The Sincerest Form of Flattery

April 9, 2009 / 29 comments / Permalink
Brad Haynes the creative director

Charles Caleb Colton once said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Well, we’re flattered these guys felt compelled to launch their ode to the new site. Also, this brings up an interesting issue about mimicking other designs and when the design might be going too far beyond the line of acceptable imitation.

Dope Team’s new website for Counterstrike enthusiasts

Accelerate Media - The Design Sweetspot

NEW! Neoma

Inspiration vs Imitation

The web is still a bit of a gray area in this regard. Sure we throw copyrights at the bottom, but no legal action has ever (to my knowledge) been taken to keep people accountable.

I’ve always been a big believer in looking to others for inspiration. Back in art classes, the teacher would have us review Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Rodin, Degas and the like. We’d then take a piece from our favorite artist and try to copy it exactly. I think only through those methods can you discover masterful methods of composition and artistic techniques that separate the good from the great. But, at some point, you should make that jump from imitation to creation.

Learning the Tools of the Trade

Mastering the techniques should provide you with the tools you need to explore your own style. I still look to people I consider great designers for inspiration. I’ll draw heavy inspiration from these designers in my own designs. But, by launch, you can bet the final design looks nothing like the designs that inspired it.

Design Resources

I’ve included a list of places I visit before getting into the design phase of our process. Hopefully it will serve as a good resource as you continue to grow into a great designer!

All That Being Said…

I’m not here to bash people for crossing the line or anything. I actually considered throwing up the Photoshop document for anyone to download and dig through. I’m still open to that if anyone’s interested. But I’m more interested to hear other’s thoughts on how they go about getting inspiration for their designs.

1. Do you scour other sites for your inspiration?
2. Do you stay away from the computer entirely to make sure the designs you come up with are your own?
3. What sites have you seen that might be a little too close to another design?

29 comments

Hannah Paramore Brad, thanks for your post on this controversial subject. I think it would be appropriate when people truly rip off a design to at least give credit to the original, don't you? Fri, Apr 10, 2009 9:38am
Brad Haynes @Hannah That would sure be nice if they did ;) And you're right about it being a controversial subject. Everyone has a different opinion of what they consider a design rip vs a site that simply was inspired by another design. It's really left up to the designer to make sure they are using all original design and code. Fri, Apr 10, 2009 6:16pm
Eric Thank-you for the great resource list! Sun, Apr 12, 2009 2:59am
Brad Haynes @Eric Glad to be able to help! And I almost forgot another resource I've begun using: Pattern Tap is a great place to find inspiration for certain design elements like forms or headers. Sun, Apr 12, 2009 8:16am
Jess Hold your horses, would you consider this a rip? At the very least an awfully similar site ;) Sun, Apr 12, 2009 7:32pm
Jess Oops, here's the main link. Sun, Apr 12, 2009 7:34pm
Brad Haynes @Jess Thanks! Someone sent me another one too. Cracks me up they all feel kinda the same... Sun, Apr 12, 2009 7:41pm
Jacob You have certainly put a lot of effort into the design and implementation. Unfortunately other not so talented web designers and developers do not have the skills needed to come up with a beautiful original design. I think people completely underestimate how difficult it can be to design a great website.As for the actual ethics of the situation i am in the opinion that people should always ask permission before taking design elements from other peoples websites. We all need to learn from somewhere and imitation is usually the place we start. However complete rip-offs (like the ones you have mentioned) are quite disgraceful. Especially if these are design companies selling the website.Anyhow, I love the website it flows very nicely and the design elements are perfect! Sun, Apr 12, 2009 10:59pm
Joe I think the site looks great. Too bad others feel the need to rip it off. But they say you have to worry when they DON'T copy you.I think it would be awesome if you guys did a tutorial on how you built the peeps section -- love how that works! Tue, Apr 14, 2009 7:00am
Brad Haynes @Jacob It's true what you say. So much went into this design. And it's especially difficult when you're designing for yourself and other designers!@Joe That's a great idea! Look for an upcoming tutorial on building the peeps section. If you'd like something now, I also just finished a 4 page tutorial on that exact thing in Web Designer Magazine just hitting the shelves this week. Pick yourself up a copy! Tue, Apr 14, 2009 7:56am
D I read an interesting article about finding design inspiration. The author suggested alternate exercises: Get out, go to Wal Mart, walk down the aisles and look how they do product placement or take an object or area and take a 30-50 rapid fire photo shoot of it, just to look at it in a different way. While these are great ideas, I do not personally have time to wander through Wal Mart, but I like the rapid fire idea. I didn't even try it, but instantly thought of unique design inspiration (although, not to my current project).As for scouring the web, reviewing such resources as Smashing Magazine, I think this helps me a lot. There are a lot of great websites out there, most I find ONLY through these design showcases. So that means there are a ton of bad websites out there. I must admit, I do take snap shots of all the great designs for my collection of inspiration, I do find the same theme over and over again getting really old. For example, I am currently reviewing Web Designer's Depots 50 Excellent Corporate Website Designs. Many of those designs are too similar in layout that it's starting to bore me. I "redesigned" my own website about a year and a half ago (but got too busy to actually implement it) that had all these same techniques back when it first started to become popular.I see a lot of similar elements (even on this website) that I see on others. So back to the article that I read, I think it's okay to take elements of other designs that you like, but make it your own. Try stepping out of the box. Don't be afraid. Don't do what everyone else is doing, even though they look elegant. Tue, Apr 14, 2009 9:26am
Ivor Hi Brad,At least the Counter Strike guys left your details in their footer (perhaps overlooked when they downloaded & ripped your pages ;-).But seriously, when a 'professional', commercial design company (which is what I gather the Italian replica was for) has to steal the design for their OWN site, one has to wonder if they are anything but a group of talentless plagiarists, stealing everything they sell or do.Personally I'd be very, very peeved by this blatantly obvious theft, although I doubt the content & style (which is arguably the most important part of a site) could come anywhere near that of your original.Cheers for the resources by the way!Iv Tue, Apr 14, 2009 11:56am
Brad Haynes @D Totally agree that it's OK to take other's elements and make them your own. And you're right, there are probably elements here and there within this site that were inspired by others. I'm not sure that anyone can make a site 100% original. It's just so hard to forget about that last incredible site you saw. But the key is making it your own!@Ivor Yeah, it makes you wonder how people can slap their name and picture on your design and market themselves as designers. But I've found that people worth their salt don't need that last design. While it's still a little annoying people do that, you should be moving on to the next big idea and people will always be left a step or 2 behind ;) Tue, Apr 14, 2009 1:54pm
Austin Siewert To blatantly rip a design off verbatim with the same color palette, elements and code is ridiculous. The first example didn't even attempt to make it their own, that was a rip off - the source code still has pieces of PR clients/copy . The second design definitely drew inspiration from your site, from the portfolio carousel, to their team members. You can actually see in the screen shot they had the project descriptions sliders, and then it looks like they removed them once they saw this article. The third site is a blatant rip off with just changing the header background area. And the last has used your carousel verbatim with PR markup still in their source code.With that being said, as I'm just coming up on 3yrs of working professionally as a web designer/developer (only web guy at my agency), I draw huge inspiration from design resources galleries/blogs and believe I'm just crossing over that threshold as I'm still mastering techniques. When I first visited the site through 'Best Web Gallery', I fell in love with your portfolio carousel on the home page, and used the same technique in our redesign that hasn't launched yet. Does that make me an imitator? I don't think so, as I used numerous elements from numerous inspirations. Just look at touch screen cell phones that are drawing huge inspiration from the iPhone interface, are they imitators or inspirers. The list goes on...and the carousel, you could say was inspired from Apple also, but I believe it is how you make it your "own" that draws the line between a rip off and inspiration. Same thing with your dynamic portfolio being able to sort by client, vertical, etc., Viget Labs does the same thing. So I totally agree with making inspiration your own. I think that just comes with the territory of being showcased on inspiration galleries or posts, or being Apple for instance, everyone wants to be them! Your going to have several websites that have the same 'feel' or 'look' to it, but its how you make it your own! Wed, Apr 15, 2009 11:04am
Austin Siewert ps. I'll send a link over when I'm done developing it. Wed, Apr 15, 2009 11:17am
Brad Haynes @Austin Thanks for your thoughtful post! It sounds like you understand the subtle difference between imitation and inspiration. Even asking the questions you ask show that you are concerned enough to make that distinction.And I'd love to see what you're working on! Feel free to shoot me an email anytime at bhaynes at paramoreredd dot com. Wed, Apr 15, 2009 12:12pm
Jason Foley Brad,We find paramour | redd inspiring on many levels, so were saddened to have our site included in your article. As we brainstormed on the development of our new site, we discussed each element and viewed many sites for inspiration on both design and development.We found the way you presented the jquery carousel appealing, but in hindsight probably kept the look too similar to yours. We also found the large format photographs in your bios, and some elements of your portfolio presentation inspiring, but I feel are our own product.Other content pages, our navigation, our footer, our contact form and content are unique, in both style and content. When the site went live last week, I too observed that our home page inadvertently too closely reflected the look of your home page. Prior to this article we made some adjustments, and are currently reworking the project copy presentation.As I said, we think highly of your firm, and would be willing to discuss removing any element if you feel we have crossed the line of inspiration to imitation. Thu, Apr 16, 2009 11:07am
alan *reads comments..web designer magazine brad really? goes to pick up copy immediately.. can you sign it for me!? lol. Thu, Apr 16, 2009 8:03pm
Brad Haynes @Jason It saddens me to include your site in the article as well. After our email discussion, I'm excited to see what you come up with for your new feature area and will gladly remove all links to your site once this is complete. Thanks for your comment!@Alan Well, I thought it was coming out this week. It's issue 156 and the article is "Adding Dynamic Styles with CSS." Apparently it takes a long time to get to the ole US of A... Thu, Apr 16, 2009 8:46pm
Frank Thompson You guys are inspiring a lot of people and digital shops you don't even know. Just take some of these quotes from jealous competitors that are inspired by your work (my Boston shop included!) and impress your clients and prospects some more. Nice work! Tue, Apr 21, 2009 8:48am
Nicholas Holland When I first read this, I thought it was a joke. I thought, "There's no way THAT many people would rip their site...". Unfortunately, I soon realized that it wasn't a joke and your design has been ripped repeatedly.Its a shame & if it were me, I'd personally ask them to stop. To think that some even kept your footer - mind blowing.Some of the major web design blogs and magazines should republish your article (or a version their comfortable with) to make other firms/designers aware.Personally, I'm curious as to how you found so many sites that are similar - the web is a big place :) I'm guessing people copied your source code straight up and you searched for it? Tue, Apr 21, 2009 3:26pm
Jared Rawlinson Brad - I have actually had someone steal my CSS and Xhtml directly. And they used it for a site that I guess they never thought I would see. Well I saw it. Oops! Wed, Apr 22, 2009 12:18pm
Brad Haynes @Frank Not a bad idea, thanks!@Nicholas Oh if it were only a joke... alas, these people exist and provide excellent fodder for blog articles :D@Jared That's not cool at all. I'm beginning to think there should be some site that allows people to call rippers out. Maybe visitors can decide if it's a rip or not. Hmmmm.... Sat, Apr 25, 2009 2:57pm
k de tandt Sorry to say so. I think you can add one : novation.be Wed, Apr 29, 2009 12:08pm
jonas toch I think this could be called a rip. Why do you not sew them? Wed, Apr 29, 2009 12:14pm
Jake G. That novation.be site is clearly a rip. They should be ashamed. Wed, Apr 29, 2009 8:40pm
Brad Haynes @k Now that's a tough one. I think we can safely say there was some inspiration involved there, but not nearly so far as the others listed above. Furthermore, I've gone through all their code and it looks like they've done it all on their own. I'd have to say I'm cool with how they made it their own! Wed, Apr 29, 2009 10:49pm
David The audience has spoken.I guess if you've been called out on Paramore|redd you can always remind yourselves this:

Where would Picasso be without his trip to the Trocadero?

 Then again, even Picasso credited the pivotal moment in his art to the museum. Thu, May 7, 2009 4:03pm
Tracey Hi Brad, I was going to have a look under your site's hood to see how the nifty email signup is handled but I would never copy the whole style.Being able to find out how good designs are made is a great way to learn - I just hope these 'imitators' don't ruin it for future newbies. Mon, Jul 6, 2009 6:37am

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