Saturday, May 15, 2010

The etiquette of inspiration (title title-lifted!!)

There has been two really thought provoking posts over at Studio Calico this week.

Post 1 ... here : How shall we be inspired?

Post 2 ... here: Shall we scraplift?


As well as ...


Post 3 ... here: Where shall we store inspiration?


I would be interested to hear peoples' thoughts on this!

Do you think this information is over the top or the right thing to do???

10 comments:

amanda hall said...

Hi Meredith. I really liked reading these articles and my opinion is that you should ALWAY give credit where credit is due.

It isn't a nice feeling seeing something similar from your work on anothers with NO mention of where their inspiration came from. Hard to prove but it still feels crappy...

Of course you can only 're-invent the wheel' so many times, it is only paper and all that but often it is obvious where ideas come from ... it is only manners to aknowledge that and give thanks.

I do not email the person to let them know that i have lifted them but do always reference them when i post the page (i get inspired by Fran all the time but just give her credit when i post the layout image)

I have had some lovely surprises looking at others blogs and seeing the words 'inspired by Amanda Hall'. It is an amazing feeling to think that you have helped kick along someone's creativity... and the result is often so different (and more beautiful) than anything i could ever do. It is also a real confidence boost to think that someone else thinks that your style is 'worthy' of copying!

I feel strongly against submitting ANY work that is scraplifted.

To me sketches and colour schemes are a bit of a grey area - a sketch can be interpreted a million different ways with a zillion different results. I don't believe anyone has the right to say 'that's MY colour scheme' either.

A very convoluted argument!!

WOW what a long comment! I will be interested to hear what others think too!

amanda hall said...

i will also say that when i have copied someone directly (like Kelly Noel for the Cummins class i did) i did email them prior. I know Meredith also did this for her flip album class.

I believe emailling prior is the right thing to do if it is in a class or teaching situation.

Meredith said...

I would have to agree with you Amanda about the colour scheme lift ... very difficult to prove!! Unless you are actually completely inspired by a very specific example and then it would just be a nice thing to refer to that source I suppose.

I also agree that it is probably not necessary to email the person as long as you provide a link to the source. This may be tricky if you see the idea in a magazine but as I have seen you do Amanda the magazine name, issue and page number would be a great idea.

I just read the comments to the first Studio Calico post and some of them are interesting too!

The other thing I have thought of is that I reckon if we looked for long enough we could probably find a layout that might look like our own somewhere even if it is our own original idea!

Meredith said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Meredith said...

Me again, it was me deleting a double posting!!

Yes agree again Amanda about contacting the person if teaching etc!!

sandra said...

uh oh!
This can be a very contentious issue!
There are so many conflicting opinions out there that you can get a little confused.
Me personally? If you like someones layout and you copy it, credit it, As I did with my layout below.
Simple. or is it?
When you read some of the forums out there and the bitchiness that is associated with this topic, I sometimes wonder if some scrappers are just being that little bit tooo 'precious'???
Copying a title???
Copying a technique??
copying photo angles??
copying a topic??
Cropping a photo into a circle?? (what the???)
where do you stop???
(Oh dear,I do believe I could have a target on my back now lol!!)
I DO believe that if you 'copy' a layout GIVE CREDIT...but I do believe that some out there get a tad too carried away with what essentially is a hobby and not sheep stations.
Although good manners do not go astray especially if you 'Case' scraplift.

hmmm does anyone hate me now??
told you it was a contentious issue!!

Maryanne Ridgway said...

I agree with all your comments girls.Im sure for me that I probably am influenced by other scrappers as at times I will get a germ of an idea from anothers layout,or will be inspired by anothers and then I forget about it,but maybe the next page I scrap could be 6 weeks later, and all my own, but maybe something Ive done on that page has been inspired by an element or design or idea on a layout Id seen months ago, and had formulated into my own idea, and I wouldnt even remember where, how, and what had given me that idea!So I dont deliberately copy or mimic someones style, or work but I do think that I am always inspired by others work.I do try to credit the original layout if I do a direct scraplift.
does any of that waffle make sense?
I think I have confused this simple little brain of mine!

Anonymous said...

Personally I think that some of the ideas of what constitutes a scraplift on the studio calico blog are a little OTT...I absolutely agree that credit should be given where credit is due but by the same token there are only so many ways to reinvent the wheel.

I'll often be scrapping merrily away and stop and I'll stop and think...what might such and such a person do and have a think about their work and draw inspiration from my memory alone. I rely on my memory mostly for inspiration from others and rarely go back and actually look at someones work to get that inspriation...does that make sense LOL. I do that more so that I am not getting stuck in a rut so to speak and I don't consider myself to be scraplifting when I do this.

When I see a page design I like I'll make a basic sketch and tuck it away for future reference....and I then tend to manipulate sketches beyond recognition more often than not LOL!

I know within myself whether I have used too many of someone elses ideas or too much of their design to make it my own and make decisions about submitting accordingly.

I've got a LO coming up on the addicted to craft blog this week that was created drawing on inspiration from another scrapper. If you're familiar with her work (particularly a few recent pieces) you'll know instantly who that person is. Despite one aspect having been 'copied' for want of a better word the overall layout is still very much my own work...it was an inspired by piece...however, I won't be submitting it. I didn't email her to ask if I could either ...but I will credit her as my inspiration and share it with her.

I can share it with you when it's on the blog if you want and see if you can guess who I've drawn my inspiration from?

Hope that makes sense :)
Tatum

SueP said...

Quite a thought provoking post here Meredith....and i too agree with all you girls comments...that credit needs to be made to whomever and especially when it is a 'total' copy..

But then if we all didn't gather some inspiration from someone or somewhere the craft of scrapbooking wouldn't have continued to develope into the craft we all enjoy and love. And we need for the craft/ art to continue to develope and change, so we need to continue to draw inspiration from others....this is what we do, we share our ideas.

The publishing bit....well, i have never submitted....and can see that it is a whole new ball game.. and I'm not enthused to go there.....so i will continue to draw my inpiration from all you wonderful creative scrappers out there and scrap away!!

Tiff Firth said...

if nothing else, now i know what tumblr is about lol!!!