a 30-year veteran of Madison Avenue, said that he came up with the concept completely independently. Mr. Warren said that he decided to riff on the donkey and elephant using clip-art animal shapes that are available free of charge or copyright.
Wait. Before we get to the real hilarity … You can get paid … You can get a job on Madison Avenue surfing the Web and downloading clip art?
Please, continue.
Mr. Warren, who among other things did groundbreaking work for Absolut vodka, bristled at the suggestion that he had stolen the design.
“I do my own thinking, man,” he said. “Feel free to come to one of my classes at Parsons.”
He added: “I have a long and storied history on Madison Avenue. I’m not stupid enough to steal anybody’s work; I have too much faith to come up with my own ideas.”
As for Mr. Porostocky, Mr. Warren said, “Tell the other guy to Google my name.
Emph. added.
The post is also marked "Updated 12:38 a.m. Tuesday," with a note that the totally not at all stolen work was "removed from the No Labels Web site by early Tuesday."
In a later City Pages post timestamped "December 14, 2010, 10:42 am," this (emph. added):
The ad man, Dave Warren, said this morning that a designer he hired had grabbed the logo featuring red-white-and-blue animals from the Web site of the group More Party Animals and incorporated it in the design.
[...]
On Tuesday, Mr. Warren apologized to the designer of the More Party Animals logo, Thomas Porostocky, and accepted responsibility for the theft, writing in an e-mail message to Mr. Porostocky:
[...] I take full responsibility for it. [...]
Dave Warren sounds like a real politician, all right. When deny, deny just won't fly, blame a subordinate and then Accept Full Responsibility™.
Presumably, he will be announcing his candidacy any day now. Right after he finds a new home for that unnamed underling, under some bus somewhere.
Meantime, here is a new logo for Dave Warren:
(h/t: Jack Stuef | source for pants on fire, unsurprisingly | title: cf.)
P.S. By the way, neither of the City Pages posts reports that Dave Warren works for FLY Communications (or at least did through this morning), where he is (or at least was) "creative director." You have to go to Gothamist for that. Which you might want to do to see more of the intermediate babbling. (And then you can steal part of their slightly less blurry screen shot, too.)
P.P.S. We decided to Google Dave Warren, man. As of this moment, the top hit is for someone at a local teevee station working as a "weekend meteorologist." Which suddenly seems like an honorable position, for some strange reason.
3 comments:
STOLEN
LABELS
Also, my father-in-law was one of those Madison Avenue guys. He noticed his own stuff in the portfolio of a guy applying to his very own agency.
I am so jealous of the job interview he got to preside over.
Hee hee! And now I am, too.
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