Nannka Designs

We all know that rarely anything is original nowadays. Everything is inspired from something. The graphic design world has become a place of many copies, free resources that have been used way too many times and a place where once your artwork has been uploaded into the online world, it automatically becomes available for theft- the kind of theft that really is stealing and not being credited for alongside not being paid for the work you’ve put your time and effort in but there’s also the theft that comes in the context of how to ‘Steal like an Artist’. Where you’re not really stealing but using things as inspiration.

But how fair and/or ethical is it when your market competitors use their, much bigger, presence on social media to copy… no wait, ‘be SO inspired by’ your work and get credit for having these great ideas that can be traced back to your social media page and website? It’s the continual reoccurrence that makes me question the ethics and fairness of it all. Is there anyone even tracing back other than you? Would anyone question your competitors’ ethics in their field or would a big following on Instagram be an automatic connotation to the best ethics?

At first, I was baffled. I still am sometimes. Then it hit me. Once you’re being (constantly) copied, then there’s something about your work that’s just special.

I first noticed it when I published a new design on my social media page. A few weeks later, a surprisingly and extremely similar design was created for a client. The client was not mine and I did not create the former.

I then started to notice NANNKA’s identity being copied. How NANNKA’s thinking and content creation is being used in a slightly different format to fit in with the competitors’ ‘brand’. One question that comes to mind now is, does that make it their brand or mine?
How many brands have I created without knowing?

And for that, I am proud to have work that wiggles itself into their minds and sticks so much that for them to get it out would be for them to use it in their work. Yes, you’re being copied, I tell myself, but you are also the source of inspiration. Bittersweet, I guess.

Nonetheless, that’s definitely a chapeau moment for a persevering freelance graphic designer, don’t you think?

Deal with it with the utmost humbled gratification.