Taylor Swift Changed Her ‘Folklore’ Logo After Complaints From a Black-Owned Brand
Taylor Swift Changed Her ‘Folklore’ Logo After Complaints From a Black-Owned Brand
The Folklore's Amira Rasool wanted to "bring light to the trend of large companies/celebrities copying the work of small minority-owned."
Taylor Swift’s Folklore merch just went through a re-design after Swift was accused of stealing a logo from a Black-owned fashion brand. The original merch Swift had designed read “The Folklore Album,” despite the actual album just being named Folklore, and Amira Rasool, owner of The Folklore brand, said that the similarities between Swift’s merch and her own logo were too strong to ignore.
Rasool wrote on Instagram on July 24th, the day Swift's album dropped, that she wanted to “bring light to the trend of large companies/celebrities copying the work of small minority-owned” businesses. “I am not going to let this blatant theft go unchecked.”
“This morning, it came to my attention that musician #TaylorSwift is selling merchandise to go along with her new album ‘Folklore,’” Rasool wrote. “She is currently selling merchandise with the words 'The Folklore' printed on them. Based on the similarities of the design, I believe the designer of the merch ripped off my company's logo.”
In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Rasool reiterated her issue with the merch design.
“The main thing was having ‘The Folklore’ when the album was just called Folklore,” she said.
Specifically about the logo design itself, Swift's positioning of the vertical “the” next to the horizontal “Folklore” is what convinced Rasool that Swift’s logo was a copy. You can see for yourself in the side-by-side she posted below.
A post shared by Amira Rasool (@amirarasool) on Jul 24, 2020 at 9:17am PDT
Swift’s team responded to the Rasool's claim via a statement issued to Good Morning America. It reads: "Yesterday, we were made aware of a complaint that the specific use of the word 'the' before 'folklore album' on some of the folklore album merchandise was of concern. Absolutely no merchandise using 'the' before the words 'folklore album' has been manufactured or sent out."
"In good faith, we honored [Rasool’s] request and immediately notified everyone who had ordered merchandise with the word 'the' preceding 'folklore album' that they will now receive their order with the design change.”
Upon reading Swift’s response, Rasool took to Twitter to “commend” the team for their decision. “I recognize that [Swift] has been a strong advocate for women protecting their creative rights, so it was good to see her team is on the same page,” she wrote.
It was a great first step and we are in conversation right now with Taylor’s team about the next steps to make this situation right.
— Amira Rasool (@AmiraRasool) July 28, 2020
Swift’s merch now reads “Folklore Album” and is available for purchase on her official website. You can support Rasool's brand by shopping TheFolklore.com.
