#55 II Where to find inspiration - Tutorial
Here's the first tutorial requested for Ask the Maker, kindly asked by the lovely nightbulbs :) For all the images in this tutorial, hover for the source/maker.
In the light of recent events, should we call it this way, I think this « guide » (here again a loose term) was much needed. I wanted to write it for my own personal needs first because I have ( Read more... )
especially in inspiration-type communities where we're given a set of inspiration icons and other things.
I think you're totally right about this. Most of newer makers come from tumblr where the "inspired by (x)" is on every post, and the difference between actual inspiration and plain copying is erased. In the iconing word, we're more picky about it because we're smaller and everyone "knows" everyone or almost. It brings us back to what I'm trying to say : we don't talk about this enough. Maybe we're not clear enough about what "inspiration" is in the iconing world. Challenges built upon inspiration posts (that I LOVE) can be confusing. We know how it works because we've been here a long time, but newer makers dont.
Tutorials and PSDs are another interesting thing.
It is indeed and I agree with you. PSD and tutorials shouldn't be reproduced, it should be a mean to see the process other makers use which can be very different from our own. We can learn new techniques, new ways of doing this. That's why I love guide more than actual single-icon-tutorial because some people won't learn a thing by reading a tutorial. They're going to reproduce it and that'll be the end of it. With a guide, you "guide", you show the way, but you don't walk for them. Here again, maybe the fault comes back to tumblr where psds are often shared and used without modifications... :/
Do you think copying is always intentional, or do you think it can happen subconsciously?
I do think it can happen subconsciously, and I agree with you on giving copycats the benefit of the doubt. I will never jump at someone because they made something "similar" to what I did. Coincidences can happen (I mean look at screencaps challenge, sometimes 2 icons are very close and no copying was involved!), and even when you saw the way a maker worked on a screencaps and months later, subconsciously, you do the same, it's not the end of the world. Copying 1 icon isn't either. What I don't accept is copying everything in an icon, and doing it with a lot of them. Here you see the "will" of the maker, the conscious choice, the will to keep going at it.
Do you think copying can happen to a maker's general style, or just specific icons?
That is tricky! What is style? In my mind, I can more or less categorize every maker into a style : colorful, textful, busy composition, bright colors, muted colors, simple background, texture-full etc... And we don't own that. What we own is the way we built an icon, for example if I use 2 screencaps a certain way with a certain text... I don't own stars for example, those are Photoshop's and using them in an icon won't be copying. The way I use them tho, the placement of it etc, could be considered as copying. The "style" of every maker is, to me, the way they use the resources they have. If someone use a paint texture in a certain way, a VERY particular way (here again, everybody is free to use paint textures), then it's their style. If they use a font with a certain effect, and they do that on a lot of their icons, and nobody does it this way, then it's their style. I don't know if I'm very clear XD. I don't really know if you can copy someone's else style entirely because we don't own category of icons... If suddenly you want to make muted icons, will it be considered as copying makers who makes them often? I don't think so. So maybe you can just copy specific icons, specific elements and ways of doing one... But even if the icon you make looks like someone's style, I don't think it's awful. There are makers who have similar styles, it doesn't mean they're ripping off each other. We're all inspired by what everyone in the community makes. It's too bad you're stressing over it, it should not be such a big deal. We should talk about it more! Making it less like an awful awful horrible thing which should get your head chopped off!
I think it's over now and won't happen again :) Thank you for reading it and participating in the debate!
Reply
Leave a comment