* EDIT * The original post on You Thought We Wouldn't Notice has now been removed and replaced with an apology & correction.
The Good — contact sheets from the BDE 2010 photoshoot
The Bad — the imagery which we 'ripped off'
The Ugly — BDE2010 is a bi-annual event showcasing dance from around the world. We won the pitch to brand the event back in February 2009. Our approach was to use the technique of Light Painting with dancers expressing movement and form. These forms would ultimately create the final identity mark. What interesrted us about the idea, and ultimately what captured the BDE team's imagination was a logo being made from the movement of dance itself. Over the following 3 months we conducted a photoshoot and produced the final identity for the festival.
When the festival announced it's line up we were quite surprised to see the
re(traces) project by tanja råman+dbini industries — as the similarities between our work and theirs are obvious. We can only assume BDE2010 recognised the similarities and booked the (re)traces project to perform as this will further extend the BDE brand.
To be honest, we saw a dilution of our brand, but BDE 2010 is just a project and we'd already moved onto the next. End of.
Until today.
Today we were made aware of a post (no longer available) on You Thought We Wouldn't Notice blog by the (re)traces photographer claiming our
brand identity work for the British Dance Edition 2010 (BDE2010) is a
ripp off the (re)traces project. Ummmm, ok - this is getting serious.
How many people have seen that post already? How much damage has been done? What if we hadn't seen this and it grew to become something far worse? Already a response had been left from Artsadmin an established arts organisation of over 30 years with no doubt wide reaching connections. I didn't like the assumption that the original poster was in the right and we in were the wrong. And talk of compensation? OK - maybe it's time to clear up some things.
So my reply followed and clearly states our position —
essentially that of we were unaware of the (re)traces project and our
only inspiration was the concept of Light Painting itself. It also states that our work precedes theirs by at least 6 months — so perhaps it's us who should be crying copyright infringement? Maybe we should be kicking up a fuss? It's certainly not the first time we've been copied both visually and verbally.
But we don't care. We're more than a one trick pony. We're also assured in the knowledge that our renderings are clearly better — this goes without saying if you consider the talent involved in the project.
Unfortunately the article lays the assumed copyright breach on our good friend Chris Keenan who we commissioned to take the BDE 2010 photography — so he looks like the bad guy in all this and we sincerly hope this does not affect him in any way.
It's all too easy to slander people on the Internet and this is a prime example of how someone who clearly has an issue has caused an issue without really thinking.
We'll take the Pepsi challenge over this should push come to shove because we know our work was in no way influenced by (re)traces. If we take consideration of the dates, at best it's coincidence on their part.
I hope this makes our position very clear.
For those interested, you can see a short documentary on the identity project here.