Steal Like An Artist: A Case of Intellectual Theft

When Austin Kleon wrote Steal Like An Artist, he wasn't arming people to copy off someone's hard work and plagiarise because they can.

He meant that ideas are somewhat recycled, and you can tap into a new idea by feeding upon existing ideas.

There’s a thin line between getting inspired and being a copy double.

Can you imagine spending hours behind your laptop with corrective lenses fitted with blue light lenses and coming up with a design, only for someone to replicate and move the location of a dot or adjust the width of some strokes?

You’d be livid and irritated and sad. I know I would.

So, why do that to someone? Why plagiarise someone's work pixel for pixel and claim ownership?

This article was prompted by an intellectual property issue over a brand logo. A friend had pointed the resemblance in the logo to the original designer and well, matters went into deliberation as side by side analysis showed that the design was truly stolen, but not like an artist, as the "changes" weren't changes at all but mere adjustments.

Imagine if an image had something on the right. You then go ahead and make yours on the left. Yeah. That's exactly what happened. Mirror dimensioning.

It's difficult to get an idea.

I can't even begin to explain how tiring it can be to create something that doesn't exist. But here's the truth, anything you want to create, asides from logos, might already be resting in someone's portfolio.

It exists.

Stealing like an artist is getting ideas from more than one person.

Let's say you want to design a landing page. You sort through hundreds of landing pages and pick your top 20 designs. From each 20 you can find design components you like. Maybe website 1 had a cool header and website 3 had cool bottom sections.

You pick out what you want across 20 and then try to get your spin on it. That way you didn't outrightly copy one design but was inspired by all.

Creators face a lot of theft. It doesn’t just happen in designs alone. Film makers, bakers, artists, logo makers, writers (don’t even get me started) etc., all suffer the same issue.

It’s not fair really.

It's people's hard earned work. Unlike programming languages that can be used and reused without intellectual issues, designs are in a different case study.

Right now I don't even know how the designer that didn't steal well would be feeling or how the company's image would look and the backlash he or she would get from this issue.

We're all going to make it if only we respect each other's craft.

If it’s so bad, reach out to the original creator and have a talk. Let them walk you through why and how they came up with the idea.

Or at least, acknowledge the person.

Well, the funny part is my design family, Side Hustle Cohort 4, had this talk about intellectual theft last week Friday/Saturday—it was a crossover discussion—and by Monday it was a public issue.

Who knows, we might just be able to predict the future.

Have you had any encounter where your art was replicated and used without acknowledging you?

Till I come your way next time.

Steal like an artist.

Or, don’t at all.

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