blog.miroslav-dimitrov.net

Lately I haven’t been very productive on my blog, in fact posting fresh stuff on the blog & website was the last thing I was worried about. The long hours at work drain all my energy and I am left with no juice to battle with my personal projects you see here :))))

Few days ago I received a message from a visitor of my blog, informing me about a person (who apparently is using my name) and posting some of my design works on cardesign.ru. The weird thing is that he is not only posting the works, but he appears to be pretty keen on receiving compliments for his original design works from the visitors on the website.

With today’s world, the information spreads within seconds. Once you upload something on the internet, it’s immediately available to the millions of users online and all that annoying digital media. The social networks are even worse, anything you do is becoming a knowledge of the thousands of people and your private life is practically no more existing.
On the other hand side, publishing around 300 slides on my website alone  and running a blog on parallel, means that I am ready to share with the world a part of my personal design work. I am of those people who believe the creativity & talent are given to us in order to create, enjoy and please (up to certain extent) every person on this earth. With the help of talent, our job is to conduct/manifest cool ideas that make the surrounding world more attractive, rich and beautiful. I am not of these designers who consider themselves to be the greatest in the world and never share their ideas, these very same people who secretly keep their magnificent sketches in the drawers and never show it to the world. At the end of the day, we all die sooner or later and what we leave behind us is our work or creations if I may say. Therefore things like: “this is too great to show” are not my spirit! Of course, when it comes to working in the companies or client’s work, things change but this is a different story….

Having said all that, I would appreciate it if people ask or inform me before posting any of my designs onto another website or just give a link to the original source of information if they do so. It is extremely intolerable to post my sketches on a website and present it as his original art work. This is steal of intellectual property and in most countries that leads to consequences where legal actions are undertaken. On top of that, the fact he is using my name means he doesn’t only steal my intellectual work but my identity too! This is not acceptable not only in the Car Design industry, but everywhere…..in general!

Looking at the bright side of the things, if one decides to “shine” with my works, that means my work is well appreciated and people like it  :) Especially going as far as posting with my name and reaping the compliments of the audience. Funny enough my sketches on cardesign.ru triggered more comments than my own blog :)))) Second thing is… I was quite happy of  the fact that my work was recognized by some of the guys over there and one of them signalized about this cheeky move. I wish to thank P.B. who emailed me and then quoted my answer on the very same page.

For those of you who understand russian, here are the links:

1. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2918/17485/
2. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2918/17320/
3. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2910/17449/
4. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2910/17379/
5. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2910/17340/
6. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2910/17286/

And here is one more, the two images bellow are very good example of what you shouldn’t do. If you’re going to copy or underlay somebody’s work you better make it more successful than the author because you risk of looking stupid big time. It’s very difficult to be original with so many things already created around us, but sometimes it’s better just to mention where we got our inspiration from…. Reactions welcome :)

In the creative field it’s usual to have things that inspire you, things that you like, things made by other people that you adore so much that you wish you have “DONE IT” firts. You can see that everywhere: Music Industry, Industrial Design of course….Architecture….everywhere! People and even companies (in our case car companies) copying each other and this is an issue we have to live with…

I had 5 minutes to spare this morning on my PC and accidentally I popped on this website: http://www.achatham.com/ I found the arrangement of the slides suspiciously similar to my website made by RIZN. I don’t think I can say something about the use of grey, black and cyan/blue colours on a white background, however I think this guy was quite impressed from the beautiful work of the guys at RIZN. To make it clear: I am NOT saying he is copying my sketches and designs, I just point-out the fact that his website has some really similar “design solutions” to my website.

When it comes to copying someone’s idea you can only take it as a compliment. This is the way I had to accept the work of a guy who graduated one year after me in Coventry University. On his degree show in 2006, he displayed a car that is totally different from my scale model, however the design of his car and especially the top (the rear top and the green house) was 90% according to the sketches I displayed in my book next to my model in the previous year. Moreovere, I saw him picturing with his camera EVERY single page of my book while I was there. As far as I remember he went to the Royal College for his Masters and now he is probably enjoying a successful career in the car design.
For me…I can take it only as a compliment. This is the silent but vivid proof that you’ve done something people like – something that inspired them. It means that people notice you, people want to do it like you!

Going back on the previous issue. RIZN is well known for creating amazing websites. It’s not the first time their work has been copied and it won’t be the last. They, just like me can take it only as a compliment…

I’ll leave you make your judgement.