Hong Kong Apple tribute designer denies plagiarism
A Hong Kong design student whose sombre tribute to Steve Jobs became an overnight Internet sensation denied Tuesday that he had copied another artist's work.
Jonathan Mak's design, which featured the late Apple founder's silhouette incorporated into the bite of a white Apple logo on a black background, went viral online after Jobs died at the age of 56 last week.
But the 19-year-old student has been forced to fend off allegations of plagiarism after web users pointed out that a similar logo was first created by a UK-based designer, known as Raid71 online.
"I did my best to ensure that the idea hadn't been done before by searching for terms such as 'Apple, Steve Jobs, logo, silhouette' before I came out with the design," the second-year student told AFP.
He said he was not aware of Raid71's work until he was told by readers of his blog.
"I don't dispute he came out with the design before me, but we arrived at the same design independently," he said.
The two logo-tributes have different dimensions and the UK designer used a black Apple logo instead of a white one.
Mak was inundated with tens of thousands of emails, blog comments and job offers after he published his design on the web.
(c) 2011 AFP
