:: tangent ::

When I recently went shopping for sneakers, I stopped when I saw the design on a box of Puma shoes. Some great designer out there had come up with the simple notion of taking the UPC code that everyone is used to seeing on any standard piece of merchandise, and treating the vertical bars like those of an animal cage. Couple that with the very energetic logo for Puma and you have the story of the Puma escaping from it's confines. A nice, subtle piece of thinking.

Not more than two days later I was surfing the web, looking at an British artist's web site, when I see the same idea. The artist is named Banksy and has become famous for his graffiti art and his ability to hijack space in art galleries, putting up his own work, as if were part of the curator's choice for any exhibit. He had posted on his site the same image, except with a jaguar "escaping" from a UPC code.

Some might say... "Hey! That guy stole the other guy's idea. That's wrong." Well, I beg to differ.

The idea of stolen goods in design and art has certainly been discussed in places other than this blog. My favorite podcast, American Copywriter, has brought the subject up in numerous podcasts, and their own blog has pointed to the phenomenon. There are entire sites dedicated to finding similarities between advertisements.

Regardless, my point is this: We shouldn't be so conerned if an idea has already been "done." In advertising and design no one owns ideas. We certainly think we do, act like we do, and protect them like we do, but we don't. There is nothing to say that the idea I think of today can't be thought of by you or anyone else tomorrow, yesterday or even at the same moment. The thing to remember is that we are almost always trying to communicate to a different group, help a different client, or we're in different markets.

Now, there are some ideas that are "owned." It would be a bad idea to suggest "Just do it" to a client. Nike is known for it exclusively. The reason you shouldn't use it, however, is not that they "own" it, but because it doesn't help the other client. There is no differentiation of the product/service that way.

Some will say Nike does own "Just do it" because it is trademarked. Well, yes it is, but the simple fact is that we have created this construct of trademarks and patents to work in our material world. The truth of the matter is that you cannot own an idea. If you did, you would be able to track my brain waves and every time I thought the words "Just do it" I would have a charge on my bank account. The inability to do that is the foundation of tons of things, including some of our nation's founding premises.

Here's a nice way to look at it.

::

Ideas are open knowledge. Don't claim ownership.

They're not your ideas anyway. They're someone elses. They are out there floating by on the ether.

You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up.

:: Paul Arden, It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be

So, the next time you see two executions of the same idea, don't call foul right away. Instead consider that both creators had mentally been in a similar place, and executed a similar idea. It is more helpful to criticize he idea itself, rather than its similarities.