It’s not the content and it isn’t the design – or is it? It couldn’t be… could it?

Online thieving or plagiarism seems to be very common at the moment, people are ripping off owners content and designs thinking they’ll not notice. The truth is that they don’t need to know. Visitors will recognize straight away if something seems similar, almost subconsciously, very quickly. When not if the news gets back to the owner and/or designer, they’ll be heartbroken and often furious to see their work copied.

As I’m involved in the creative industry, I all too often have someone tell me in a design brief that “it needs to look like this”. At this point I start to question why? If you’re not related to them in any way shape or form then why do you need to look like them? Your company is different – not the same! Why do you need to copy them? I then either get them to realise what they’re actually asking me to do is stupid and in many cases is illegal or turn down the job. I am not a copycat or a thief. I believe design should be unique…

I have had a brand ripped from beneath my feet overnight – twice. Content, images and design, all lifted with a few clicks of a mouse and transfered to someone else’s domain, brochures and business cards. What was I able to do? Nothing right away, but after contacting the crook and a long & rambling conversation on etiquette, it was sorted.

The second time was actually when one of my client’s brand was ripped from her by a startup company in the same area as her. Sadly a new business is normally the one that commits the offense. My client recieved a flier through her door one morning and contacted me straight away. The pantone colours were the same, the paper was the same and the design was so close to the original. She was livid!

Design says everything about a company. We’ve all heard that a business card is the first impression. I’ve been handed business cards at an event and they’ve been almost identical! 2 different companies with dead ringing designs! Shocking and dangerous.

I’d like to think that the designer(s) responsible were put right after the similarities were noticed, but my guess is they weren’t. The truth is, a lot of small designers are scared by massive lawsuits and court cases, they don’t want to ruin their name or cause any trouble. They just get on with it.

So does the finger point down to those bad designers that allow themselves to replicate someone else’s brand? Or is it pushy clients? The demanders of duplicate designs don’t produce them themselves – do they?

This is what’s making the design industry difficult at the moment, anyone can download a free copy of Photoshop and dupe a brand very quickly.

It’s a shame but I suppose we have to like it or lump it. What do you think?

“The black looks too black, could we change the design quickly?”

“My friend designed me a logo in PowerPoint, could we replace the one you made with it and then go to print?”

“Could we have an intro page on the website so we can cram it full of keywords at the bottom in the same colour as the background?”

“Why will it take that long to design a business card?”

“Can you come round to my house and we can do it in an afternoon?”

“I can’t change my PDF proof, is that because you used a Mac to design it?”

“I got this logo from ClipArt, could you just make it a little more interesting and then use it on my letterhead?”

“I thought the idea of having a website was that it was supposed to make me money, not cost me money?”

“Could you show me how you made it so I can do it myself next time?”

“I have to pay every year for hosting? I assumed it would just appear online.”

“I wanted something more fresh but I don’t like the white background. I like red, can we use that?”

“I had a leaflet designed a few years ago, can we scan it in and write over the top?”

Money Or ‘Deals’ Involved

“I need it done for tomorrow and I’ll pay you if we get a result.”

“Why should I have to pay the photo royalties when you’re the designer?”

“I will pay you for the design when I make my money back from the online shop.”

“I’m not paying for photographs, can we just take some off Google instead?”

“Could you be partners? You to design and I’ll do the selling? Then I haven’t got to pay you.”

“You said you were good at designing things, I don’t like it so start again and make me something I like or I’m not paying you!”

“Why do you charge more for hosting than xxx does?”

“Could you make a website for my mum’s cake decorating business? She is just starting up and is looking for something around £100 tops.”

“I have this Word document that I need turning into a website. It shouldn’t take more than an hour, I wrote it in 20 minutes.”

“The prints came back looking darker than what my laptop showed, now my brand is ruined – I’m not paying you!”

And Then The Blatant Rubbish…

“When I lived in Spain, I had 15 staff designing for me. They got it right so why can’t you?”

“The big design agencies do such a better job than you Freelancers working from home!”

“I used to work for a graphic design firm, the work is easy so why do you charge so much?”

The pile I’ve sorted through today = half what it was. I’ll have another sort through tomorrow and hopefully halve it again, that just leaves some systematic filing to do with the rest of the stuff I am trying to work my way to a simple setup consisting of just my Mac, desk, chair, iPhone, notepad and filing cabinet filled with ‘essential’ items only.

I had noticed my attention span slowly going down hill and I now blame the shear amount of what is essentially rubbish around me. It is surprising how things like this can subconsciously wind me up – I never really noticed it before.

The lack of light seems to have played a part in the downfall of creativity too. Changing them stupid energy saving bulbs back to 100 watt incandescent bulbs has already helped me spot a few mistakes while writing this post. There are probably a few others but that’s just ‘my style’.

Cables everywhere is now also a NO, NO! I read this from Unplggd and it has inspired me to DIY a charging station for some of my electronics.

After removing the crap today, already I feel a little more ‘in the zone’. I’d show you a photo but it’d get stolen and someone would write a blog post titled ‘the worlds worst workspaces’.

I might show you a photo when I’m done

I was in the shop earlier on today looking and vacuum packers for sealing food to keep it fresh. I thought the prices seemed a little too expensive so I pulled out the iPhone and opened up the FREE ‘pic2shop’ app! Instant prices from online retailers = straight away!

I found I could get the product online for £39.99 (inc. delivery) instead of paying £59.99 in the shop. RESULT!

How Does It Work?

You simply open the app, and point the camera at the item’s barcode, holding it about 5 – 10cm away. Once it recognizes the code you get a ‘beep’ and the App will search online for prices. That’s it – simple!

Drawbacks

The are obviously drawbacks, as there is with everything. Not every item in the world can be found. I have come across items that aren’t listed but that is to be expected. The other issue I found is that the light needs to be reasonably good to enable the camera to focus properly.

So… why pay more, just pic2shop!

I first noticed how good it was with Google Maps. It automatically found me so instead of entering a ‘From’ and ‘To’ location, I just had to enter the ‘To’. It may seem simple but if you’re in a rush it does save a lot of time.

After realising the iPhone’s potential, I took the plunge and purchased an app for £19.99! Not something I’d want to be doing everyday but I suppose you could call ‘this one’ an investment. I purchased Navmii, which is a fully functional sat nav for the UK and Ireland. I only purchased it a few hours ago and am already outstanded with it and I haven’t even took it for a real drive yet. I also purchased a dock and car charger to go in the van from eBay, these should be here in the near future. My Garmin Nuvi is (I hope) now well and truely ousted!

I don’t know how it works and to be honest with you – I DON’T CARE! It is stupendously clever and very well thought out. It has a speedo along with ETA and a zoom function so you can see those horribly complicated junctions. I enter a location and everything just works instantly. It has the usual re-routing if you’re stupid enough to miss a turn and various views of the map both in 3D and 2D. It’s got a load of POIs (points of interest) included as well but they aren’t really useful to anyone as they’re not up to date (at least not where I live).

I also noticed that the Navmii voice seems more human like than my old Garmin, obviously technology has advanced but to think 1 year makes that much of a difference is unthinkable

The thing that tops it all off is the ‘happy snap’ warnings. A visual and audible alert is emitted should you be going a little too fast near a ’safety camera’. The distance this alert goes off can be changed closer or further away depending on your preference.

Purchase It

Incase you’re feeling inspired, to purchase the app, I have included this:

Just remember: This is only a brief insight into the app! I will probably end up writing a few more articles on this app once I have become accustomed to it a little more.

Catch the ‘day 4′ blog post tomorrow!

I found adding my contacts as easy as pie and liked the fact I could assign a photo and different ringtones to who’s calling. There is the option of importing from my Mac but I chose not to. I could also add certain contacts to ‘favourites’ which I suppose is the equivalent of ’speed dial’.

Wi-Fi

I enabled Wi-Fi and it brought up my 2 access points along with a few others including ‘Nice Try’ and ‘Go And Swivel’ People are nice round here, hey?

Connection was quick and range = brilliant. It saves breaching o2’s ‘fair use policy’ while at home or near a free access point. I’m guessing it’s a lot faster than the 3G network too!

O2’s 3G Network

Ok, well it’s not strictly anything to do with the iPhone – but I can safely say it performs very well. The speed is a hell of a lot better than my first 3G phone and it seems to have very good coverage. At times I had forgotten that I was on 3G and not Wi-Fi.

Apps

Apps, apps and bloody apps! What to choose from??? I’ve downloaded the funny ones (deleted shortly after opening them), I’ve installed the Piano and added Google Mobile but I still have space to fit more in

Useful ones I’ve added include Twitterrific, Flickr, eBay Mobile, WordPress 2.0 and DropBox to name a few.

After a little more playing I’d like to purchase the TomTom sat nav app to replace my old Garmin Nuvi.

Clock

Useful and more importantly; correct. It has alarm, stopwatch and timer functions. It also has a world clock function if that’s of any use to you. I was able to add a morning alarm and an alarm for tomorrow afternoon with room for others too. That’s all we really need to know.

Thoughts At The Moment

It is becoming a part of my life, slowly. Once I have publicised my new number it will become more mainstream. The laptop has now been made near redundant and hopefully soon the sat nav will be thrown in the back of the cupboard.

Catch ‘day 3′ tomorrow!

My First Thoughts

I love the box, I love the packaging and I love the ‘finger tips’. Simple and secure, there wasn’t any of that dreadful plastic packaging in the box; no foam or bubble wrap. Just a single wrap of static cling around the iPhone itself. Lovely!

Instructions

What person in their right mind reads instructions? Moving on…

The Accessories

The accessories included consisted of a charger/USB cable, mains plug and the famous headphones. I’ll also suggest the box as an accessory too as it is so cute! Because I purchased the PAYG handset from o2 I also got a PAYG sim pack, this is not needed though as my ‘Simplicity’ sim from o2 will go into the handset.

The Handset

Last but not least… The iPhone! Just what I had expected really only this is real! Sleek, chrome and crystal white. I am glad I chose white after all.

Activation Using iTunes

I plugged the phone into my Mac via the USB cable supplied and iTunes automatically recognised it. A few simple steps later and the iPhone was activated. With an iTunes account set up, it is time to set the phone up to how I want it.

See the ‘day 2′ blog post tomorrow!

I told a few people I had bought one and they asked why. I thought to myself – is there really any reason not to? I am a creative director, I have Macs and various other Apple stuff so why shouldn’t I? I’d would fit the missing piece of the jigsaw, ditch my old Nokia and replace it with a nifty iPhone. Thinking about it now, my main reasons for purchasing an iPhone were due to the facts that I could work on the fly, never again would I have to sit at my desk to quickly check emails and I’d never have to fire up the Mac just to find where the local and possibly the last remaining butcher is located.

I tend not to go into things blind and after some extensive (a little bit of) research, from what I’d heard, I liked the fact that I could Tweet on the go, blog on the go, listen to music on the go and probably do anything else I could ever imagine on the go as well! One minute I could have a calculator in my hand, the next a camera, followed by a photo editor to edit images before uploading to Flickr – all from one device! What more could any gadget freak want? Never again would I have to go from my camera to the Mac and then to the web. It could all be done in one swoop!

So with my Mac primed, the latest iTunes installed and a spare USB 2.0 socket, I’m all ready to go!

What You Need

Web design, photography, typesetting, a brochure designing or images editing? What about animation, computer aided drawing or a nifty little business card designed and printed? You get the idea…

Who You Are

Are you a dentist, gardener or carpenter? Do you mop floors, carve wood or maintain forklift trucks? How long have you been established?

What You Want To See

The objective of the design and what you want it to achieve. Do you have any ideas of typefaces or colours? Have you any examples from other companies or previous work you’ve had done before?

Target Market

Who are you aiming at? Don’t say everyone because that’s not possible! Also when, where, how and why will this work be used?

Timescale

Often the one missed off the list! When do you need it? It’s no good wanting it yesterday if you only told me today.

Price

The price of design can vary from a few pounds to many thousands of pounds. Let me know your budget and I’ll work around what you’ve got to spend. I won’t rip you off, I’d like to see you again sometime.

I have tried to focus the design on 3 key elements – type, photography and whitespace.

Type

A simple ’sans serif’ font-stack aimed at modern browsers but is backward compatible to older browsers too. This is the main focus point of the design, cutting any unnecessary graphics and ‘browser hacks’.

Photography

A key element to this design. The site is headed with a landscape photograph that changes between pages. Photographs are then used sparingly throughout the site to preserve the whitespace.

Whitespace

I aimed for as much whitespace as possible to lock the eye onto the website, not the background. I’ve used a white background with high contrast type colours, making the website readable to all.

I’d love to hear your comments, stick them below…