Owning an idea

davewill

Senior Member
I've recently produced a set of posters based on back to the future, the designs are quite unique and have become a kind of signature style (you can see a sample here dave will design - a freelance graphic designer based in Liverpool: Back to the Future 3 Poster: Coming Soon)
However, recently I've noticed a Canadian designer who has only just started selling posters based on the same idea as me. She has also produced a back to the future poster, and since then has designed posters using the same style for other cult movies. You can see her work here...Movie Prop Posters / Design / ShortList Magazine

I have 2 questions. Firstly, am I being paranoid or has she purposefully copied my style of work, secondly, if so, is there anything I can do about it? I've tried contacting her on twitter but had no response.
 
Thanks robot for your feedback, I wasn't aware of others using that style so thanks for pointing that out. My idea was based on taking iconic moments from films to build a story and give a feel for the film. I wasn't aware that it had been done before!

I'm not massively worried as I do feel my own work is finished to a higher quality, for example I don't think it works so well in full colour, there is too much going on for it to make a nice design. I just felt that the back to the future poster was so similar to mine it was too close to be a coincidence. The fact that it was released only a few weeks after my own work was also a bit odd!
 
Nice link, that's almost half way between a piece of design and an info graphic. I like it though!
 
Cheers Greg, its slightly frustrating that someone can get decent coverage on the net for work that I feel is very close to mine, but I agree with your statement, I should be flattered I guess!
 
how do you know she's copied you? similar style yes, but it looks like she's done a lot more work, i.e 5 pieces so far. And ready to sell. Woulda been a pretty tough turnaround from the date of your post to do that.

Can you see what date they were posted on, and is it before or after you posted?

Personally, i prefer her set. But that is by the by.
 
I dont know for sure, but my work has been out there now on the net for about 3 months. Only in the past 2-3 weeks have I been aware of the other posters. Maybe you are right, but I wouldnt say it was impossible to produce 5/6 posters in a few months, espcially if you study the content of the posters they all use the same shapes and clothing, just slightly tweaked for each film.

Checking her Behance portfolio the work was only uploaded last month and is her most recent work, her flickr page shows the earliest piece was uploaded on the 7th April and her tweets that mention the work all start last month so it does seem to look as if it is a recent piece of work, which could be a coincidence but does seem strange.
 
I don't think you can claim that as your signature style although you can try! If you keep doing what your doing and get your work out there you might get recognition for it. Do you really think it has not been done before though? I am pretty sure I have seen similar things and it doesnt strike me as being totally original even though it is nice work. Just because you might have created this 'style' yourself without being inspired by someone else, it does not mean nobody else has come up with it. What is it that you think is original about it? I can see your breaking the subject (the film) down into iconic images and typographic phrases which you arrange to form a poster. Is that your formuler? Has nobody used images and typography in this way on a poster before? The person who may or may not have copied you hasn't used any typography other than the title of the film which just leaves an arrangement of 2D images of the film. The images are stylised in a poorer way (imo) and the lack of typography makes them different to your posters. I think you're posters are better so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I just don't think you can go round claiming a style as your own. Not in this day and age when every style has been done before. Anyone could argue that 'you're' style is based on many other things previously which is perfectly fine until you try to claim it as your own style.
 
Thanks for the response Rich. You are correct to say that it has most probably been done before. Im not trying to claim ownership of the style. However, the majority of fan made/designer movie posters doing the rounds on the internet at the moment are very minimalist. I tried to make a conscious decision with the Back to the Future posters to avoid that and do something different. So I dissected the film, picked out some iconic images and props and tried to tell the story of the film through the use of some basic, vector style images.

The issue I had was that it seemed like a coincidence to me that a month or 2 after my posters were released, another poster in the same style, using the same layout, about the same subject matter was also released. I know I cant claim the style as my own, but this seemed to be a blatant attempt to cash in on my hard work. I had done all of the research, testing, designing, promoting, networking and production of my work, then someone else saw it was gaining a lot of attention and decided to do their own version and sell them.

However, like Ive said, Im confident in my own work and happy with what I have produced, I wouldnt take the issue further even if I could, I just found it frustrating that I have tried my best to be 'different' from the majority of fan made posters, but then someone else saw that it worked well and imitated it.
 
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