Just a random topic out of sheer curiosity - at what point does a designer taking inspiration from a particularly eye-catching design cross over into flat-out ripping/copying that design? Main reason I ask is that I am midway through a design that I feel has been partially inspired by a few live sites that I am fond of; and find myself checking them constantly to ensure i'm not subconsciously stealing their ideas and style.
i think once u have changed it and put ur own ideas in with the "Inspirational" ideas....its ok.... as long as u go with the idea of makin your design ....and not a "ow ill make one of them " its allways good thats my view anyways
inspiration... is different than rip off. If you remember the basics of the designs and create the layout, its more of an inspiration. However if you're looking at the design while designing the layout! There's a high change of duplicating the design completely.
At Art college we were shown how the masters created their paintings, how they used their brushes and mixed their paints. We were taught about perspective, the use of colour, design and composition. We were taught to pick up on their use of light, negative space and artistic license. On the web I believe you can do the same, study how someone has put a site together, how they've used colour and created grids and CSS to produce their site. Tearing these apart is a learning process and can often build your own styles. The same is true in martial arts, we copy the movements of our tutors to follow a particular style but ultimately inject a little of ourselves into it. We overstep the mark when we take a site's coding and change the text and colour choice to reflect our own. Its important therefore to find a balance between immitating a style (eg. web 2.0) and stealing a design. Rather than trying to closely resemble a site(s) try to examine why its attractive by deconstruction and you'll soon plant the ideas of good design into your own direction.