Art Student Still Crying Foul Over Tournament of Roses Logo
Could a 1977 homework assignment at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design ultimately be responsible for the current Tournament of Roses logo? Former student Dave Bartholomew definitely thinks so.
His legal battle with the tournament and parade organizers, which began in 2007, is extensively detailed by LA Times reporter Mike Boehm. The logo, in use since the late 1980s, helps non-profit event organizers earn more than $1 million a year in licensing fees. Per Boehm’s piece:
Bartholomew contended that Susan Karasic, the officially acknowledged designer credited with having created the logo at the same school in 1981, must have taken it from drawings that he and a now-dead professor turned over to tournament officials during the spring of his senior year.
But he never got to submit a single piece of evidence. Trying to represent himself because he couldn’t afford a lawyer, the career advertising designer and stained-glass artist attempted two suits in U.S. District Court, only to have both dismissed on procedural grounds. His two appeals likewise failed
Boehm spoke to Karasic and some of her colleagues, who all vouch for her later logo work. Rather than believing it to be a case of great-art-student-minds-thinking-alike, Bartholomew apparently even has some conspiracy theories involving the Rose Bowl-UCLA background of a key judge.
To read Boehm’s fascinating article, click here.
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