What would you say are the chances of this being parallel thought?
January 31, 2013 2:41 PM Subscribe
A recent post into the blue brought me to the attention of an electronic act calling itself Lazerhawk. At first I was just a bit amused, having myself used the name Lazerhawk for my metal music output. But when looking at some of their official artwork.. I started to get a bit.. upset. It bears a distinct resemblance to the logo I was using for my own Lazerhawk project.
Considering how narrow the metal aesthetic is, yeah, this is either "parallel thought" or "guys, there are really only so many ways to design a logo for a metal band".
I mean, conceivably you both stole your logo from whoever came up with the logo for Spinal Tap. Who probably stole it from Styx or Ozzy or something.
The only way I would pursue this is if it turns out there's some connection where they could possibly have known of your metal output under that name and seen your logo. Like, are they from your hometown, or do they have music connections in common with you?
posted by Sara C. at 2:54 PM on January 31, 2013
I mean, conceivably you both stole your logo from whoever came up with the logo for Spinal Tap. Who probably stole it from Styx or Ozzy or something.
The only way I would pursue this is if it turns out there's some connection where they could possibly have known of your metal output under that name and seen your logo. Like, are they from your hometown, or do they have music connections in common with you?
posted by Sara C. at 2:54 PM on January 31, 2013
Have to say that it looks like parallel thought to me, given that you both are spelling 'lazer' the way you are (which to my mind already biases any accompanying logo towards the kind of 70s/80s imagery/typography that you are both using). I could also argue that you both owe a debt to Hawkwind circa Doremi Fasol Latido. In addition, the layouts of your respective logos are quite different, despite some general stylistic similarities. Put bluntly, if I was in band called Lazerhawk my logo would probably look something like both of yours too.
posted by Chairboy at 2:55 PM on January 31, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Chairboy at 2:55 PM on January 31, 2013 [1 favorite]
Honestly when I read "logo for Lazerhawk", and before I had seen either logo, I thought that both logos were going to be "Lazerhawk" spelled out in the shape of a hawk. Clicked on the first logo: "Yeah". Clicked on the second logo: "Huh? That's supposed to be similar?"
Obviously they're similar in that they both say "Lazer Hawk", but that's to be expected. And, I guess, shiny letters? But that seems understandable given "Lazer", and in any case relatively minor compared to the fact that theirs is shaped like a hawk and yours is not.
posted by Flunkie at 2:59 PM on January 31, 2013 [7 favorites]
Obviously they're similar in that they both say "Lazer Hawk", but that's to be expected. And, I guess, shiny letters? But that seems understandable given "Lazer", and in any case relatively minor compared to the fact that theirs is shaped like a hawk and yours is not.
posted by Flunkie at 2:59 PM on January 31, 2013 [7 favorites]
Those are... really dissimilar logos. Other than them both being stereotypically metal, which is not surprising given the spelling of the word "lazer." I don't think you have any evidence that this is anything other than parallel thought.
posted by brainmouse at 3:00 PM on January 31, 2013
posted by brainmouse at 3:00 PM on January 31, 2013
1) the logos do not look alike at all except for stylistical similarities
2) the style is standard for this and related genre
3) when I read the word "lazerhawk" I pictured chrome and black (and navy blue, and a chrome hawk with red lazer eyes) and what I pictured was stylistically, very similar to both logos.
4) you probably have not been ripped off.
posted by windykites at 3:03 PM on January 31, 2013
2) the style is standard for this and related genre
3) when I read the word "lazerhawk" I pictured chrome and black (and navy blue, and a chrome hawk with red lazer eyes) and what I pictured was stylistically, very similar to both logos.
4) you probably have not been ripped off.
posted by windykites at 3:03 PM on January 31, 2013
I'm usually the first person to see resemblances for this sort of thing, but I don't see the resemblance... The chrome look and the angled lettering seem par for the course for a metal band.
posted by mochapickle at 3:03 PM on January 31, 2013
posted by mochapickle at 3:03 PM on January 31, 2013
This is a coincidence. If someone were to ask me to come up with a logo for a band called "Lazer Hawk," without telling me that such a band already existed, I would come up with something that looked a lot like what you both use.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 3:34 PM on January 31, 2013
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 3:34 PM on January 31, 2013
Those don't look similar to me at all. When I heard "Lazerhawk," I imagined a metallic hawk with red beams coming from its eyes.
posted by Slinga at 3:39 PM on January 31, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Slinga at 3:39 PM on January 31, 2013 [1 favorite]
You'd be amazed at how hard it is to come up with an original name for a band. I spent literally months with one of my friends trying to come up with an alias to release his EDM productions on, and I don't care how obscure and clever we thought we were being, someone else had done it first.
posted by empath at 5:00 PM on January 31, 2013
posted by empath at 5:00 PM on January 31, 2013
It bears a distinct resemblance to the logo I was using for my own Lazerhawk project.
No. It doesn't. Theirs looks like a hawk with wings and a tail and a beak and yours doesn't, for starters. It'd be like me accusing you of ripping off the Street Hawk logo because they're both silver and contain the work HAWK.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:40 PM on January 31, 2013
No. It doesn't. Theirs looks like a hawk with wings and a tail and a beak and yours doesn't, for starters. It'd be like me accusing you of ripping off the Street Hawk logo because they're both silver and contain the work HAWK.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:40 PM on January 31, 2013
When I was teaching freshman-level graphic design, one of the first things I inevitably had to do was break kids (at least one per class) of their tendency to make everything look like a shiny, angular metal band logo. The look isn't unique. These two examples bear no resemblance to each other save for the übiquitous shiny angles.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 AM on February 1, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 AM on February 1, 2013 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kindall at 2:43 PM on January 31, 2013 [7 favorites]