One sure fire way to lose any respect as a designer is to copy or steal from another site. With so many Web Galleries around these days its easier to find good looking sites to help fuel your inspiration, but unfortunately there are too many people who are using these galleries to steal images, code and layouts from people who spent time creating something unique. It’s one thing to take inspiration from a design, or have similar elements, but these are just too much in my opinion. I don’t want to say too much as I think the examples below speak for themselves.
Bigfilebox
Original Design
Rip Off
I think that this one has to be one of the most blatant and obvious rips ever. I hate to think that someone might have been paid to produce this.
Fluoro
Original Design
Rip Off
Changing a color does not make a design “yours” – If you like the look and layout, make something similar – Don’t just steal it.
Elliot Jay Stocks
Side by side comparison, original design on the right.
I came across this article by Elliot Jay Stocks, a popular designer & blogger, as I began to research this article and I thought it was important to add as he’s written quite an extensive account of his personal experiences with this issue.
Clear Left
Original Design
Rip off
Another really blatant “design” – This one is horrendous, they even stole the logo. Clear left actually had 6 rips they found. But the one above is the most obvious.
CdeVision
Original Design
Rip Off
There have been a few changes made on this one, but I think that it’s too close to the original, even down to fonts etc. I think that you could have used the same feel here quite easily without ripping it.
SpinBiz
Original Design
Rip Off
Admittedly this one isn’t particularly obvious, as there have been a lot of modifications, but some of the details are just blatant rips, as well as the color scheme and layout.
Swindle Magazine
Original Design
Rip Off
This is another one which has been heavily modified, but you can see the elements align exactly and only things like colours have been modified. With a layout like this there is so much freedom with layout, I can’t understand why you would need to rip it so obviously.
Brush Network
Original Design
Rip Off
It’s quite clear to see how this site was heavily influenced. There are a few different elements, but the main curve and buttons have clearly been copied too closely.
Mitionographer
Original Design
Rip Off
This website has a similar subject, so it seems to me they’ve seen the success of a competitor and tried to replicate it, quite literally.
Kinetic Kreations
Original Design
Rip Off
The original here is beautiful in my opinion, and copying something so unique is quite a silly idea, as it’s clear that you had only one “influence” in your design.
BrandUp
Original Design
Rip Off
Now on first glance I wasn’t too sure this was a rip the design is quite generic, but if you read the text you can see they they even stole the text, not a great decision.
Conclusion
I’d say that a lot of these copies were completely unnecessary, In the fact that they could have used the sites as inspiration, finding styles and elements they like, without completely ripping it off. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with seeing something you like, and making something similar, but similar does not mean trying to replicate it exactly, or stealing graphics and code.
One good example that I can think of to illustrate this point would be to look at “tag clouds” – They must have come from somewhere. Someone saw one on somebody’s blog and thought “yeah, nice idea” then set about making their own. But the variety out there is astounding, there are many creative ways of presenting the same element or information, without the need of stealing. I’m sure this is something everyone has an opinion on, so I’d love to hear them.
Sources: Pirated-Sites & You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice
Further Reading: Elliot Jay Stocks
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