Agonotheta

Vindictive Designers and Logos

November 12, 2003

I'm going to see a hockey game tonight. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I love attending any sporting event. I have an inside contact at the company who designed the logo for our local team. From what I am told, the actual designer of the logo was fired immediately after finishing the design.

In a moment of vindictive wrath, he made a genital . . . i mean, gentle change to the tongue of the grizzly bear design that you see above. Look closely. Its there.

The funny thing is that nobody notices this "deformity" in the tongue of this poor bear. It cracks me up everytime I see it because people proudly display it in car windows, on jackets, t-shirts, etc. I see it everywhere.

This reminds me of another urban legend of the animator for Disney who was fired shortly before finishing his design for the poster of the Little Mermaid. Apparently, he decided to make similar alterations to some pillars on a castle. This, too, made it to print.

What do we learn from this? Graphic designers can be dangerous when fired. Before you know it, they'll be drawing genitals on everything they can get their hands on. No pun intended.