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The PQ's New Logo Is Nearly Identical To A Kazakhstani Company's & Twitter Noticed
Coincidence, homage or something else?
This is definitely not why the Parti Québécois wanted to be in the news after unveiling its new logo, but even it can't escape the power of a good graphic designer armed with social media.
After the PQ presented its new brand image at a caucus meeting in Trois-Rivères on December 4, a few eagle-eyed observers noticed that the party's new logo looks suspiciously like that of another business. In Kazakhstan.
Logo du @PartiQuebecois \u2193\nLes identit\u00e9s de marque, c\u2019est en partie mon m\u00e9tier. Des nouveaux logos \u00abqui ressemblent \u00e0\u00bb / \u00abqui ont l\u2019air de s\u2019inspirer de\u00bb, c\u2019est fr\u00e9quent. Quand on jongle avec des formes simples, les co\u00efncidences sont possibles. Mais ici\u2026 c\u2019est identique #polqcpic.twitter.com/gu6UBNTdmm— Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Proulx (@Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Proulx) 1638806720
The resemblance has certainly raised some eyebrows.
One graphic artist on Twitter showed how the petals of the fleur-de-lys design have just a slightly different orientation in the two logos. Despite that subtle difference, the graphic artist, Vincent Beaudry, opined that "the details are too identical for it to be a coincidence."
Le noue. Logo du @partiquebecois est une copie \u00e0 peine subtil du logo d'un call center au Kazakhstan publi\u00e9 sur Facebook en 2018.\n\nCe n'est pas 100% le m\u00eame logo, mais les d\u00e9tails sont trop identiques pour que ce soit une coincidence. #polqc #cdnpoli #PQ #PLQ #CAQ @PaulPlamondonpic.twitter.com/Scfjyy9G4V— Vincent Beaudry \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf10\ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf3 (@Vincent Beaudry \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf10\ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf3) 1638740072
The Kazakhstani company, QazContract, calls itself the country's "largest consulting service" on its Facebook page. Its logo, featuring a stylized letter "Q," seems to look like a perfect logo for an upstart québécois political party with its fleur-de-lys-like flair.
In a tweet, the PQ said, "Our new visual identity speaks as much to our rich heritage as to the momentum we want to give to the Quebec of today and tomorrow." Previous iterations of the party logo featured a "Q" — of course — with a sharp, triangle-shaped tail.
In a statement shared with the Journal Métro, the PQ insisted that it didn't copy the logo and claimed that it's an original design.
So we ask you, graphic designers of the internet — is this the same logo?