Flat is in. Minimal is cool. Metro style is hip.

Then you get stuff like this.

I’ve worked in the world of design (both print and web) for many, many years and I think it is safe to say I’ve seen my fair share of “inspiration this” and “borrowed that”. I was there when this article was new. Today there are thousands of people sharing hundreds of thousands of detailed design mockups, samples, clippings and otherwise inspirational ephemera.

I have to laugh when I see claims of “you stole that from me”. I was more than a little annoyed when Mike Monteiro whined about this being a rip off of his work.

When will we as designers realize there is almost zero unique value left in these generic bits we’re pitching as “minimal” and “mine”. We love to talk about how the design is “how it works” but then we waste precious time debating whether Bob stole Bill’s pixels in a context completely separate from any real fully-designed, working thing.

Really the only mistake here is summed up in Einstein’s quote: “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

Comments are not currently enabled because the internet has not yet learned how to deal with the ability to post comments. It's like an infant child in that regard. - Josh

To continue this discussion or offer your disgruntled disagreements feel free to hit me up on twitter @swisslehman