Inspiration, Plagiarism and the Difference
I have a folder on my desktop that I use as a photo dropbox for images I find on the Internet that seem particularly “inspiring.” I then set my background image to randomly change to one of those images every half hour, with the idea that it might start some new thought process. I stole this idea from one of my friends, who, like me, is a graphic designer. Part of everyday life for someone who works in the visual arts (and probably any creative field, for that matter) is the task of “looking for inspiration” – but I often wonder to what degree we’re looking for something that sparks our own creativity, as opposed to just ripping off someone else’s style or ideas?
In grad school, we had a class called “Intellectual Property & the Law” taught by the lawyer who represents many major creative professionals, including the AIGA (which has “inspiration” as a link on their site). We asked him the question he probably hears daily from students and young professionals alike: “What amount of someone else’s work is safe to copy?” The answer: no amount is safe to copy. Now, whether you’re caught or not, that’s something different, especially depending on the job.
When inspired by someone else’s work (especially if they’re in the same field of work), you’re never completely safe. What follows are some thoughts on how to navigate these tricky waters. There are plenty of excusable reasons (legally or morally) for using other people’s work in your own. Parody is allowed under fair use, but it’s a complicated system and one that I am not qualified to discuss expertly. Suffice to say though, parodies and satire are part of our creative culture and, as such, there are many disputes that arise out of its use. The good news though, is that there are plenty of times when it’s completely acceptable to create new bodies of work using elements from previous work. From audio sampling in music (with permission) to visual collages, bits of cultural ephemera appear everywhere.
Universally recognizable signs and symbols with specific cultural references are some of the most tempting to use, whether in parody, satire, or the good ol’ “homage.” What better way to connect to an audience than to speak the same language and “name check” a coded message they digest on a regular basis? The issue, however, is that as these bits of culture become more and more popular, more and more people will use them in their own work, and audiences will become less and less interested in it. One idea that comes immediately to mind is Matthew Vescovo’s “The Life and Death of Bling Bling”, a great instruction-style video made for MTV. Even after this, he decided to turn it into a book, which, in my opinion completely killed the joke with overexposure.
We’ve all seen the rise and fall of particular styles in fashion, food, products, advertising, movies, and so on. Design on the Internet is going through its “glossy & reflective” period with mostly horrible results, as most of these designs are coming out of a few early memorable uses. And that tends to be the main deal: if you are one of the first, or if your inspirations are particularly reinterpreted or “hidden”, then you’re tagged as a trendsetter. The trick is to somehow be in front of a “curve” or to start your own. Most of us, though, are not in a position (i.e. famous enough) to be spotted as the first. That’s not to say all bandwagons shouldn’t be jumped on. I would like to believe that instinctually, most people can tell when work they are doing or seeing is particularly inspired or just hackneyed. No one likes to see the same stuff all the time.
So when I consider the (copied) idea of an “inspiration folder” on my desktop, I think of not just filling it with graphic design bits and pieces but anything and everything that I find out on the web that, when digested, will help me to create something entirely new – something more than the sum of its inspirational parts, so to speak. Another graphic designer I know has a huge set of cheap sketchpads, filled with clippings, found scraps of paper, torn packaging, and other bits of creative flotsam, so whenever he gets stumped, he cracks out the books, and starts hunting. Now, one could argue that if you could trace back his work to one of these scraps, that his “inspiration” would be more like plagiarism. But he makes sure that whatever he pulls is fully digested (i.e. fully understood in terms of its cultural significance and design cues) before he starts building with it. Then he’s careful to build his own personal solution in his own style. Not always an explicit process, nor an easy process, but it’s definitely more rewarding this way.
So to summarize: it’s way easier to rip something off than it is to “be inspired by it.” But how hard is it to apply someone else’s technique to a different cultural reference or to reinterpret it in your own style? Well, that would mean creating something original. And this is what we’re aiming for. So if it’s hard then that’s a good thing.
