Heritage Malta took a conscious decision to launch its new logo in spite of knowing it bore similarities to others.

The agency took its decision because it was convinced this was "a pure, unlucky coincidence" and that there had been no copyright infringement, a spokesman for the agency told Times of Malta on Sunday.

The Maltese national agency for museums and conservation launched its new brand identity on Friday. 

Within a few hours of the launch, people noted similarities between the agency's new logo and that of other brands, particularly that of the Hunter Museum of American Arts in Tennessee. 

Asked if its logo had been inspired from this, a Heritage Malta spokesperson outrightly denied this was the case.

He said that HM had become aware of the similarities a week before the launch and alerted BRND WGN, the company that had been tasked with the rebranding.

“Heritage Malta's CEO alerted BRND WGN a week before launch and they (BRND WGN) said they were 100% certain that this was a pure, unlucky coincidence and advised HM to go ahead as there is no copyright infringement.

BRND WGN's advice was that there was no reason to reverse "an important decision like this".

BRND WGN CEO and founder Peter Grech said that as soon as his company was alerted to the similarities, he immediately issued a statement to HM's CEO providing him with all the project proof and sketches.

“Of course it hurts to read the comments that are being made, but what do we do? Do we invent a quick lie? No, we want to come out with the truth and this is that we advised Heritage Malta to go ahead with the launch. This was agreed across the board.”

“The truth is this was a very unfortunate coincidence."

Logo inspired by Maltese stone and local traditional craft 

Heritage Malta's rebranding includes its new slogan "Part of Us", the new logo inspired by Maltese stone and the traditional local craft of Maltese hand lettering, known as tberfil, and a revamped website.

In a statement, HM said the concept behind the slogan is a reminder that Maltese history is deeply rooted within the people of Malta including those who decided to make Malta their home. 

An empty space in the centre of the logo forms the letter 'H' for Heritage. This lies between two mirrored 'M's for Malta, created by three parallel brush strokes using the tberfil style.

The top M symbolises the historic sites on land, while the lower one represents the underwater heritage and heritage that is yet undiscovered.

Logo resemblance ‘uncanny and extremely unfortunate’

The national agency slammed claims that the logo was copied, yet admitted that it did resemble others.

“The resemblance to the logo of the ‘Hunter Museum of American Arts’ situated over 8,600km away across the North Atlantic Ocean in Chattanooga, Tennessee is uncanny and extremely unfortunate,” the HM spokesperson said. 

“While most rebrands very often pass relatively unnoticed, rebranding the agency tasked with not only conserving Malta’s rich and expansive 8,000+ years of heritage but also promoting it, was never going to simply pass under the radar, and then again that was never the plan. This was a moment to be celebrated."

The spokesperson said HM decided to rebrand to celebrate its shift away from the idea of the museum as a static showcase and move towards “dynamic, people-focused museology”. 

The spokesperson said similar claims of resemblance are not rare, and it can happen that many brands not only resemble each other but actually seem identical. 

“The real question here is: Was this a coincidence or premeditated?”

Logo creators view

Heritage Malta's new identity was created by a  team of designers from BRND WGN, which was awarded a tender to rebrand the agency in March 2020.

Grech said the company wanted to create a new logo "which represents our stories, our food, our fashion, not something old or from the past”. 

The final logo was not that which the team loved most. It was "option E" out of five choices and was selected by an executive branding committee at Heritage Malta. 

Grech said the logo was tested and extensive searches were done through the European Union Intellectual Property Office search portal to ensure its originality and significant clearance within the EU jurisdiction. 

“You perform a search by inserting the logo into the search bar to see if any other resembles it. Nothing in our searches came up,” he said.

The similarity to the logo of the Hunter Museum of American Arts went unnoticed because this is not an EU-registered trademark. 

"The rebranding of Heritage Malta is not just the logo, but includes so much more to make sure people get to truly discover our heritage and story," he said. 

Grech said similar claims of resemblance have happened before and cited as examples Airbnb and the Tokyo Olympics, which he said had been accused of direct copying. 

What happens now?

HM's spokesperson said while this was not the planned start for the agency's rebranding, the identity was created out of a "rigid process" rooted in Maltese culture and not inspired by any other works. 

"It is also fairly evident that Heritage Malta is in no way, shape, or form trying to ride on any other brand’s goodwill and neither will the use of this logo impact any other brand’s goodwill or create any market confusion through this unlucky coincidence and thus Heritage Malta will proceed with this process of transformation and the great value it brings to the Maltese Islands."