The Letterville BullBoard: That looks familiar!

This is topic That looks familiar! in forum Letterhead/Pinstriper Talk at The Letterville BullBoard.

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Posted by Arthur Vanson (Member # 2855) on :

With all the talk of copyright issues I had to share this:

^ I did this glass panel a few years ago, note the telephone number panel-shape from an old book.

^ Later I made a few adjustments and designed this sign which appeared on the web:

A few months ago I noticed this on an advertment, scroll down and note the Antiques sign:

Well swipe me, look at that!

Evidence of a parallel Universe, do you think? [Smile]

Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :

You've been ripped off my man.... [Eek!]

Posted by Lotti Prokott (Member # 2684) on :

Send them a bill!
They may not pay you, but at least you've made your point.

Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :

Arthur, I don't know which I enjoy more, your artwork or your comments!

You might just be right about the parallel universe idea.. There was an old episode of the TV series "Star Trek" where by freak chance the starship Enterprise encounters it's duplicate from a parallel universe. Part of the crews happen to get "transported" to each other's ship. The twist is that the crews operate on antithetical(sp?) morality. Wheras "our" crew was honorable and such, the other crew gained promotion by being vicious, shrewd, and merciless.

So in the "parallel" website, they have no creativty, wit, or humor?? [Dunno]

Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :

you may laugh, but
several of us dudes i know all developed some concepts all about the same time. We did not have contact with one aonther for many months. We went to a seminar and all talked about them, each concept with some variations were essentially the same.

trilateral universe?

Posted by Mike Kelly (Member # 2037) on :

Arthur.....do you feel like you got ripped off? I personally don't think so.
Arthur basically took someone else's panel, used it as is in one design, and used it again in another, only this time he stretched out the panel while keeping the ribbon unchanged. I do this often and don't believe I'm doing anything unethical. What is the difference between what Arthur did and what we see on that website he linked to?
BTW, Arthur, they look great.

Posted by Bruce Williams (Member # 691) on :

It does look like a rip-off to me: Too many coincidences, like proportion, the ribbon, the word "Antiques," and the fact that it's a sign.

Still, Nulli Secundus makes the point "several of us dudes i know all developed some concepts all about the same time. We did not have contact with one aonther for many months."

We went to a seminar and all talked about them, each concept with some variations were essentially the same.

trilateral universe?

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Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :

A number of years ago I did an article in SignCraft on hand lettering a script. As an illustration for that issue I did the word "Signs" in the same loose script.

As I travel around the country one of the first things that I do when getting to the hotel is look at the yellow page ads for sign shops. It is amazing how many times I've seen my script "signs" used in the ads for local signmen.

Is that a rip off? It really doesn't bother me. In fact, in that situation I take it as a compliment. I would hope that anyone that advertises themselves as a designer would be able to come up with their own work without using mine, but that's just me.

What does bother me is seeing photos of my work in the portfolios of other local signmen.

Posted by Frank Magoo (Member # 3950) on :

Bingo !!!! I'm with Ray on taking imitation as form of flattery and complimented by same. I also agree w/feelings incurred by discovering photos of your work in anothers portfolio.
Many years ago, b/c,(before computors for you younger types),Ross Hurdle, Chester Cunningham and myself, designed a modified casual script to handle needs of current customer(large corp. sponser of race-team), ulilizing the words "motorsports/racing". It seems that those that programed early versions of "fonts" used pictures of this work to create program, so today I see our work in every computor generated job that uses this particular style. To this I take no exception other than like Ray, poor designer that uses others work to do his.
As a past member of a macho military group, I've been known to rip unit patches off the chests of posers passing as real in front of real. I'm also known for rudely removing photos of my work from offending portfolios. But that's just me. heh-heh...thanks Ray, is a better day indeed....

Posted by Arthur Vanson (Member # 2855) on :

Interesting responses, thanks everyone, for taking the trouble.

Mike, to answer a direct question with a direct reply; I don’t feel I’ve been ripped-off in the sense of having suffered some serious financial loss, but if you mean, do I feel the panel-shape/ribbon was copied directly, well, yes, I do.
My initial reaction on seeing it was “Wow, someone liked that panel enough to copy it”, quickly followed by “Cheeky sod, he might, at least have acknowledged his source”, and finally, “What a bloody mess he’d made of the layout, thank goodness he didn’t acknowledge me”.
However, I do realize everything I do or have done is derivative. I do, indeed “Stand on the shoulders of those who went before” © someone with a pretty nifty turn of phrase!

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