Did H&M Steal This Design From An Artist’s Community Sign?

by Justin Fenner | 6:22 pm, January 24th, 2012

In December 2008, an artist in East Atlanta painted a local billboard with the simple, loving message, “You Look Nice Today” and painted a small red heart next to it. And this week, the same artist found out that her sign now also adorns doormats, pillowcases and towels at Swedish mega-retailer H&M, which didn’t pay to use her original design in its products.

Tori LaConsay told her story of being misappropriated by the retailer in an email to Regretsy, which posted pictures of LaConsay’s sign and the products on offer from the chain’s UK website side by side. (Local photographer Gabrielle Kai posted a photo of the sign to her blog in January 2009, so we’re confident it’s been around for a while.) When you look at them, it’s pretty easy to see that H&M’s products are near-perfect copies — we suppose for intellectual property reasons they chose to leave out the period that closes LaConsay’s kind sentiment, but otherwise the designs are identical.

And the worst part is, H&M flat-out denies that the items are similar. LaConsay’s friends emailed the company to complain that her artwork had essentially been stolen, and one of them got this message in response:

We employ an independent team of over 100 designers. We can assure you that this design has not been influenced by your work and that no copyright has been infringed.

Sure. When a massive corporate entity uses someone’s proprietary work of public art for monetary gain without securing the right to do so first, no one’s copyright has been infringed whatsoever. Laws work that way.

LaConsay probably isn’t going to sue — or at least she doesn’t appear to have the desire to right now, but we think what’s happened to her is just plain wrong. It’s one thing for fast-fashion chains to copy clothing and other products from big companies that sell originals for hundreds and thousands of dollars, but it’s quite another to take the work of a community minded artist, who never got paid for her work in the first place, and turn it into profit. Shame on H&M for being so greedy, and for being so unapologetically unoriginal. Should you like to complain to the brand about this flagrant abuse of someone else’s work, you’ll find their customer service department here.

[Regretsy]

Anonymous

Door mat – the irony could not be more beautiful.
http://profile.yahoo.com/BTTWF2TDB5I3HZYVTTU2W6K5KY Josh

The only doubt that I had was whether or not there was proof that Tori’s work had truly been around first, and your article has cited evidence of that. Thank you!
Robert

It’s a generic message with a heart. Not exactly sure what the original artist could have done about it, as far as IP Protection goes. Ideas like this are a dime a dozen.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=560070513 Tori LaConsay

Thanks for covering this, Justin. I should a small corrections here for you, though. The responses you posted were not actually responses to me, but to my friends. H&M has not currently responded to my email at all.
Jproad

change.org….create the petition!
http://twitter.com/KatjaNyquist Katja Nyquist

OMG. I have absolutely no respect for H&M now. How dare they steal her work! Looks EXACTLY the same!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701411681 Debi Warford

“…we suppose for intellectual property reasons they chose to leave out the
period that closes LaConsay’s kind sentiment, but otherwise the designs
are identical.”

Actually, they didn’t leave out the period, they just moved it over the i…
http://profile.yahoo.com/BTTWF2TDB5I3HZYVTTU2W6K5KY Josh

Robert, it isn’t the idea or the message, necessarily, but that they look almost exactly the same. H&M stole the image itself. Same font and line set, with a heart at the end. They could have taken the idea and gone in another direction, but they didn’t. They basically adjusted the original image, called it their own, and sold it for profit. That’s the issue, and it’s unfair to Tori, here.
Phat_jellee

Hmm. I would probably blame the designer who ripped that off, not H&M as a blanket (not that I have any love for that company or their stuff). Perhaps if designing is so laborious for you, you shoud go do something else for a living. Whoever it was was so lazy it looks like they copypasted the period on top of the “i” in “nice” and didn’t actually get rid of it.
Gillian Pdx

I posted a comment to the H&M FB page. Seems like the only way to ve then to stop using the image out pay for it is negative publicity, so maybe a few hundred comments would help…
Gillian Pdx

I posted a comment to the H&M FB page. Seems like the only way to ve then to stop using the image out pay for it is negative publicity, so maybe a few hundred comments would help…
Mosborn10

Sent an email to H&M…let’s see what lame response I get back. I will be posting on their FB page as well.
Laura Wackerly

As an employee for H&M, or a design agent for them, H&M carries sole responsibility for said employee’s actions and/or obvious outright theft.
George

Obviously the phrasing and pairing with a heart are things that nearly anyone could have come up with. Things change when the placement and typography are almost identical. There are so many ways that those words could have been done differently it’s unlikely that they would have picked that exact one without having seen hers first.
Chilli

What does ve mean and what does “using the image out pay” mean?
Chilli

Hi Tori. Your amalgamation of words coupled to the heart in the general scope of the art is a copywritten item as soon as it is published. In this case, when it was painted and placed on display for the public. If you can show a time-stamping to a photo taken prior to their use, it may be possible to attain an attorney who would be willing to take your case for reimbursement for the art inspiration on commission. To my eye, the application of your artistic influence was copied more than 80%, so it is pretty obvious that it was a matter of plagiary. It costs $30,000 for a US based corporation to go to court and far more than that for an international company. Paying off for less than that to make a huge black eye go away may make far more sense than to litigate the issue. High five to Regresty for taking your case! <3

P.S. Nice job!
Chilli

I agree with Phat. This is not the “work” of H&M. It is the “work” of the design agent who took this artistic expression and plagiarized it. I would hunt down the one person who took the credit for someone else’s work and expect compensation from them. If an independent company, then that company owes H&M a huge apology, if an employee of H&M, then at least fire the person.
Patbrazill

uhh… if she doesn’t sue then she is just dumb.
Anonymous

With a team of 100 designers, how can they be sure that one of them did not see this and copy it?
Lauren11nicole

Terribly sad
Chilli

I have patents that cost me tens of thousands of dollars and 15 years of development to get. People out there are just selling my invention anyway. Plagiarism happens all day long. The best you can do is hope to get paid something for years and years of study and polishing of your trade.
Bikerk

Here’s what I wrote to them:

“Shame on you for stealing the “You Look Nice Today” sign from Tori LaConsay. You can deny it all you want, but the placement of the “ook” in relation to the “L” in Look is completely identical. No way is that a coincidence. You even put “corporate responsibility” as a suggested topic in this contact form. I suggest you get some!”
Mrwhackamole

What a hypocrite Regretsy is! Who came up with the name “Regretsy”? Her ex-friend Drew did! Did he get any compensation or credit? No he did not! Helen ended the friendship and went on a book tour. H&M scrubs their Facebook page of unpleasant truths? Oh, noes! So does Regretsy and then they block you. Silly cow!
Anonymous

the artist should definately sue, she would win
Anonymous

Looks like H & Ms 100 independent designers, have a problem with self creativity.
Roberta Arnone

I had a similar thing happen to me and I did have an IP lawyer on my side. It’s a lesson learned. Very easy for others to copy your work and change one subtle thing to no longer violate the copyright. The bigger the company, the greedier and less compassionate the thief!
Roberta Arnone

However, with my artwork (as opposed to legal authorship mentioned above), I have seen various homages to me by including my designs or using subtle variations thereof and I find that quite flattering. As artists, we must learn to let go and know that our ideas influenced others and in some small way (or large) affected society. It is exhilarating to walk past a larger than life advertisement or flip through the pages of a magazine and take a double-take of work that looks just like mine. ; )
Van Esca

There are too many similarities between the two items for coincidence.
1. The words are identical.
2. The placement of the words by line is identical
3. Both use sans serif letters
4. The double o’s in the word Look are arranged in both to simulate a pair of eyes to reinforce the idea of “Look”
5. The heart symbol at the end of both messages.
6. Comparing the two, it seems that the author of the message at right tried to change some of the letters (slant, etc.) to make them different. It looks very contrived.
Bikerk

I just received this reply from H&M:

Hello Kaye, We are sorry if we have upset anyone, we are taking this matter seriously and right now we are looking into the situation. We have reached out to Tori LaConsay, are in direct contact with her, and we will continue this dialogue. Sincerely, H&M Customer Service
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=608708035 Becky Lee

Unless the artist Trademarked the phrase ‘You look nice today.” anyone can say/use it. Sorry…
http://www.facebook.com/NeighborlyNotary Roberta Arnone

It costs lots of money to sue and there’s no guaranty of success. You can have a different ruling from one judge to another. Lawyers don’t take cases like this on contingency and people who violate copyright and patent laws know full well that our form of government still does not provide any protection to freelancers, artists and small business owners. There is no Legal Aid Society of free lawyers given to an up and coming entrepreneur or freelancer or artist. It pays to just continue your work and know that a talented person will continue to create beautiful things and eventually be compensated. There’s still a lot of truth in the saying, it takes money to make money.

Did H&M Steal This Design From An Artist’s Community Sign?

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