The American horror film “Night of the Living Dead” from 1968 made cinema history for two reasons. Firstly, it was shot in black-and-white as a spare time project, yet the film is now part of the Museum of Modern Art film collection and counts as a cult film and milestone of the horror genre. The second, more unusual reason is that the film is not subject to copyright. When, shortly before its premiere, the film’s title had to be changed again, someone apparently forgot to also insert the copyright note from the original title sequence.

Copyright is exactly what the law firm Hudson Gavin Martin deals in, copyright and more specifically, consultancy on intellectual property rights, a concern that is directly referenced in the firm’s corporate identity. Set one upon the other, each of the three names is followed by the industry-typical insignia: the copyright, trademark and registered symbols. Thus turned into a distinctive logo, the logo also seems to suggest that they want to protect their own names – an intended irony that echoes the team’s humour. Moreover, the fact that three is more than a partnership and the colloquial wisdom which has it that all good things come in threes, is imaginatively signalled for instance via a “hat trick” made from three bowler hats, and their business trilogy of equity, assets and liabilities is revealed in all their brochures.

client

Hudson Gavin Martin, Auckland
[www.hgmlegal.com]

design

Alt Group, Auckland
[www.altgroup.net]

creative direction

Dean Poole

graphic design

Clem Devine, Dean Poole, Aaron Edwards, Tony Proffit, Toby Curnow

photography

Duncan Cole