Back in August, I offered to help my brother-in-law by designing a logo for his new venture http://corprogram.co.za . Admittedly, I didn’t spend more than a few hours on it and followed his wishes to have a 3D globe instead of the letter “O” – but am still pleased with the result which I believe gives his business a professional online image.

Today, while browsing the web for pictures of “blue fire”, I came across a very similar logo for a Fire Protection Service I hadn’t heard of before:

My first reaction was to tell myself I’d been plagiarized – the colors, the treatment of the Helvetica letters being distorted by an imaginary white halo, the general feel… my copyrights have been infringed for the 5th time since launching Myows a year ago (that I know of) – lets take out the full arsenal of legal tools that Myows provides me with and make a point!

But then I got thinking about Chris’ article on Creative Zeitgeist – and I am now wondering about the possibility that different designers could come up with the same ideas I did when given the task of creating a logo for any company called “Core”.

Is my logo really that original?

A quick Google search for “core logo” might actually indicate a case of Creative Zeitgeist:

I do not know when these logos were created, all I know is that I created mine on the 9th August 2010 – I can prove it if asked to do so – and i also know that originality can be subjective and often lies in the eye of the beholder.

So what do you think? Is this a case of my original idea being copied 3 times since August (which I doubt) or just different designers coming up with similar concepts?

Have you had similar experiences? If so, please share…

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation” – Herman Melville.

Whether they do it for love or for money, all creatives want their work to be original. Originality is seen as the yardstick of creative skill and talent. But for the purposes of copyright protection, what is the threshold of creativity that makes a work original?

Whether they are contemplating action against an infringer, or their own work is challenged, it is important that creatives understand the concept of originality.

A distinction needs to be drawn between copying, and using existing work to create something new. The former is infringement; the latter is a derivative work.

Originality begins with the choices you make when creating a work. These choices may be limited by the technical standards or best practices of your discipline, or dictated by the use to which your work is to be put (i.e. an iPod needs to play music). But then there are those creative choices you make, those that apply your signature to the work. It is these creative choices that are protected by copyright.

Take a telephone directory – it is made up of information from the public domain and there is very little scope for arranging that information in a creative way. The creative choices that go into it are very limited. Compare this to the creation of a website. A significant amount of creativity goes into selecting the elements and putting them altogether.

Originality standards are not the same in every country. There may also be different standards for different categories of works within a country (e.g. utilitarian or functional works such as computer programs and databases vs creative works).

However, in practice, it is often the case that the end result is the same across jurisdictions even thought different standards have been applied.

It must always be remembered that while creative works will by definition be ‘original’ and covered by copyright, creativity is not required to make a work ‘original.’

Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you ever get into a bun fight over whether your work is original (or you are taking on someone who has copied you):

1. Did you refer to existing work during the creative or development process?

2. How much did that work influence you (be honest with yourself)?

3. What “creative” choices did you make about the work, which were not based on industry techniques, best practices or the functions to be performed by the work?

(The more intellectually creative you are, the more chance you have of the work being original).

4. How much of your own personality come through in the work?

5. Can you identify elements of the work that could only come from you?

(If not, start trying to develop a distinctive stamp you can put on your work)

6. Don’t be guided by the puddle of blood, sweat and tears – copying can also be hard work sometimes.

7. If there was very little scope for you to arranging the different elements of the work because of the nature of your discipline, the choices you made when arranging those elements will be scrutinized more closely.

(So document as far as possible how you went about selecting and/or organizing the elements)

8. Do you need to be factually accurate when creating the work?

(If so, the scope for creativity may diminish)

9. Is the general public going to be interested in the work you have created? Is it different to other similar types of work (e.g. maps, diaries)?

It is not easy to be absolutely novel and unique these days. But the good news is that copyright law doesn’t expect you to be before it protects you.

Huh?

Yup! That’s a massive figure right? How did I come up with that one? Given a simple assumption: everybody on the planet is creative.

Everybody.

Everybody is creative

I was first introduced to this preposterous notion at Vega (the brand Communications School) where I studied for my honors year (long story). At that time, around 2005, I thought that this claim had more to do with their broad-based marketing approach than scientific fact… anybody can study here!

Admittedly I still lack any actual evidence to support their theory. But I like it and… well hey, we all have a right side to our brain. The current educational, economic, political and philosophical status quo is definitely biased to the side of logic and reason (the proverbial ‘left side’) so we may not all have been in touch with our creative sides but they’re there and for many, they’re just waking up.

If we are capable of counting and tying our shoelaces or at least of blinking or burping, we can probably also have a creative thought even if it’s just a 9-word joke or a doodle. Most of us don’t carve out our careers in typical ‘creative’ industries but even doctors and pilots do the odd creative thing.

Lawyers and accountants have been known to be very creative indeed (think Enron). I like to think that the guys that swing past my apartment every day and pick up our trash are fairly creative too. If you could hear the names they call my next-door neighbor when she jogs down our street, you would probably agree.

Now remember: we have copyrights in everything we create, as long as it’s original, substantive and reduced to material form (see Myows’s definition of Original Work).

Creative Anarchy

And since 21.3% of the world’s population has access to the internet, you can expect a massive and growing body of original creative content, even if most of it is rubbish. (there were 5.3 billion videos streamed on Youtube this time last year). So here’s the deal (and then I’m done):

1)   Everybody is creative

2)   The internet has given millions of people a creative outlet, a broadcast medium and hence is at once stimulating and providing access to creativity on a ridiculous scale

3)   Since it’s extraordinarily easy to lift work off the net and publish it as your own, expect a period of anarchy and free-for-all-ism to follow shortly as we all adjust to a new creative paradigm (expect “narrowcasting”* too but that’s for a whole other article)

Our response is twofold

Firstly redefine what you see as a creative person. More or less 50% of every human’s brain sits on the creative/intuitive side so being a creative doesn’t make you special. Being a good creative (one that other’s want to follow and even pay) – now that’s a privilege. Expect some serious competition.

Secondly, start treating your creative skills and their fruits with the respect and caution they deserve. Things are going to get messy and confused out there so make sure if you make a living of creative work that you protect your rights as you work (you guessed it: Myows), that you keep up to date with what’s happening out there and that you constantly scan for similar work.

Final thought

Other than that, enjoy living on a more creative, expressive and colorful planet than any previous generation has ever had the privilege of inhabiting!

*More on narrowcasting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrowcasting