Too Small a World

Good post. Get inspired and do it better.

Mmmm....could be a ripoff, or could not be. Finding a truly original graphic representation is almost impossible. A lot of times people use certain visual shorthand to get ideas across: a lightbulb for an idea, a handshake for an agreement and so on. Using icons of people to represent...people....seems pretty understandable. Not saying it's NOT a ripoff, but these covers could have been arrived at independently.

That said, I like your point. And you are a true original.

I agree; sometimes it's too easy as a designer to see a great peice of artwork, use it as "inspiration" and end up ripping off the design.

I find sites like www.toxel.com and www.touchey.com to be great sites for inspiration, because they're more about form and function than more specific elemtns like layout and colors.

A possibility:

They both ripped off the same design from someone else.

I don't think there's much in it.
Now, I'm not a visual person, but it's a book cover...how much variety is possible?

Today I read about just such a "big idea," and I'm not really sure I fully understand it. It's called IDC, apparently a subset of rich media that lets you track video viewers by email address without a registration form. Sounds pretty cool -- not quite sure how it works. Know anything about it? Thought it was interesting.

It's clearly the same person. Those books are both published by Harvard Business Press, who should know better. Looks like they only have one font, too.

What's in my head? Applying the Dunbar Number to social networking group sizes in communities.

Spot on. OT > RT.

So much has been said before, it's hard to come up with something truly original. I can't imagine how mind-numbing copyright and trademark work must be these days.

I think the people who really stand out are the ones that can see the similarities in things, and find correlations - those types of connections have fueled every great idea I can think of.

There are plenty of good ideas out there - and I've never been one to agree with the old Shakespeare saw 'it's all been done before'. Innovation is everywhere.

I'm still amazed at how many companies don't execute against the cheapest and perhaps most valuable form of marketing: customer service. If I was the Marketing VP of any major corp, I'd start there and work my way back. If I was VP of Sales, ditto. If I was CEO - I would treat my employees as customers. My customers. It is perhaps the most efficient way of building worth.

I don't think it's a ripoff. In that case you could include The Whuffie Factor:

Book cover picture:
http://www.horsepigcow.com/book-the-whuffie-fac...

Certain elements get popular as trends in business change. I think it's more like a few years ago when everyone included a moving person in their logos, or when everyone had a swoosh of some sort. The concept of standing out is a big deal right now with social media supposedly giving everyone a voice.

I also thought of this book as soon as I saw this post!

I don't think either design is a reach given their titles and neither feels derivative of the other. Also, the same solutions tend to occur to people all the time.

Could be someone ripping someone else off but I think it's a leap to assume that's the case.

They're from the same press. Probably same designer. Fairly certain they were just re-purposing a solid graphic idea. Not offended. Would probably buy them as a companion set.

When I worked in ad agencies, designers routinely perused design annuals, etc., for "ideas" on new projects. This is how an original idea becomes a meme, and then a cliche.

These books are from the same publisher.

Verdict: Lazy designer.

You could compare it to Dreamworks and Pixar. Every time they have a movie come out, it's almost as is they were talking to each other through development (Antz / A Bug's Life, for example).

I'm not sure if it's a rip-off per se; I've seen loads of these types of grafx on websites, PDF's, Powerpoint presentations, etc. Maybe more laziness as opposed to outright plagiarism?

With recent job losses, being at home is becoming more common. I think the next big idea isn’t more online conversations, story-telling on our blogs, or different social media. I see families coming out of their mainly separate activities -- tweeting, FB updating, and blogging -- to bond as a family with the help of instructional and inclusive websites or products. Wii is one step in this direction. At my site, Think Like a Black Belt, parents – or any adult – can learn and pass on valuable skills to children in their own home, hopefully opening up new dialogue with their kids about self defense and personal safety.

did you check the publishers? possibly the same. publishers "recycle" cover art all the time (especially british publishers). authors rarely have a choice about what goes on the front anyway - my BIL is a respected author in his genre (both usa & uk), yet has no input on his covers. the clerk at the airport stall probably thought they looked "good" together, without a thought in the world for the irony.

I'm a little embarrassed for these two covers. Perhaps the same publisher? Same agent? oh goodness...

You were talking about books and you asked what is new in social media.

You should check out bibliocommons.com - they have launched a new library catalogue that truly makes libraries social. Currently live in Oakville, Ontario - within a month look for Edmonton Public Library and Ottawa Public Library to go live.

American libraries are likely to follow. This is not an incremental improvement in the world of libraries - this is truly transformative.

Given the almost universal reported increases in public library usage during these tough times the relevance of public libraries has again been demonstrated.

I realize this is not your normal area, but this has the potential to be huge within the library sector. Public libraries collectively in North America have many, many tens of millions of customers.

So what's got my head occupied these day, you ask.

1913.

That was the year my grandmother left her native Poland and headed for the New World. Imagine being 17 and leaving all that you've ever know behind...moving into a world where you don't even know the language.

I have become my grandmother. 2009 is my 1913. The internet is my New World...and I really don't know the language.

I was driving south of Boston late last year, listening to some very negative news broadcast on WBZ and I had enough of this negativity stuff. I wanted to provide a counterpoint to all the bad news. So, I decided to create a blog that would help remind people of their innate capacity for achieving great things. The idea wasn't original. Then again, neither is pizza, but there sure are a lot of pizza places.

Backstory: At 46, I can't help but think I've not taken full advantage of all the opportunities life has presented me. I've been very successful...really shouldn't be complaining. But I sort of feel that I've simply just gone along for the ride in life. I was suffering from the non-medical condition KYOA Syndrome, better known as Kicking Your Own Ass Syndrome. I never let myself fly...never let myself soar. Attitude issues fueled by self-doubt. Never really allowed myself to take off, but when I did I always returned back to the airport rather quickly. Happily, the KYOA Syndrome is in remission.

I don't want others kicking their own ass. I see what it did to me, and all the potential that was never lived up to. I want everyone to see their own greatness and realize that they have the same capacity for achievement as anyone else has. Better people will make this a better world. Imagine where our society would be if every one simply lived up to their potential? Would disease and poverty stand a chance?

That is what excites me. This is the only way the world will ever change for the betterment of all. I doubt I alone can get 6 billion people to live up to anything. But if I can challenge a few, and then they challenge a few more, and so on, maybe I can do my small part. What if we all did our own small part?

How many people would have died if Jonas Salk never lived up to his potential?

So, my journey begins. The blog is still a very much a newborn...keeping me up at night, too. Hopefully she'll start walking soon. So far it has been an amazing experience learning about blogs, Twitter, Facebook. It's amazing that a newbie blogger is having his posts read in Belgium and other countries around the world! I'm amazed with all that had been going on behind my computer screen without me knowing it!

1913...Ellis Island. 2009...livinghalffull.com.

So that's my BIG IDEA. I'm not going to let myself down this time.

Thanks for listening!

It's kind of confusing, don't you think so?
They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. But copying other's work is the biggest mistake one can make. So what do we do, follow the inspiration or create something fresh?
Great post! :)

Definitely it can be a true rip off or may be an inspiration.

Its more refreshing to the author as well as to the audience if the matter is original.

However some one may say only person(s) who are not plagarist were Adam and Eve .

Otherwise everybody else after them are!!!

These are not "ripoffs" but rather just a bad use of "stock". I would go so far as to say that these are typical of the kind of work being produced by "crowdsourcing".

As a designer I would price the work on these covers with no more than 60 minutes - from "concept" to "pre-press" including the time taken to research and download the stock...

poor concept and shoddy execution...

Bravo. Thank you for a much needed post. Most designers struggle to reign in their personal creativity to satisfy the client. I am thinking the designer instructed to mimick the other cover needed a post like this to have their client read.

"The Power of Unreasonable People" is right up my alley- thank you.

My big dream is a social site that helps track corporate, business and government trade relationships. This would allow people to create and share boycott plans on a global scale. Embargos would also be in the hands of people.

Thank you for a great post.

Is it really too similar to be coincidental? The idea of using colour to pick out one or a small number from a crowd of icons or pictures is one I've seen used regularly over the years. Add to that the huge number of new book covers designed each year, and it seems to me quite believable it is coincidence that two designers should have ended up going for a similar riff of a previously used graphical device.

Indeed, given all the different ways in which book covers might be similar and the large number of pairs of new books covers to compare, it'd be pretty remarkable if there wasn't a passing similarity between any.

Chris, I understand frustration with copying done with designs and ideas. But in this case, I guess I'm OK with it. I think a number of people are coming up with graphic representations of the impact of social media, and these human icons are a natural way to describe it. Furthermore, though all of us who read your post probably get it at least to some degree (as we are all trying to figure out where this is all going), most others do not. These graphic representations, some using human figures like the two book covers, communicate in ways words do not. Each time I see a graphic representation of social media, I contemplate further what's going on. Seeing uses of similar or same icons reinforces previous messages for me.

What's got my head going nowadays? Primarily the power of passion and harnessing that energy in online environments. There seems to be a search for innovation for its own sake but I'm looking to innovate in ways that fuel existing passions in groups of people. Fear and apathy are the greatest enemies of innovation in the current age.

I'm now fortunate to be surrounded by people who are highly motivated and organized and are just lacking the know-how to them fused to the proper social networks. I've been waiting for this for a long time. I'm excited!

As the design director of Harvard Business Press, I accept this criticism. That said, I do want to offer an explanation.

These two covers were not done by the same designer. And although similar, the fonts are actually different (Grotesque on the left, Din on the right). No intentional stealing occurred.

The "people" icon has been used on countless covers to convey genderless, ageless, race-neutral people. As some of the responders mentioned, it's not easy to come up with a unique universal symbol for people and thus, we designers often default to the true and tried generic stick figure, if you will. It's not out of laziness - it's out of a need to quickly convey meaning through use of imagery that is instantly and universally recognizable. Most readers don't spend too much time contemplating a cover. It's our job as designers to capture their interest and give them an immediate sense of what this book is about.

And for what it's worth, we have an intense jacket review process at Harvard Business Press and we partner with our authors on every level, including jacket design.

It's been enlightening reading all the responses. Not all were easy to digest, but I applaud the dialogue and look forward to continuing the discussion.

As the design director of Harvard Business Press, I accept this criticism. That said, I do want to offer an explanation.

These two covers were not done by the same designer. And although similar, the fonts are actually different (Grotesque on the left, Din on the right). No intentional stealing occurred.

The "people" icon has been used on countless covers to convey genderless, ageless, race-neutral people. As some of the responders mentioned, it's not easy to come up with a unique universal symbol for people and thus, we designers often default to the true and tried generic stick figure, if you will. It's not out of laziness - it's out of a need to quickly convey meaning through use of imagery that is instantly and universally recognizable. Most readers don't spend too much time contemplating a cover. It's our job as designers to capture their interest and give them an immediate sense of what this book is about.

And for what it's worth, we have an intense jacket review process at Harvard Business Press and we partner with our authors on every level, including jacket design.

It's been enlightening reading all the responses. Not all were easy to digest, but I applaud the dialogue and look forward to continuing the discussion.