BadDesignKills has some examples of logo designs from a company they claim publishes "rip-off artwork." Examples include both the original logo designs and the allegedly plagiarized design. Like the other design examples I discussed earlier, the examples might be useful in talking to students (and to each other) about what constitutes creativity and originality. Graphic design, like architecture and other design fields (and writing), frequently borrow from earlier work; the trick is to re-use small portions or visual quotes in creative ways.
The comparisons from BDK do, on one hand, situate their borrowings in new contexts and frequently modify those portions. But in most of the cases, the creativity involved and the modifications seem minimal (transformations such as changing color or flipping an element's orientation). In addition, the overall designs, given that they are logos, are themselves relatively abstract and simple, with the allegedly copied portions constituting the larger part of the overall design.
[via xBlog: The visual thinking weblog | XPLANE]
Posted by johndanseven at September 13, 2005 07:58 AM