Indigo backs down after illustrator claims they stole her Montreal 375 design

Bookstore giant Indigo has stopped selling a gift card celebratingMontreal's375thanniversary after an illustrator complained it had plagiarized her design.

Bess Callard a former Montrealer now living in Freiburg, Germany designed a print in 2013 that she called Montreal City.

It features the word Montrealin redwith black icons of the city's landmarks and claims to fame the Jacques Cartier Bridge, poutine, maple syrup, a hockey stick, a pigeon, a bagel and the Notre Dame Basilica, among other things.

On Thursday, a friend contacted her to ask whether she had designed something similar for anIndigo gift card after seeing a similar design on the book-seller's website.

"I looked at them and my heart just sank. I said 'No, I didn't do them. It looks exactly like my work,'" Callard said.

She said some of the icons look like they have been slightly redrawn, but others look like exact copies.

She said when put side by side, it's "obvious" one is a copy of the other.

Facebook support

After seeing the Indigo design,she posted toFacebookand quickly got a wave of responses, backing up her claims of plagiarismand saying the company owedher an explanation.

She reached out to the company on social media and contacted a lawyer. Initially she wasn'toptimisticabout getting a responseand called the whole affair"disheartening."

But on Friday afternoon, responding to a question from CBC News, an Indigo spokesperson said the company waspulling the gift card from circulation.

"Our intent with our giftcard was to celebrate Montreal's375thanniversary by selecting images that celebrate iconic aspects of the city," Kate Gregory, senior manager of public relations, said in anemail.

"We have a long history of supporting local artists and authors, and in that spirit we have decided to take the card off sale."

Gregory said the card has beenremoved from Indigo stores and online.

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