Brand consultants Marque Creative is behind both symbols, which feature the letter G bound by circular lines.

They were paid £95,000 to produce the logo for the Commonwealth Games, which was unveiled at Glasgow's Clyde Auditorium earlier this week.

The deal included a website, screensaver and animations.

However, the firm had also been hired by Glasgow arts group The Common Guild to produce a logo in 2007 - and it looks remarkably like the one for the Games, which was first revealed two days ago by insidethegames.

Games organisers today dismissed claims they had inherited a "second hand" logo and insisted it was an “original piece of artwork” despite the criticism and the similarities.



A spokesman for Glasgow 2014 said: "The Glasgow 2014 logo is an original piece of art that is rooted in sport, time, data and measurement, with a 'G' for Glasgow at the heart of the logo, as it is the heart of the Games.

"While it does bear a similarity to The Common Guild logo - which is based around its initials T, C and G - the Glasgow 2014 brand went through very rigorous testing against existing trademarks and brands.

"We believe there will be no issues arising from any similarity."

But Glasgow Tory MSP Bill Aitken said he would be raising the issue with Games organisers due to the obvious similarities between the two designs.

He said: "I find it surprising that the logo designers came up with something so similar. I would be interested if someone could explain the exact differences between this logo and the previous design by this same company.

"It is an attractive logo, but at £95,000, I think it should be."

Nobody was available for comment at Marque Creative.


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