Stepping outside the office to take a break on a not-so-cold day about a month ago, I noticed a co-worker's sweater had a familiar logo on it. Most people, the wearer included, would immediately recognize the logo as that of the New England Patriots North American football franchise.

This was not my first thought, however, as my former high school sometimes uses the very same logo. Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs, Florida, is home of the Patriots, where they used to "meet the challenge" but now apparently "make the difference."

While the mascot, school seal and other official materials contain original works of art, the New England Patriots head logo and script typeface "Patriots" are/were featured on athletic uniforms, t-shirts, websites and documents. I explained all this to my co-workers and wondered how this never resulted in a lawsuit for trademark infringement.

I suppose it is not outside the realm of possibility the National Football League decided not to take action because it was a high school, not to mention one with a well-established football program. Then again, of those copyright and trademark holders most inclined to sue I would think the NFL would rank highly.

The Tale of Two Patriots: New England (left) and Lake Brantley High

When I was at Lake Brantley (1995–1999) the registrar was Regina Klaers, a kind and professional woman with whom I was fortunate to know. She was promoted to the County level before I graduated, but I made a point to stop and visit her from time to time.

She has no idea¹, but she just answered this long running question for me in a one-sentence quote in the Orlando Sentinel: "The NFL does not have a problem with schools using the logos as long as there are limitations on it." The same article goes on to note that as long as no competition is involved with NFL licensed firms, "teams often are happy to have high schools emulate them."

The quote was prompted by a recent situation involving Lake Mary High School, home of the Rams. For reasons past understanding, Lake Brantley has long been high school rivals with Lake Mary. I remember their logo being a bighorn sheep standing with the word "Rams" in script below it. They still use this version apparently but a few years ago started using the Dodge ram head logo on uniforms, benches and even the gym floor.

Tipped off by an anonymous citizen, Chrysler sent a cease and desist letter to Seminole County Public Schools and threatened to sue. The district decided to comply, intelligently concluding the financial resources could be better spent on students then on a hopeless legal battle, and Lake Mary must eliminate the infringing logo by the end of the school year.

Two Rams Not Better Than One: Dodge (left) and Lake Mary High

In response to criticism over their move, Chrysler spokesman Mike Palese told the Sentinel, "it is a course of action we have to take to protect our trademark rights. If we don't approach these kinds of things with dilligence [sic]², we can lose our trademark rights."

Interestingly enough, Chrysler will stop using this logo itself in 2010 opting instead for a text-only logo. Quickly working to distinguish corporate decisions from their family owned and operated dealership, Orlando Chrysler Jeep Dodge has offered to redesign the Lake Mary logo for free. In the meantime, the old bighorn sheep just have to do.

I doubt whether or not two of anything counts as a frequent enough occurrence to be classified as a pattern, but it might be a good start. Has anyone else noticed that car dealerships like to use major corporations' logotype in their own adverts? I am very curious to hear from those outside Florida about this pseudo-phenomenon.

My first example I saw many years ago when I started making regular weekend trips to Tallahassee. If you take the scenic route, you eventually pass through Lakeland and by Cecil Clark Chevrolet. As you can see from their website, the ubiquitous Coca-Cola Company typeface is emulated.

Driving home today from a client appointment I spotted the second of what I hope proves to be a succession of dealership logos that partly steal identity elements from widely recognized businesses. Unfortunately, the afternoon downpour mostly obscured the sticker placed on a Chevy pick-up truck, but the font used for the name was that of Holiday Inn's logo.

By the way, did you know that in addition to Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites hotel properties InterContinental Hotels Group also owns Britvic? Of course, look at Carlson—they own everything from T.G.I. Friday's to Radisson Hotels and even a few cruise lines—but I digress.

So as I was saying, the sticker was not completely visible but it was definitely a first and last name that started with the letter "j" and looked something like "Janis Jacklyn."

Is it an epidemic or an interesting coincidence? Please let me know if you have an automobile dealership in your area that uses a popular corporate identity to promote itself.

Sutro Tower upgrades raise ire
"Neighbors of the colossal Sutro Tower lost a battle last week, when city officials rejected their calls for an environmental review of new equipment proposed for the tower." — Good, leave my tower alone.

Salon.com Masterpiece: The Holiday Inn sign
"Exploding with color, optimism and razzle-dazzle, the now-extinct Holiday Inn "Great Sign" was a true design landmark of the American century."

Dwarfs, Little People and the M-Word
Daniel Woodburn of Seinfeld fame exchanges words with movie critic Roger Ebert about the word "midget." [ via ]

Toilet Bowl: A Restaurant
"The thorough implementation includes toilet chairs, urinal sconces, and even commode shaped serving pieces." [ via ]

NYC Subway Tagging
It is amazing to see something like this since New York City and the MTA cleaned things up. [ via ]

Chappelle's Show Suspended
"Production of the popular Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show has been suspended and its third season's premiere indefinitely delayed." [ via ]

Designline – A Design Timeline
Animated GIF of one designer's web development process. [ via ]

Investors Supporting Spyware
A comprehensive listing of spyware companies and firms providing financial support to them. [ via ]

Hubble Space Telescope turns 15
Little late on this; it was 25 April.

43 Things
"Discover what's important, make it happen, share your progress. Find your 43 things."

Mac OS X 10.4 Internet Connection Speed Fix
For those who noticed a slowdown or other bugginess since upgrading.

Deputy Catches Man Peering Into His Daughters' Bedroom Window

Television and Film 555 Telephone Numbers
For Cinco de Mayo. Get it? [ via ]

After amassing a lengthy list of typography links in the comments of the previous article, many of which offer free fonts, I decided it would be a good idea to give the list a little more promotion.

I am sure there are many other quality sites and foundries, so I will continue to add to this list as I discover them. By the way, this list in not meant to be all-inclusive but simply an index of sites I have received quality fonts and/or typography information.

Now on to the list, which is sorted alphabetically by domain name and was last updated on 09 June 2005, 1908.

http://www.1001freefonts.com/
http://www.abecedarienne.com/
http://www.acidfonts.com/
http://www.all-4-free.com/fonts/
http://www.bancomicsans.com/
http://www.bvfonts.com/
http://www.cape-arcona.com/
http://www.core.nu/
http://www.chank.com/
http://www.eknp.com/
http://www.fontanatype.hu/
http://www.fontdiner.com/
http://www.fontfont.com/
http://www.fonthead.com/
http://www.fontleech.com/
http://www.fontlover.com/
http://www.fontparadise.com/
http://www.fontscape.com/
http://www.fontshop.com/
http://www.freshmedia.nl/
http://www.fuelfonts.com/
http://www.free-font-downloads.com/
http://www.free-typewriter-fonts.com/
http://www.hydro74.com/
http://www.kiwi-media.com/
http://www.larabiefonts.com/
http://www.madtype.net/
http://www.mapsymbs.com/
http://www.mickeyavenue.com/fonts/
http://www.milkwort.org/fontscape.html
http://www.misprintedtype.com/
http://www.moorstation.org/
http://www.phantompower.de/fonts/
http://www.philsfonts.com/
http://www.robotjohnny.com/fonts/
http://www.rockrage.com/
http://www.rotodesign.com/
http://www.scifi2k.com/
http://www.searchfreefonts.com/
http://www.sharkshock.com/fonts/
http://spacefonts.8m.com/
http://www.timberwolf.a.se/
http://fonts.tom7.com/
http://www.typenow.net/
http://www.typo5.com
http://www.typodermic.com/
http://www.typographi.com/
http://www.typophile.com/
http://www.voyager.cz/
http://www2.wind.ne.jp/

Irrelevant of the fact that I have become quite the master at formatting and reinstalling all my software, documents and whatnot, with this iteration of the process the inevitable happened. I neglected, through my own doing, to make a backup copy of my font collection. Coming in at around 3,500 fonts, I was very happy with the positive growth of my collection and the variation therein.

When I last formatted and reinstalled, I decided to try to keep all but necessary and oft-used fonts unloaded. In this process, I started keeping the font files in a folder other than their normal system directory; the directory being the only one I made a copy of before wiping my hard drive clean.

I have not destroyed my own data in quite a while and I must say of all the things I could have possibly overlooked this is least replaceable.

So I now come to you with the request that you recommend sites containing libraries of free fonts. Please post a reply to this article or contact me directly with your suggestions.

UPDATE: I found an old archive I made of the font collection. In addition, I was able to remember the names of about twenty of the "must have" fonts and thus was able to relocate them. At this time, I now have exceeded my previous collection. Better than drugs, I tell you.