A mighty storm was brewing today over the offices of Maurice and Charles MacPro, the world-renowned graphic design studios recently paid a substantial (but undisclosed) sum to rebrand and relaunch The Threadbone Press's failed American Classics Series under the new and allegedly "sexier" title THREADBONEnoir.
The MacPro's Design Studio earlier today. Employees are
unsure when they will return to their desks or indeed
when their desks will return.
Well-received in the notoriously febrile worlds of PR, design and the commercial visual arts, the MacPros arresting work has been garnering praise, rewards and prizes in equal measure; restoring, in the process, the brother's somewhat tarnished reputation for originality and innovation. The MacPros had even gone so far as to publish a warts-and-all, kiss-and-tell, behind-the-scenes exposé of their battles with the Great Having powers-that-be to bring their work before the public in their bestselling account: Hello My Precious: Constructing Images, Selling Stuff: The Inside Story of the Campaign for Threadbone Noir [Threadbone Press, 2018]. Riding high as a result and with other publishers lining up to commission similar miracles, all seemed set fair for the MacPros and their associates. That is, at least, until today ...
Late last night, rumours began to circulate on the world-wide-interweb that all might not be strictly kosher in the House the MacPros built, or at least that "originality" and the MacPros might not be too strongly acquainted. Then from America came images of the dust jacket of Jim Thombone's She Done Him Wrong as originally published by POCKET BOOKS of Coupon, Pennsylvania. There was, many felt, a certain resemblance between it and the THREADBONEnoir rebrand - a resemblance bordering on similarity. "I certainly sensed a familiarity", says Dust Jacket Collector and Paperback Historian Dhejar Voo, "but I couldn't quite put my finger on it".
Subsequent analysis of the two covers by independent image comparison expert and former Threadbone Digital Laboratories technologist - Effigies Denudator - has now established that over 23 points of comparison between the two images there is a 70% probability that the two are near identical and a 55% probability that they are absolutely identical. "This means we can say with reasonable certainty that it is reasonably unlikely that the first and older image was wholly unknown to and had no influence upon those responsible for the production of the second and newer image", Ms Denudator explained. Does this mean that the MacPro's were aware of the earlier image and passed it off as their own original work? "Well I wouldn't go so far as to say that" Ms Denudator continued, "I am not sure the science would support such a categorical statement but ... at the same time I wouldn't rule out completely the possibility that at some level of consciousness or perhaps even subconsciousness those responsible for the second image were wholly unaware of the first. It's anyone's guess, but if push came to shove, I wouldn't dismiss the possibility entirely".
Charles and Maurice MacPro were both unavailable for comment, but a spokesperson for the design studio went so far as to admit that the brothers wee both unavailable for comment.
SIde by Side: the original Pocket Book dust jacket for Jim Thombone's She Done Him Wrong and the MacPro's more recent "version". Experts cannot agree on whether the latter version is heavily indebted to the former but the MacPro's reputation for innovation and originality has taken a significant hit. "Basically they are f****d" said Nigel Courtauld-Institute and Richard Loewe-Tekk of Designs 'R Us the Frome St Quintin-based graphic design company whose disastrous work on the 2017 Branscombe Air Show Souvenir Programme [HERE] led them to miss out on work subsequently undertaken by the MacPro's Studio.
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