This post was mentioned on Twitter by designblender: New blog post: What to do when a client wants you to copy other designs http://bit.ly/d9WgId...

I had a situation where a client wanted me to use written content they copied from a competitors site on their own, this after I had explained to them that if they wish to supply me with content that it must be authentic, and not a copy of someone else’s work.

Well, I must have not made my point clear enough, because the client sent me a direct copy and paste from another site (I always check, just in case, to cover myself from a legal standpoint).

I had to write the client back and explain to them the reasons why this was just such a bad idea: The legalities such as copyright infringement, that using copied content from competitor sites has a tendency to cause mistrust in users (people do surf to competition sites), but also that duplicating content from another site is just not going to do their own web site any favors in the search engines.

Once the client had this information (especially once they understood the potential negative impact of using copyrighted material), they of course promptly sent me original copy I could use on their site.

…that expression transform me in some kind of hulk-girl.

It was so offensive for me, the fact he ask me that… but after made the design, I add some changes, it looks pretty similar to the website he ask me, but I learn a lot another techniques in Photoshop to create the effects.

At the end…I discover that the principal reason why he wanted that design was because the menu was better than my designs.

The problem isn’t that they want you to copy, it’s that they have no idea how to express what they’re thinking. They like one site because someone at some point put some thought into the content _and_ the design. It’s pretty easy to illustrate the point without talking down to them or trying to convince them.

The reality of the situation is that the designers who designed Apples web site were likely coming from other inspiration from other designer web sites as well, which accumulated into it’s sleek looking design it is now. If I didn’t know about Apple and I just happened to randomly design something 99.99% exactly like Apple purely out of coincidence, I’d be ragged on pretty hardcore by the design community. The chances of this happening are very slim, but it’s possible. It would be just like winning the lottery but different obviously. Granted, Apple is the only one that makes Apple products so it wouldn’t be an exact replica without their product images but I hope you understand my point.

Another example, if I don’t know what a notepad is then I can’t design it. But I know what a notepad is because someone created one previously. But that person created the notepad off of other creativity from someone else, etc. Nobody ever just creates something from nothing. That would be like saying you were the creator of all things, which ultimately resulted in you creating a notepad from everything you previously created. One last example… it would be like someone saying “you said something funny”, but how could you say anything funny if you didn’t know how to speak your language — which was made up through time from multiple people throughout our history.

Now with that said, I think it’s rather rude to replicate someone’s site completely and really detrimental for a beginning designer to do so for work and should only be done for learning purposes only.

I totally get what you are saying in the article too, but the reality is that everyone steals design work. They just do it in bit-sized chunks so its labeled “copying” instead of stealing.

Just my two cents.

It’s important to keep originality and your own personal style to your designs but as long as you don’t breach copyright or blatantly COPY their design then you are fine. Most of the best and most widely known logos started out as an idea formed by a logo the creator saw.

http://new2wp.com
http://www.metalabdesign.com/

I think it does

I had a client who wanted to use a bunch of photos that they did not have permission for. I explained why that was not ok, copyrights and all, and they said “That’s stupid, where do people get all this stuff then?” And refused to be reasonable. I turned down the project, thank God, and later discovered they had gone ahead with their copyright-infringing design with someone else.

Those type of people aside, I think you have a great process written out that can lead to some really great projects growing out of a seemingly terrible proposal.

1 after > 2 after > 3 after > 4 after > 1 after…………
Me after > you > someone > again may be Me…………. Circle goes like this, isn’t it?
We could not use great libraries or tutorials if someone is saying this is copy or we can say there will not be any improvement in anything.
I have given comments 2 or 3 times and 2, 3 words (good, great etc) for other articles, because I have a fear of my English language. But could not control for this article and wrote some thing I felt, please excuse me if I miss spelt or grammatically wrong.
Hi Preston if you add fans-club let me know, to be part of it.