Logo + Corporate Identity | Engine doppelgängers

Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Co., USA; Colorado Time Systems, USA; Chatham Steel Corp, USA; United Technologies, USA; MedAssurant, USA, Northeast Utilities, Massachusetts; Unitil; Western Massachusetts Electric; One West Bank, USA; Sunshine Media; Texas-based Frost Banking Group; Chandler-Gilbert Community College, part of the Maricopa Community Colleges, Chandler, AZ; Stedelijk Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; TXU Energy, Texas Utility Company; CEA (Consumer Electronics Association), USA; Denver STD/HIV Prevention Training Center, Denver, Colorado; The Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County; Helion AG, logo design concept; Encore National Bank, Naples, FL, USA; The Social + Interactive Media Centre of the Emily Carr Design University, Toronto, Canada; Chrono Software, from SBEL (Simulation Based Engineering Lab – University of Wisconsin), WI, USA; Stealth Concealment, Charleston, NC, USA; Santa Clare Entrepreneurs Organization (SCEO), CA, USA; ST Engineering (Singapore Technologies Engineering), State-owned integrated engineering group that provides solutions and services in the aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine sectors, Singapore; Lighthouse International, global organization dedicated to overcoming vision impairment through rehabilitation, education, research and advocacy, NYC, USA; Pacific Southwest Realty Services, Commercial Real Estate, San Diego, CA, USA; RSA Insurance Group, UK; Azimuth Post Production, Soho, NYC, USA; Lightspeed Systems, innovative web filter, collaboration, security, and network management for schools, Bakersfield, CA, USA; American Plastics Council [OLD LOGO], Trade Organization for the Plastic Industry, USA; Emily Car Art + Design University, Toronto, Canada; Cultivate Recruitment & Training, a logo design concept by London-based Yes Studio, UK; Daylight Transport, a logistics company, USA; Urban Affairs Coalition, Philadelphia, PA, USA; CDIO™ INITIATIVE (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate), an innovative educational framework for producing the next generation of engineers, USA; Forum One Communictions, Web Design & Brand Communication Co., Alexandria, VA, USA; Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, FL, USA; LUTRON Dimmers & Lighting Controls, USA; FICIL (Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia), Riga, Latvia; E-Tex Ecológica, eco-friendly textile from De Novo, Brazil; Collective Media, with offices in NYC, London, and Bangalore, India. Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) is dedicated to accelerating the success of clean energy technologies, Boston, MA, USA; Cultivate Recruitment & Training, a logo design concept by London-based Yes Studio, UK.

There’s an old French proverb: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” first coined by French columnist and novelist Alphonse Karr (1808-1890), which loosely translates to: “The more we change, the more we stay the same.”

Before the internet, we all operated in virtual seclusion and isolation, as individuals in our world. Collaboration only occurred in Multinational Corporations that operated across different countries and cultures. In the business world, ideas and innovation spread in limitation, only to organizations that had the resources and means to communicate

Fast forward to the Internet and Social Media era, connecting the human race like never before in history, like a labyrinth of busy bees.

Facebook, Twitter, Linked-IN, Groupon, and Crowdsourcing are becoming a common part of our vocabulary and lifestyle… through which mediums we are connected through our work, and the objects that inspire us. And for all the children born in internet era, life without it is simply unfathomable.

I’ve been on a personal mission myself, in pursuit of suspiciously similar looking Logos and Corporate Identities. A fruitful quest to date, having come across myriad doppelgängers, look-alikes, wannabes, copies, or plain plagiarism. Sheer coincidence? Or copycats? An ever changing, ever amassing encyclopedia of visual identity is just a click away.

Turns out being a true original is increasingly difficult, if not virtually impossible.