The London Museum is facing claims it copied the idea for its new logo from a husband and wife team from Manchester.
Michael Wild and Rebecca May, who run May Wild Studio in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, are considering legal action over the logo, which they say bears a “striking resemblance” to their “Coo Pigeon” design.
The museum claims that their “pigeon and poo” logo was developed independently by Uncommon, a global creative studio with offices in New York, London and Stockholm.
Both designs feature a white model of a pigeon on a white background next to a splat of bird droppings, representing the grit and glamour of life in a modern city.
May Wild conceived their logo 14 years ago, and it has been documented publicly through galleries, exhibitions and social media. It was also launched at the London Design Festival in 2018.
Their studio operates as a small family-run social arts practice, focused on art and design education and public art community projects. Wild also works as an art and design lecturer, while May is an artist, designer and educator.
Speaking to the Mail, May said: “It does feel like a very David versus Goliath situation.
“We reached out privately to the London Museum in the hope of having a conversation with them, but shortly afterwards they came back with a statement to say they didn't think the design was the same and any similarities were just a coincidence.”
“It is also ironic that the London Museum is now using a logo that was inspired by Manchester,” she added.
Wild told the Mail: “Over the past 12 months we've done everything to enter into positive discussions but now we're at an impasse, so we are taking legal advice.
“Usually in this situation it is a matter of acknowledgement and remuneration - but this isn't about the money. It's about the fact that we put a lot of care and love into this design, it was inspired by Manchester, a city where we live and it represents our core values and authenticity of story telling.
“To see the London Museum pigeon celebrated internationally without any acknowledgment of our work has been difficult and really hard.”
Describing their piece on their website, May Wild say: “Coo bird is a celebration of our cities, representing two sides of them: sometimes run down but sometimes glorious, a pest but also of a creature of value. They are a story of finding beauty and humour in the everyday, in the forgotten, in our common humble pigeon and its good-luck golden droppings.”
London Museum’s director, Sharon Ament, shared very similar words upon the launch of the new museum logo in July 2024.
Ament told Museums and Heritage: “A good logo gets people talking. Our pigeon, cast from London clay, and its splat, rendered in glitter, prompts people to reconsider London. The pigeon and splat speak to a historic place full of dualities, a place where the grit and the glitter have existed side by side for millennia.”
May Wild say that the resemblance was first brought to their attention in summer 2024, shortly after the logo launch, when other creatives and museum curators assumed they had been behind the rebrand.
They say they were inundated with messages from other designers and people who even highlighted the similarities on the museum's own Facebook page.
May Wild contacted Anti Copying in Design (ACID), the UK’s leading design and intellectual copyright campaigners, to help in the dispute, but negotiations with London Museum and Uncommon have collapsed, with museum bosses and the design agency adamant that they have not plagiarised any aspect of the design.
Dids MacDonald, co-founder and chair of ACID, said: “May Wild are taking legal advice. They’ve done everything possible over many months to be reasonable and enter into positive discussions but sadly to no avail.
“All they wanted was for the London Museum to acknowledge the original concept which they created and which is backed up by compelling evidence over many years.
“This case reflects wider challenges faced by independent designers whose long-established work later resembles high-profile commercial or public-sector projects.”
The Museum of London was based at London Wall, east London, for 45 years before closing in December 2022, with the new London Museum scheduled to open at West Smithfield in late 2026.
A spokesman for the museum said: “London Museum’s visual identity was created by Uncommon Creative Studio following a lengthy and detailed design process in collaboration with Londoners.
“We are confident it was developed entirely independently and do not accept that the pigeon and splat is a copy.”
