Food For Thought
October 3, 2007
I check cssmania.com every morning to get my mind warmed up and also to see what other designers are creating. It’s important to stay current with trends and to be inspired but when does “inspiration†become something else? Not long ago I was very impressed with a new blog site called blogsolid.com. I thought the design, colors, layout, and attention to detail were great.
Today I came across a site that had a very similar layout at www.bulletproofideas.com.
I am not here to be judge and jury, for all I know they could be by the same designer. Is this considered copying or inspiration, and which design actually came first? Something almost identical to this happened to me not long ago only way worse. Part of me was flattered but the other part was just plain disappointed! What are your thoughts? This has Ben Blogged!
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Justin D wrote @ October 3rd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
“This has ben blogged”
Took me a minute but I get it,. That’s clever. Is it new?
As far as the two designs go, I think Blogsolid is classier and less “trendy”. Bulletproof Ideas has all the trappings of “Web 2.0 style”, complete with speech bubbles.
This problem will always persist on the interweb. Designers need to learn to live with it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The problem comes when deciding whether to discuss it or not. Citing the offender will just drive them traffic, exactly what you don’t want.
Imar wrote @ October 4th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Hi Ben.
Wow, the similarities are rather striking. It’s always quite disappointing to me, because it instantly makes my design less unique. It’s amazing how often it happens though… There is even a guy using graphics from Blogsolid on his site. I asked him to remove them, but of course he has not.
The opposite also happens: the moment I design something that I think is rather special, people say stuff like, “oh, it looks just like…” and my heart sinks.
Ah, the frustrating life of a designer!
admin wrote @ October 4th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Justin,
I know what you mean about the traffic. I don’t plan on making this a common post topic, I would rather focus on the positive aspects of design. I bet there could be a site dedicated to this topic, maybe there already is.
Imar,
Thanks for the comment! I think the opposite is almost more frustrating.
guest wrote @ October 20th, 2007 at 7:54 am
I would put this in the ‘inspired’ category.The changes are subtle, but the overall differences are definite.
(Blogsolid is definitely the better design.)
Denny wrote @ October 26th, 2007 at 4:45 am
I will have to say, the who 3 thing, three boxes, three small css boxes of text in the middle of a page is quite common these days. If you look at the footer of Ben Blogged you could say it bares resemblance of many many other sites out there. Does this mean you are infringing?
Inspired…
Ben Blogged wrote @ October 26th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Denny,
Point taken, I think with web design there are always going to be similarities there really are only so many ways things can be done. It was the swirls more then anything in these designs that I found interesting. Thanks for the comment.