Templates are design...

demonhale posted this at 02:48 — 30th April 2006.

Joined: May 2005

There was this question being debated about in another forum (designers forum) about templates...

Heres the thought, if a designer modifies a template from the start then completely ends up with a new design that doesnt look like the original graphically and some small similarity with the organization of the site and markup, would you call this a modified design of the original designer, or they can call it there own?

Some copy paste designs and modify them, these were also discussed...

Whats your take on this?

Megan posted this at 15:13 — 30th April 2006.

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Hmmmmm..... I think the answer depends on how much modifying you are doing and what you mean by "calling it their own." It sort of reminds me of hip-hop music where sampling and borrowing from other works is part of the genre. In design, I think it's perfectly normal and okay to borrow ideas other designs. Or copy bits of code and modify it for your own site. That's why it's called design and not art . You don't always have to be totaly original and many designers borrow bits and pieces from what they see on other sites.

However, I also think that it's pretty unethical to lie about where you got something. Or sell something as a template that you really copied from another site.

There have been a few lawsuits lately involving authors of fiction who were accused of copying from other works as well.

So, I think the answer to this depends on a number of factors: how much resemblance does it have to the original design, what is the purpose of the derivative work (i.e. is it a teplate for sale or a big business site intended to compete in the market place or is it just a little personal project).

I had something like this happen to me once and I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it. I had a site and a related site (by a national organization) copied it. Well, not exactly - they made something that looked quite a lot like mine without actually copying anything directly. It wasn't exactly the same so I couldn't exactly ask them to take it down. I could have felt flattered because they copied my work. But in the end I think it just made them look bad, if anything.

Megan
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demonhale posted this at 18:20 — 30th April 2006.

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

Well written Megan. Actually I feel the pain too when someone diliberately rip-offs someones work without credit. I was caught up in this dillema in both sides of the fence, I have experienced someone basing my work for their site and thats ok since it was a non-profit org, and I can see my handwriting(figuratively speaking) over the markup... Then there was this one person accussing me of copying his ideas, although it was unitentional and havent even seen his designs before, I then explained on the coding point and he apologized.

See all the trouble with coming up with generic good-looking functional designs?

Although I do sometimes take OS templates, I do follow that it should be used not for profit or unless specified with the terms of usage... also I point link backs to the author or whoever the work is derivative of... I do admire some other peoples work and most of the time I ask permission to copy the idea from them.

For me, its ok if a design of mine is copied and modified as long as either theres a linkback for me or it has been modified to a point that it becomes unique to their own...

And theres also a dillema of having a customer wanting a site to look exactly like CNN for example and want it modified on the logo part and the color theme... And some even have there own templates with them ready to be modified...

Renegade posted this at 07:24 — 1st May 2006.