Bernskiold Media

Inspiration and not Copying

There is a certain difference between taking inspiration in someone’s work and to copy it blatantly. Surprisingly enough (or perhaps not), these posts are usually written when you’ve had someone copying your work, but as a contrast to that I thought it might be a good thing to bring it up outside of those circumstances.

Inspiration is key!

There is definitely nothing wrong about becoming inspired when seeing someone else’s design. On the contrary, drawing inspiration from recent designs that you have seen might be a good way to improve your own skills and sharpen them further. However, there is a certain line that you can go across that takes inspiration and turns it into copying.

What is copying?

Putting it simply, copying is when the work that you do is so similar to someone else’s that you could tell that they are the same thought. No matter how poorly done the copy might be or how even how great might be, it doesn’t change the fact—going over the line is not the way to go and won’t improve your skills rather get you in trouble.

Easy to spot the difference!

Most times, spotting the difference between an inspired art work and a copied one is really simple. As a typical rule, the copy will have certain areas that looks good and others that doesn’t fit. This is mainly as the creator is trying to re-create a lot of the look of the other design but at the same time trying to steer off and include his or her own ideas. Usually that clashes and creates a noticeable difference.

An inspired art work is usually different. Maybe you can see parts of it that resemble the look of something you’ve seen elsewhere but is fully twisted to the style of the designer who is using it. Perhaps it can be really subtle effects like applying a shadow in a certain place or by using a certain combination of bold and normal font weights. Whatever it is, it isn’t overdone and it doesn’t clash with the original design.