The knockoff culture - Part 4. Inspiration and originality: An eternal conundrum
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In this four-part series, TFR observed and analysed the roots of knockoff culture in Indonesia. The purpose of these articles is to educate, inform and provide solution to the issue.
In 2019, Nike filed a patent infringement lawsuit against its competitor, Skechers, claiming that Skechers had been copying two of the most distinctive-looking sneakers in Nike’s catalogue: VaporMax and Air Max 270. This was not Skecher’s first knock-off allegations; Nike itself has two other ongoing lawsuits against Skechers.
Nike filed the lawsuit to defend its design innovation and stop Skechers from “free-riding” on the brand’s significant investment in talent and resources. Meanwhile, Skechers contends that it merely takes inspiration from competitor products through a process the brand calls ‘Skecherizing.’
This leads us to the questions: Why are certain design adaptations considered copycats while some are considered original creations that are ‘inspired’ by others? What are the differences, and what is the fine line between them?
Ahimsa Hindarto, a student at the University for the Creative Arts in Epsom, England, provides a helpful example, “When you copy someone’s book cover design with the exact same layout, shape, but maybe with different colours, that’s a knock-off. However, if you took the essence of that cover design and adapted it to your own cover design, that’s not copying. That’s originality.”
Karina Ondang, designer of the fashion label Krinou (@krinouofficial), expressed the following opinion regarding inspiration: “To me, inspiration serves only as a starting point and should be evolved and challenged multiple times with my own perspective, aligning with my brand. With multiple adaptations, the inspiration will transform into something completely different and thoroughly ours.”
Indeed, the process of creation is an intricate one, and referencing is only an early phase of it. For certain art forms, the process begins with inspiration, followed by research, referencing, brainstorming, moodboarding, sketch development, input, further sketch or digital development and evaluation. The skech development phase may be repeated multiple times depending on the input received.
Teddy Aang and Jan Darmadi, the people behind the casual wear label Polonian, do not see originality and inspiration as separate entities, “Originality and inspiration are like Yin and Yang, one cannot exist without the other. We never see a separation between these two. What we do with Polonian feels very natural and unpretentious because the inspirations are our original experience.”
Polonian draws inspiration from the founders’ experience and upbringings that are richly intertwined with the Hokkien culture, which are then combined with current social phenomenon and design references.
As such, being inspired by other people’s creations does not necessarily imply unoriginality. Originality may be subjective; originality can, in terms, be translated to individuality – when an element does not refer to anything around it. Yet, others may argue that originality come from a pre-existing element or idea, but being able to reproduce it in your way uniquely becomes your own – thus, this could also be seen as original.
We now live in a world where originality and inspiration can go hand in hand, as long as we are able to thread the fine line between being inspired and copying.
Image: Milton Glaser was inspired by Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture. Glaser took the essence of the sculpture, love, and developed his own version.
An example of inspired originality is the famous “I Love New York” design by Milton Glaser. The logo consists of the capital letter I, followed by a red heart symbol (❤), with the capital letters N and Y below them, set in the rounded slab serif typeface American Typewriter. This design was inspired by a creation of another artist – Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture, originally designed as a Christmas postcard The Museum of Modern Art in 1965.
“LOVE was transgressive in that it blurred the distinction between graphic design and high art. And of course so much of what happened in the 1960s was exactly the blurring of that distinction. To some degree, [LOVE and “I ❤ NY”] came out of the same sensibility. I think it had some subliminal effect on me in terms of what was permissible. It was in the atmosphere,” Glaser stated.
While similar, each of the two designs is unique and original in its own right. Glaser took the essence of Indiana’s design – the atmosphere, the sensibility – and created a design that was original and fresh.
Speaking of the subliminal effect Glaser spoke about, it becomes more complicated when artists do not even realise that they are drawing inspirations from other artists, which can result in a lack of proper credit and/or further adaptations. This can happen to even the most experienced artists.
The Beatles’ guitarist, George Harrison, had a solo number one hit right after the group disbanded with the song ‘My Sweet Lord’ in 1970. Unfortunately, not long after, a plagiarism suit was launched by Bright Tunes, the publisher of ‘He’s So Fine,’ a 1963 hit by The Chiffons, against Harrison’s song.
The company demanded a share of income from ‘My Sweet Lord’. In 1976, after a lengthy legal dispute, Harrison was found to have committed “subconscious plagiarism,” which occurs when someone claims to have had an original thought (or in the case of a song, a melody or beat) but actually encountered the notion or sound earlier and forgot about it.
“I wasn’t consciously aware of the similarity between 'He’s So Fine' and 'My Sweet Lord' when I wrote the song, as it was more improvised and not so fixed. Although when my version of the song came out and started to get a lot of airplay, people started talking about it, and it was then I thought, 'Why didn’t I realise?',” Harrison later wrote in his autobiography.
Now, in the case where we want to legally sample or incorporate someone else’s creation into our own, we have to give proper credit. Giving proper credit is especially important when using copyrighted materials for profit, because failure to do so may lead to lawsuits on grounds of copyright infringement.
First, we have to identify the copyright owner. Next, determine the purpose and context of use; generally – though it must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis –, small amounts of a copyrighted work used for the purposes of commentary, criticism or parody are considered fair use, whereas using an entire work or large portions of it without permission is considered copyright infringement.
If the purpose of the use does not fall under fair use, we need to contact the copyright owner to obtain the appropriate permission. Lastly, place a Copyright Notice on the copyrighted material used.
A great example of proper crediting is the song ‘Feel It Still’ by Portugal. The Man, which earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in 2018. The band members, who wrote the song along with their producers, revealed that the melody of the song’s key line, “Ooh, woo, I’m a rebel just for kicks, now,” was taken from the song ‘Please Mr Postman’ by The Marvelettes.
Rightfully, they contacted and pay royalty to the original songwriters, as well as listing them as the song’s co-writers. “Our legal team told us that if we just changed two notes it would have been completely our song, but we didn’t like it without that melody. It had become part of the song,” says Zach Carothers, the band’s bassist.
Out of the various art forms we have observed, fashion is truly a curious case. Perhaps partly due to the regulatory loopholes we previously discussed in Part 1, fashion designers seem to be the only ones feeling distressed about the rampant knock-off culture; imitators and consumers seem to view fashion copycats as normal or – at the very least – common. It is as though there is a level of acceptance when it comes to knock-off fashion items, which is not the case with other creative forms, such as literature, music, or graphic design.
Karina believes that the desire to always wear something new plays a role in it, as it causes quick turnovers for fashion items. “To keep up with that desire, it is just much faster to copy and sell it right away. The fashion industry is as free as a jungle with no rules. Ultimately, it boils down to the designers’ own ethical judgement whether he or she wants to get his or her voice across in the form of fashion or just sell things fast for profit,” she continues.
Amot Syamsuri Muda, designer of his namesake fashion label AMOTSYAMSURIMUDA, believes that the reason for that lies in our culture: “So many people around us are copying other people’s designs, and suddenly this starts to feel normal. As for why fashion is different from other art forms, I believe that accessibility is a factor. Say, you want to buy this item that is only available in New York. It’s too far, and the sum of all costs is just too much. So you have no choice, you have to get or make a knock-off item,” Amot argues.
Amot himself is no stranger to people copying his creations. He once had a fashion stylist borrow a shirt he designed for an unusually long time, only to find out that the stylist had been using that shirt as a ‘reference’ to make an exact replica. “I immediately blocked him,” Amot adds. Still, this exemplifies a lack of ethical understanding and accountability when it comes to copying, even among those in the fashion industry.
Indonesia and its consumers may still have a long way to go to fully comprehend the impacts of this issue. Throughout our journey in creating this series, not only have we learned that there are a number of reasons why people copy others’ creations, but also that many are still uneducated about the ethics and of doing so.
There is nothing new under the sun, hence to be original is to be creative because every individual is different. There is no exact copy of a person.
This series is meant to highlight the phenomenon, discover why it exists and hopefully educate people along the way on how we can promote originality, open ourselves up for inspirations and be mindful of others’ creative endeavours. Hopefully, we have been able to help move the narrative in the right direction.