Sungkyunkwan University 'Cheongchun Jeonya' Festival Logo Plagiarism Controversy
Idol Group 'Seventeen' 'Cheongchun Changa' Designer Criticizes on SNS, "Why Did They Have to Copy?"
Sungkyunkwan University Student Council Apologizes to Designer via Email
A claim has been raised that the logo design used at Sungkyunkwan University’s festival plagiarized the album logo of the idol group 'Seventeen.' The designer who created the logo also criticized the situation through their social networking service (SNS). As the controversy grew, Sungkyunkwan University belatedly sent an apology email to the designer.
(From left) 2024 Sungkyunkwan University Daedongje Festival logo, SEVENTEEN 'Youth Anthem' album logo. [Photo by Sungkyunkwan University official SNS, SEVENTEEN album cover capture]
On the 31st, 'Pot,' the creator of the Seventeen logo, uploaded the official poster for Sungkyunkwan University’s 2024 Daedongje festival on their SNS, criticizing it for plagiarizing their logo design. He posted the logo design of Seventeen’s 'Cheongchun Changa' that he created alongside, saying, "Why did they have to copy it? Did they copy it out of fandom for Seventeen?" He added, "The character 'Chun' is in the original, so they could have just used it as is, but I don’t understand why they cut 'Chan' to make 'Chun.'"
Looking at the existing Seventeen album logo, 'Cheongchun Changa, Cheers to youth' is written in a thin cursive style. In particular, the logos for 'Cheong' and 'Chan' stand out. When comparing it to the Sungkyunkwan University festival poster uploaded by the designer, 'Cheongchun Jeonya' is written in a similar thin cursive style. Not only the shape of the consonant 'ㅊ' but also the vowel 'ㅑ' are similar to the album logo.
Sungkyunkwan University produced and sold tattoo stickers and cheering slogans with the logo under plagiarism suspicion for 4,000 KRW and 7,000 KRW each. Netizens who came across the story responded with comments such as, "The stroke feeling is very similar," "If you take each character apart and check, you can feel that some characters were literally cut and used as is," and "They even sold it." Netizen B, who works as a designer, criticized, "As someone in the industry, I think this is almost definitely copying."
As this controversy spread across various online communities and SNS, the Design Promotion Bureau of the Sungkyunkwan University Student Council sent an apology email to the designer. However, the official poster posted on SNS has not been modified or deleted.
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