News recently came to light regarding Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) NFT collection utilizing a logo not licensed or approved by its original artist, sparking design controversy.
Quick Take:
- Yuga Labs BAKC logo faces controversy following uncanny similarities to an Easy Drawing Tutorial image designed months before the project’s launch.
- A Twitter member bought the news to light, causing a stir about copyright concerns on the social media channel.
- The Co-founder of Yuga Labs took to Twitter to announce that the claims were “news” to the team, explaining how they hired a freelancer to create the logo and were none the wiser.
- In response, has changed the logo to an original design and asked all marketplaces to do the same.
Problems Behind BAKC’s NFT Logo Design
A vigilant Twitter user noticed that Yuga Labs did not create BAKC’s logo. Instead, the “Easy Drawing Tutorial” artist created an uncanny logo design months before Yuga Labs’ NFT project launched.
Causing a stir about design controversy, @Jdotcolombo took to Twitter to present his new finding:
Yuga Labs launched BAKC in June 2021, consequently filing for a trademark of its logo in November. However, @Jdotcolombo found an image of a strikingly similar wolf skull on the Easy Drawing Tutorial website, showcasing it to be created three months prior, in April 2021.
Easy Drawing Tutorial is a website that provides children with step-by-step instructions on drawing objects and animals efficiently. The website has terms and conditions prohibiting any images from being used commercially.
In response, Yuga Labs’ Co-Founder, Greg Solano, admitted to hiring a freelancer to design the logo and contacted Easy Drawing Guides to apologize. Moreover, he has removed and replaced the logo wherever possible and has asked marketplaces also to do so:
Instead of the wolf skull, the logo is now a big, bold font of the project’s name, BAKC. Like the original logo, but without the cranium.
To leave things on a bright note, at least more than $1M of the project’s proceeds have been donated to animal shelters. Regardless of this design controversy, let’s hope this NFT project continues to fund for a worthy cause.
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