Stolen!

The above is MY original illustration.

The above is a detail of a logo that a "designer" in Europe created in a logo contest, seemingly using my illustration (without my knowledge) as a starting point. I wasn't too annoyed, until I checked out the contest and found a logo design (detail below) that is actually my illustration, except there are flowers added to the wheels. Now this is ANNOYING!!!!

This is the downside of the Internet. Anything you post can be seen by anyone and can be stolen unless you take the necessary precautions - which I did not.

The upside of the Internet is that you meet a lot of very nice people! This whole situation was brought to my attention by an email from a complete stranger in Germany, who wrote to me saying that she thought these logos were borrowing heavily from my style. Her name is Gila von Meissner, a graphic designer with a marketing background. She's busy creating logos, strategy, text, fan pages and if that isn't enough, a line of baby clothing seen on iStock. Check out her website  for more. Thanks for the heads up, Gila!