Düsseldorf Steal Dubrovnik Logo..Or Do They?

Croatian media have reported that the German city of Düsseldorf have ripped off a logo that the Croatian city of Dubrovnik has previously used for tourist marketing purposes.

Düsseldorf’s Mayor last week presented the logo (above) in question which will be used to market and represent the city, and it had designers at Croatia’s Osijek design company MIT raising their eyebrows.

“In May we opened the lega-lega shop in Dubrovnik ( http://www.lega-lega.com/ ), and a number of our products, especially t-shirts, had printed the 😀 on the front, also in red on a white background,” MIT told Tportal, after finding out that American BBDO had designed the 😀 as Düsseldorf’s new logo.

“We will contact them and see what happens. Maybe they will have to remove it, maybe we will, or maybe we will agree something,” said MIT Director Boris Matesic.

The 😀 which both represents a D and a smiley face it seems however, may not be able to be claimed by the Croatian company. It looks like Denmark have a case to accuse both the Croatians and the Germans. Below is a logo created for Denmark by a New York company for a 2007 issue of Conde Nast Traveller where designers were asked to rebrand a nation of their choice.