Today I was surfing around and came across a discussion about design piracy. This was pointed out as an example…
The image on the left is the website of well respected design firm Juxt Interactive. The image on the right is a blatant rip-off by some dumb-ass at bulletinboardforum-dot-com. I’m spelling out the end of the url because I don’t want search engines to pick up the link.
Yes, it’s common place for designers to see things they like (in the designs of others), and “borrow” elements from them. If done with restraint, I personally don’t see a problem with this. It can lead to some wonderful NEW designs. In fact, in my own career as a designer, it’s not uncommon for me to start a new project by looking at many examples of design, and pulling bits and pieces from each of them. It is possible to make something new by building on the foundation of something old. I have pieces I’ve done that if I were to show you my project, and the original design(s) that I was inspired by, you wouldn’t even see the connection. The idea is to get inspired by good design, and continue the evolution of the design to make it your own.
But this goes way beyond that. These dumb-asses just went to the site and stole the graphics. You can actually see where they had to rubber-stamp out the text to put their own letters on the hands.
I contacted Juxt to give them a heads-up about the theft. They had already seen it. Hopefully they’ll be able to get this site removed. Good luck guys!