Chamelle Design and Photography Blog » web design

Copyright and copycats – an issue for all designers

Livia — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:39:46 +0000

So I was looking for something through Google images… I clicked on one of the images, which brought up a website I had never seen before but looked interesting.

You thought we wouldn’t notice

Wow! What a great site! It’s inspired me to do a post on copyright…

Every designer has had someone trying to ’steal’ their designs as their own at least one time in their life, usually more. Even as a young child of around 6-7 I remember coming up with ideas for things and having my classmates copy my work. I have personally had many instances of ‘friends’ who have copied my ideas and designs, and as frustrating as it may be, at the end of the day people always say “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and you know that if you have talent and creativity you don’t need to copy others’ work!

Both in my degree and my recent web design course we had talks on copyright issues. Several in fact. The annoying thing though is there are no hard and fast rules and different rules apply in different countries. In Australia you can go to the The Arts Law Centre of Australia to get information regarding your rights and copyright issues.

Back to the site, it was thoroughly fascinating to see how many people could spot their own (or someone else’s work) being ripped off left right and centre. Here are just three recent examples I pulled off their site.

Left: Papercut by talented Essimar, Right: Hoodie by Mambo (Australian fashion label)

Left: Delta Dentist’s new mascot, Middle: Happy Beaver toy by Jeff Pidgeon

Left: Doll image from a doll manufacturer, Right: Artwork by Mijn Schatje

The very talented Australian graphic/web designer, Rob Morris, has had his website design copied dozens of times, which I guess proves just how talented and creative he is! (Totally off topic but I’m jealous of Rob because he lives in Okinawa! )

As webdesign.about.com says:

“Copyright on the Web seems to be a difficult concept for people to understand. If you did not write or create the article, graphic, or data that you found, then you need permission from the owner before you can copy it. Remember, when you use someone’s graphic, HTML, or text without permission, you are stealing, and they can take action against you.

Basically anything and everything that you create is protected by copyright. This includes but is not limited to: text, graphics, photos, objects, HTML, CSS and scripts. Simply saving someone else’s work is not copyright infringement but when you use elements of their work in your own to the point where it’s easily recognizable, then it becomes an infringement. It’s even worse when someone is making money from their design/object/website/piece of writing which is obviously not original and copied off someone else.

I’ve not spotted that many examples myself in the graphic/web design world (yet) but I have seen it countless times in the fashion world to the point that I don’t believe anything in fashion design is original anymore. A few years ago I bought a beaded cardigan from Sportsgirl which I later found it was an exact replica of one by Nanette Lepore. Another time I bought a pair of high-heeled sandals from K-mart which turned out to be a copy of a pair by Nine West.

Another time I saw a picture of a dress by high end designer Elie Saab from the runway, that looked suspiciously like a vintage dress I saw earlier on a vintage dress site, The Frock. I also have another example of an Australian wedding dress designer who has obvious copied an Emmanuel Ungaro gown. There are many many more examples but in all cases the designs are about 95% similar. What can I say? I have a very good memory and this just makes me have no respect for these designers with their so-called original designs.

What you can do?

Don’t steal others’ work. Don’t claim it as your own. Don’t plagiarize! Put yourself in their shoes. If someone took your photo or text and plonked it on their website with no reference to you, how would you like it? Always link back to the original creator with their name/company name in the link if you are referencing their work. (not just Link or Image). It would also be nice if you let them know you’ve linked back to them after posting up their work.
Report it to the designer/creator/owner or relevant authorities and/or You thought we wouldn’t notice if you have spotted theft of original work.
Install Tynt Tracer on your website/blog. I’ve yet to check it out but it looks promising and useful.
Check out Copyscape to see if others have plagiarized your written work already (and know that others can search for their own sites too so don’t even think about plagiarizing!)
Use Google alerts to get email alerts for your name, your website/blog URL, or any other search terms
Watermark your images with a copyright message and/or your logo. I use Copyright Inserter or Photoshop.
Make your text articles as read-only PDFs.
Set your permissions on Flickr so that people cannot download your images easily. On my account you will get the infamous ’spaceball.gif’ if you try to right-click, and you cannot view images at their highest resolution unless you are on my friends/family list.
As a designer, don’t be overly paranoid. It’s obvious that a lot of people use extensive Flash on their website or put up small, blurry, low-res pictures because they think that people are going to steal their work. If someone really wants to copy your stuff they can and they will. If you don’t want anyone to see your work (and perhaps copy it), then don’t ever put it up anywhere in public. But then… what’s the point of creating it in the first place? Just be rest assured that you have more talent than those who are trying to copy you.

Of course none of the ideas are foolproof but every little bit of effort you put in helps!

Blog design tips

Livia — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:16:47 +0000

I read a lot of blogs and what keeps playing over in my head is the fact that many of them are not user-friendly.

This is just my personal opinion but this is what I believe a good blog should have in terms of layout/design/elements:

1. A title with matching URL

Some of the blogs I read have a URL that is different to the title. Why? I don’t understand it. Why would you have a blog called “Cooking with Fran” and the URL is memoirsofabakingqueen.blogspot.com (just an example I made up). There is no relation between the two and if some reason someone remembers your blog title but forgot the URL, and tries to google or guess the URL they have a far less chance of finding it.

2. Search box

On blogspot blogs, the default is the bar at the top of the screen. On other blogs it’s usually in the sidebar. Wherever it is, it’s important that it’s near the top of the screen.

3. Author bio/profile

People like to know who you are. You don’t need to write a lot but a little blurb about who you are, and what you do is always a welcome addition to your blog. A picture also helps! By picture I mean a photo of your face, not some random non-descript thing or a photo of someone else.

4. Email the author

There should be a way for people to contact you privately and easily, so put an email link somewhere near the top of your blog.

5. Subscribe to RSS Feed

If you read a lot of blogs you’d be silly not to use a feed reader service. If people can’t subscribe to your blog it’s unlikely they will come back to it (unless they are still using the old-fashioned method of bookmarking and visiting it every so often). You’d be surprised how many times I have had to do a keyword search for “RSS” or “subscribe” because I could not find this link! Some blogs have this broken up into ‘Entries’ and ‘Comments’ which is even better. The RSS icon looks like an orange square with curved white lines and should be at the top or side of every blog.

6. Tags/Categories/Labels

Some people don’t use them. Some people overuse them. I think they are very useful in helping your readers find your posts. A tag cloud is cool and visually interesting. However, they need to be used correctly. If you think you’re going to use a tag only once or twice there is no point in using it. I think 1-4 tags per post is a good number. I make a conscious effort to think about which tags are relevant to each blog post.

7. Latest posts, Archives, Calendar, etc

This is a useful way to search through old/previous posts.

8. Pictures for every post

Add visual interest by using photos. Even just one photo makes a post so much more interesting to read. I mostly use my own photos/pictures but if you are using others’ work make sure you give them the appropriate credit by linking to the URL where you got the picture from, and also crediting them in the text. For example if someone used one of my photos from Flickr, they can credit me with ‘Flickr/supercamel’. The text is important because websites move and change all the time, and servers go down, etc.

9. Too many posts on the front page!

This is a pet peeve because it makes loading time very long and slow. IMHO there shouldn’t be more than 5 posts on the front page, or less if your site is graphically intensive. In Wordpress I started using the code to summarize posts. This isn’t a problem for most blogs, generally only the very popular and commercial ones that also have many widgets and gadgets and ads in their sidebar(s).

10. No year mentioned on each post

When I’m looking for articles, it’s important to me to see when they were written. Was it 2002, 2005 or 2008? A few blogs I’ve seen neglect to put the year in their dates, and I think this is a big no-no, especially for timely articles such as web design.

I’m big on usability and I think with a little thought and planning, every blog can easily be made into something easier to read and use! And if, for some reason, you find my blog difficult to navigate, please let me know!

Restaurant website done

Livia — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:51:13 +0000

Website finished… Phew!

You can check out the Cafe Zanbala website here.

Web companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley

Livia — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:47:34 +0000

Web, computer, tech and other interesting (primarily female-orientated) online companies…

I added some to my Twitter list and it occured to me that almost all of them were in San Francisco or Silicon Valley so I decided to compile a list of companies/locations just for my own interests’ sake. Let me tell you, finding this information is hard work! These companies are very secretive. Clicking the ‘about us’ or ‘contact us’ links generally isn’t that helpful. Reading their job opportunities listings yields better results.

San Francisco

Blogs.com – best of blogs
Blurb – photo books
CBS Interactive – media
CNet – information
Digg – social bookmarking
Flickr – photos/social networking
Movable Type – blogging platform
Photobucket – photo storage
Rate It All – reviews
Six Apart – blogging platforms
Slide – slideshows and more
StumbleUpon – social bookmarking
Technorati – social bookmarking
Twitter – micro blogging
Typepad – blogging platform
Wikipedia – online encyclopedia
Wired – technology news
Wists – social shopping
Yelp – meet-up and reviews

Bay Area

CafePress (San Leandro) – custom-designed t-shirts and more
Pandora (Oakland) – internet radio
Shutterfly (Redwood City) – photo storage and albums
YouTube (San Mateo) – video sharing
Wikia (San Mateo) – find articles/communities
WordPress (Redwood City) – blogging platform

Silicon Valley

Adobe (San José) – graphics software applications
Alta Vista (Palo Alto) – search engine
Apple (Cupertino) – computer hardware, mp3 players, software, etc
Blogger/Blogspot (Mountain View) – blogging platform
Canon USA (San José) – cameras, printers, etc
Cisco systems (San José) – hardware and software
Del.icio.us (Santa Clara) – social bookmarking
eBay (San José)- online auctions
Facebook (Palo Alto) – social networking
Flock (Palo Alto) – social web browser
Friendster (Mountain View) – social networking
Google (Mountain View) – search engine, email, maps and more. What doesn’t Google do?
Hewlett Packard (Palo Alto) – computer hardware
IBM (San José) – computer hardware
Intel (Santa Clara) – computer hardware
Kaboodle (Mountain View) – social shopping
Linked in (Mountain View) – jobs/social networking
Netscape Communications (Mountain View) – search engine, browser, etc
Oracle (Redwood City) – computer hardware and software
Polyvore (Mountain View) – social shopping/online scrapbooking/advertising
Silicon Graphics (SGI) (Mountain View) – high-end computers
SmugMug (Mountain View) – photo storage and viewing
Sun microsystems (Palo Alto) – hardware and software
Verisign (Mountain View) – internet security software
Xerox (Palo Alto Research Center) – hardware and software
Yahoo (Sunnyvale) – search engine, email and more
YouSendIt (Mountain View) – send large files without FTP
Zazzle (Palo Alto) – custom t-shirts and more

Los Angeles

Blizzard Entertainment (Irvine) – computer games such as World of Warcraft
DeviantART – art/social networking
Magento – e-commerce platform
MySpace – social networking

New York City

AOL – internet
Etsy – handmade goods
Makeup Alley – makeup reviews/forum
Meet up – Meet-up
News Corporation – media
Sony USA – TVs, monitors, game consoles, etc
Time Warner – media

Other USA places

Amazon (Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington) – online bookstore giant
Craftster (Boston, Massachusetts) – craft
Dell (Round Rock, Texas) – computer hardware
Microsoft (Redmond, Washington near Seattle) – software giant
Lycos (Waltham, Massachusetts near Boston) – search engine
My Publisher (Valhalla, New York) – photo books
Philips USA (Andover, Massachusetts) – tvs, lighting, etc
Threadless (Chicago, Illinois) – t-shirt design contest and store
Vimeo (White Plains, New York) – video sharing
VistaPrint (Lexington, Massachusetts) – DIY printing
Zappos (Las Vegas) – online shoe store

* I will be adding to this when I discover new sites *

References:

Web 2.0 Innovations San Francisco map
Tour de Silicon Valley

Finished designing my blog

Livia — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:45:45 +0000

So after many many hours of pain and headaches I think I have finished my Wordpress blog template design. I did it all by myself but because I’m not a total computer geek I did dial 1800-GEEK* to help to de-bug a minor problem. I’m pretty pleased with it and I have to say it works in all the major browsers – yay! Unfortunately, according to BrowserShots it doesn’t look quite right in Flock or Navigator (or other browsers that noone has ever heard of) but suffice to say I have tested it in Windows IE 6 and 7, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera and Mac Safari and Firefox (which 98% of internet users would be using). So to the other 2%, I’m sorry!

The main problem I had was trying to move the javascript parts (of which, I admit, I have a lot of: flickr plug-in, adsense, etsy mini, and feedjit widgets). They were very stubborn and seemed to appear in different places in every single browser! ARGH. At least I got it looking OK in the abovementioned browsers so I’m happy.

Still doing minor tweaking but for now I’m happy with it. Now just have to do the other php files

* not really. I just phoned a friend and ‘paid’ them with food. That always works

Do you like it?