Don't Copy a Design - Steal It! Final Blog Post.

Goodness... can I say this in school? From this website -  
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2008/08/21/dont-copy-a-design-steal-it/

"Don't Copy a Design — Steal It

Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
Pablo Picasso

Copying someone else’s work will only give yours a chance to become as good as the one you’re copying — and that’s the best case scenario. A copy will usually never be as good as the original because it always remains one step behind. Even worse, at the hands of a novice designer a copy could end up looking like a cheap imitation, lacking the finesse and flair of the original.
No — don’t copy that design. Steal it.
Wait… let me elaborate.
When you look at an inspirational design you should be inspired. Take your time to examine its aesthetic and construction in detail — look over all the nuances and intricacies of its structure. See how the creator did this and that — extract the essence of what makes this work great.
To steal a design you must collect all the pieces of the puzzle and figure out how it all works as a whole — why did the artist use this color, why these lines, why this typeface?
Stealing design is an intellectual activity — you must be able to digest and absorb the essence of an inspirational design. Stealing gives you the real gold — it gives you the knowledge to create the work in question. Expand your arsenal of design techniques through learning instead of copying.

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.
T. S. Eliot

Once you’ve assimilated the principles and ideas employed by a designer in their great piece, you can use those ideas in your own work. You’re not going to copy them — you will instead use these tools only where they make sense, and only where they will work well — that’s because you understand exactly why they were employed in the first place.
Knowing the technique, knowing how to implement it, knowing why it works and where it works are all the things that will let you build on it. Take your inspirations and create something better — create something which works for your site or application. Adapt your inspirations to the function of your work.
There is a great method used by Cameron Moll to design websites, which he calls nodes of inspiration. It involves browsing the web, finding exceptional sites and picking an element from each that you really like and you think would work in your project. Of course you shouldn’t just copy these elements — you must implement them in a way that will work in your context, and add a flair of your own.

In the end, each of the inspired elements were reproduced with Authentic Boredom flavor and are unique in their own right.
Cameron Moll

So in essence, what I’m advocating isn’t imitation or plagiarism, my version of stealing is one that expands your knowledge and understanding of design. Being inspired is a good thing, and being able to take on those ideas and build on them further with your own twist and perspective will produce great results that are unique to you."

 Much like the rest of everyone at this school I am shot. No really - completely shot. I knew I wanted to take this final HOD post and compile all of my images into a nice cohesive, easy to understand image. While I was searching the web for the images I needed I came across this little ditty and upon inspecting it - it was perfect. Here I had this brilliant interesting idea and someone has already gone and done it!

A Graphic Design timeline - http://kalimnaonline.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/timeline.jpg

 I am now free to go back to our 18 page final design project...

Every designers’ dirty little secret is that they copy other designers’ work. They see work they like, and they imitate it. Rather cheekily, they call this inspiration.

— Aaron Russell

Visual design is often the polar opposite of engineering: trading hard edges for subjective decisions based on gut feelings and personal experiences. It’s messy, unpredictable, and notoriously hard to measure. The apparently erratic behavior of artists drives engineers bananas. Their decisions seem arbitrary and risk everything with no guaranteed benefit.

— Scott Stevenson

Design is the conscious effort to impose a meaningful order.

— Victor Papanek

You can’t do better design with a computer, but you can speed up your work enormously.

— Wim Crouwel

Good design is all about making other designers feel like idiots because that idea wasn’t theirs.

— Frank Chimero

The difference between a Designer and Developer, when it comes to design skills, is the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it.

— Scott Hanselman

Design is easy. All you do is stare at the screen until drops of blood form on your forehead.

— Marty Neumeier