Ripoff or Great Minds?

[nixnerd]

If you independently think of an idea for a logo or design element or color scheme and then you see someone else has done it before you… can you still use it?

Keep in mind: I’m not talking about seeing something and THEN doing it… I’m talking about independently creating something… only to find out it’s already been done.

What do you do in this situation? …BESIDES feel bad about not being creative enough?

[nixnerd]

So, this is a situation where I thought of the idea and I’m almost done coding it… But then I saw something on dribble that was literally the same exact idea. Literally exactly the same. Now, I had never seen this before. I just started creating it from my head. Then… I see it.

It was really a trip to be quite honest and there is no way this young lady saw my idea. I think it’s just one of those situations where two people independently came to the same conclusion.

But… in my mind they are somewhat different. Her animation is a gif, likely done with some sort of animation software. Mine is pure CSS. So.. in that way, they are different.

[Atelierbram]

Can you tell if “the-things-that-make-them-look-similar” are part of a design trend?

[nixnerd]

Can you tell if “the-things-that-make-them-look-similar” are part of a design trend?

Well… there’s that. They’re definitely both flat design. However… it’s literally the exact same animation.

You know how you see on a ton of sites a flat image of an iPhone, an iPad and a Macbook? Or some likeness of those three? The idea is to show that they design responsively…

Well, I got really bored of that. So, I started coding this pure CSS animation for my website that is a phone, morphing into a tablet, then morphing into a laptop.

EXACTLY like this:

https://dribbble.com/shots/829412-iPhone-iPad-Macbook?list=tags&page=2&tag=animation

[nixnerd]

The only differences are:

1. Slight variations in color. My background is blue.
2. My glare is on the other side of the screen.
3. I have no shadow.
4. My devices actually have content on the screens.
5. Mine is pure CSS… not vectored and animated in pure CSS.

Other than that… they’re exactly the same.

I’m not going to lie… I’m sorta pissed about the situation. Not at this designer of course… it’s just unfortunate.

[nixnerd]

Here is a screenshot of mine:

I’ve since removed the long shadow. Way too hipstery.

[Atelierbram]

Are things like this not bound to end up looking similar when they are mimicking the same hardware? When you keep following your own logic, focus on the use-cases/functionality; make the design subservient to this and are aware of design-trends, (already are, with removing that long shadow), then I think you will find it will more and more become it’s own thing. But things are moving fast nowadays, in comparison, the ancient Greeks had this relief design trend for ages, when depicting their hardware devices.

[nixnerd]

Ha ha ha ha ha.

I just thought it would be cool to have devices morph into one another to illustrate responsiveness to clients. Didn’t know it was already so cliche. Oh well, I still think it looks badass… so I’ll probably roll with it.

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