The Museum of London has ruffled feathers over claims it ‘stole’ the idea for its new ‘pigeon and poo’ logo from a pair of designers…from Manchester.

Michael Wild and Rebecca May are considering legal action after negotiations with museum bosses and the design agency behind the £437m rebrand recently collapsed.

The museum claims the pigeon and poo logo was developed independently by Uncommon, a global creative studio with offices in New York, London and Stockholm.

But Michael and Rebecca, a husband and wife team who run May Wild from their studio, in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, say it bears a 'striking resemblance' to their ‘coo bird’ and ‘golden coo pu’ design they first conceived 14 years ago, in 2012. It was launched at the London Design Festival in 2018.

Both designs feature a white ceramic model of a pigeon on a white background next to a golden splat of bird droppings, which represents both the gritty yet glamorous reality of life in a modern city.

Rebecca said: 'It does feel like a very David versus Goliath situation.

'We wanted to do the decent thing, so reached out privately to the London Museum in the hope of having a conversation with them, but shortly afterwards they came back with a statement to say they didn't think the design was the same and any similarities were just a coincidence.'

Mike added: 'Over the past 12 month we've done everything to enter into positive discussions but now we're at an impasse, so we are taking legal advice.

'Usually in this situation it is a matter of acknowledgement and remuneration - but this isn't about the money. It's about the fact that we put a lot of care and love into this design, it was inspired by Manchester, a city where we live and it represents our core values and authenticity of story telling.

'To see the London Museum pigeon celebrated internationally without any acknowledgment of our work has been difficult and really hard.

'Our hope has always been for open dialogue around attribution and visibility for independent creatives. This isn’t about blame — it’s about encouraging better practice in the sector.'

Rebecca added: 'It is also ironic that the London Museum is now using a logo that was inspired by Manchester.' 

The couple point out that information about their coo bird design has been online, widely shared on social media and exhibited around Manchester since 2018.

On their own website they say: 'Coo bird is a celebration of our cities, representing two sides of them: sometimes run down but sometimes glorious, a pest but also of a creature of value. They are a story of finding beauty and humour in the everyday, in the forgotten, in our common humble pigeon and its good-luck golden droppings.’ 

They say a similar story was shared by Sharon Ament, director of the museum, which has changed it's name to the London Museum, when she launched the new logo in July 2024.

She told Museums and Heritage: ‘A good logo gets people talking. Our pigeon, cast from London clay, and its splat, rendered in glitter, prompts people to reconsider London. The pigeon and splat speak to a historic place full of dualities, a place where the grit and the glitter have existed side by side for millennia.'

Rebecca and Michael were alerted to the copycat design soon after the logo launch by other creatives and museum curators who assumed they had been behind the rebrand.

'Initially we were shocked at the striking resemblance,' Mike said.

They were inundated with messages from other designers and people who even highlighted the similarities on the museum's own Facebook page.

One commentator, Louise Morgan, wrote: 'Thought this looked familiar!! Have you just ripped off the May Wild Studio original design? The poo even has the raised splodges!'

Another wrote: 'Whoever was paid to essentially steal someone else's art and pass it off as a new and original design concept to London Museum should be ashamed of themselves. I can't fathom why someone would do this and think people wouldn't notice.' 

When Rebecca and Michael's private approaches to the museum were rebuffed they contacted Anti Copying in Design (ACID), the UK’s leading design and intellectual copyright campaigners, who agreed to help and act as mediators in the dispute.

However, talks recently stalled because London Museum and Uncommon refuse to accept they have plagiarised any aspect of the couple's design. 

Dids MacDonald, co-founder and chair of Anti Copying in Design ( ACID), said: ‘May Wild are taking legal advice. 

'They’ve done everything possible over many months to be reasonable and enter into positive discussions but sadly to no avail.

‘All they wanted was for the London Museum to acknowledge the original concept which they created and which is backed up by compelling evidence over many years.

'They expected the London Museum to uphold high expected standards of attribution recompense and transparency. This did not happen.

'They have a clear, dated audit trail for their designs, and situations like this underline the importance of robust due-diligence processes — particularly where publicly funded cultural institutions are involved.'

Mr MacDonald added: 'This case reflects wider challenges faced by independent designers whose long-established work later resembles high-profile commercial or public-sector projects.

The Museum of London was based at London Wall, east London, for 45 years but closed its doors in December 2022. 

A spokesman for the new London Museum, which is scheduled to open in Smithfield, east London, later this year, said: 'London Museum’s visual identity was created by Uncommon Creative Studio following a lengthy and detailed design process in collaboration with Londoners. 

'We are confident it was developed entirely independently and do not accept that the pigeon and splat is a copy.'