By Rania Sakhi
This blog post’s topic is something we have been deeply discussing with my lovely teammates, Olivia and Soojin, when working on our logo proposals to make sure that we don’t fall into it. As a first step in understanding the project briefs, we started the creative process by researching and collecting visual references. Now once the work was done, with all the inspiration gathered in front of our eyes, we were blocked, for fear of falling into plagiarism. This is because, sometimes, the distinction between inspiration and plagiarism can be subtle.
Hence, in this post, I want to draw the distinction between these two key concepts.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, plagiarism is the infringement of the intellectual property of others (1). It usually occurs when people present a creation as their own when it is not. It is very simple: if I steal or copy someone else’s work and intentionally appropriate it to myself, I am committing plagiarism, and that is reprehensible. Plagiarism can take any form, but in the context of graphic design and our class Yes Logo, it is specifically about visual plagiarism whether it is drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, advertisements, logos, brand names, or any other visual imagery (2).
Inspiration on the other hand is a creative process that is both unconscious and natural. I believe that getting inspired by a work does not necessarily mean plagiarizing it as long as it is not a pure copy-paste of it. Inspiration is truly in human nature, whether we like it or not. After all, when thinking deeply about it, learning is nothing but copying.
Now while some instances of plagiarism are obvious, intentional, and indefensible, others are simply impossible to accuse since they are either riding on a popular trend or simply using a tried-and-true formula. This is especially important since a creator might easily “copy” unintentionally and without even realizing it by stealing ideas he believed were his but had seen someplace else, possibly years earlier.
One less obvious example is these two billboard advertisements that ran during the Ramadan season. The plates on the billboards seem empty throughout the day. When the sun goes down, the supper eaten by Muslims at the end of each day’s fast appears magically. It is the same innovative concept but the main difference here is that the second and most recent one is a digital billboard, whereas the first was created using special ink.
Do you think this is a coincidence or a copy-paste? To me, it is a scary lookalike, to say the least.
An example that is too obvious is Pepsi’s logo and Obama’s campaign in 2008 which look very similar in terms of colors, shape, and design in a certain kind of way. Red, white and blue became Pepsi’s colors during World War 2, to show support for America. Yay. And the round shape, well that’s unchanged. It’s the design within the circle that’s an issue, seemingly. And, the sense I got was that Pepsi maybe wanted to follow this design approach to perhaps sell more sodas.
When asked about the company’s position on the whole logo situation, Frank Cooper, Pepsi’s portfolio brands VP, shared that optimism, change, and hope are all part of the Pepsi mantra. Thus the resemblance between the logos (3). But at the end of the day, the happy coincidence might appear to be acceptable because Pepsi did admit that they share the same optimism as Obama. Yet, is there anything really wrong with that other than a lack of originality?
To put it in a nutshell, it is certainly feasible to be inspired without plagiarizing, as long as you agree that recycling an existing concept is not always plagiarism. The creator’s method is thus centered on recycling and mixing existing pieces to create something new, spotlighting an underutilized notion that is open to human evaluation and appropriate reinterpretation. Finally, inspiration is the approximate reworking of an idea, concept, or substance that we have reinterpreted in our own unique way. Sometimes, it is quite difficult to determine who even initiated something. Even if you do identify the source, how do you know they themselves weren’t influenced by something they were unaware of? Maybe they’re just concealing their source too which swiftly devolves us into a chicken-egg discussion.
Now, what are your thoughts on this? Is anything original and creative anymore? I would love to hear your opinions on the topic of inspiration/plagiarism.
References:
- https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism
- https://guides.library.msstate.edu/visualplagiarism#:~:text=Visual%20Plagiarism%20can%20also%20be,claiming%20it%20as%20one’s%20own.
- https://news.yahoo.com/it-looked-like-the-pepsi-logo-obama-was-initially-skeptical-of-campaign-symbol-205758742.html
Hi Rania!
Very interesting entry! It left me wondering how does the special ink work to make the image appear and disappear. In the case of the Pepsi ‘s Logo and Barack Obama’s presidential campaign logo, it is curious because Pepsi’s logo back in 2008 was in its skeuomorphism era, and Barack Obama’s logo is more of a flat and minimalist design, like the actual Pepsi’s logo. Nonetheless, Pepsi had already presented more simple and minimalist logos from 1973 to 1992. So, as you mentioned, we are back again to the problem of what came first.
I really enjoyed reading your post. The way you defined plagiarism and inspiration distinctly was very interesting since people generally avoid stating the inspiration behind their design out of fear of being accused of copying. It is definitely crucial to acknowledge inspiration as a natural and acceptable factor within the design process. The Ramadan billboards were a great unique example and could also discuss how time plays a factor between the two designs and if it is considered to be plagiarism or inspiration. Very informative and eye-opening !