Accused of plagiarizing an iconic Pop Art work, the Presidential Office yesterday hastily reverted to an earlier design for its presidential inauguration logo.
The abandoned logo, which bears a resemblance to the "LOVE" image devised by American Pop Art master Robert Indiana, was to have been used on posters, invitation cards and identification badges for the inauguration ceremony. Printing of the materials has been halted.
PHOTO: CNA
The offending logo, a draft of which was unveiled by Presidential Office Spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) on Monday, featured the word "love," with each letter in its own square accompanied by an additional graphic element. It had been intended to enhance the "Love Taiwan" theme of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration on May 20.
The logo has been replaced by an L-shaped logo featuring the same word and is dominated by a silhouette of the Presidential Office building.
Huang yesterday denied that the box design was an instance of plagiarism, saying that "both the square-shaped logo and the L-shaped logo were among various drafts for the design."
But to avoid any doubts about its originality, "the Presidential Office would change the square-shaped logo into the L-shape," Huang said.
The Presidential Office originally planned to deliver some 200,000 invitation cards to the public from May 10. Yesterday, Huang said the printing would still be finished in time and invitations sent to invitees without delay.
The designer of the logo, Hao Kuang-tsai (郝廣才), editor-in-chief for the Grimm Culture Publishing Company and a frequent consultant on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) advertising, denied he stole the design yesterday.
He said this was demonstrated by the fact that the original version had been designed in compliance with a Presidential Office request that the national flag be incorporated somewhere in the logo.
DPP Deputy Secretary-General Chung Chia-pin (
"Many works of modern visual art have been designed to deconstruct or extend existing art forms. Without careful inspection of the connections between the original and adapted versions, saying a recreated work is plagiarism would be disrespectful to an artist's professionalism," Chung said.
A renowned American painter, sculptor and printmaker, Indiana was best known for his "LOVE" series of images. Indiana has also been working on a public-art project to be installed prominently at the Taipei 101 skyscraper in October.
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