I recently came across an article on Web designer depot called “Great Designers Steal?” and it got me thinking. Are designers really just thieves in disguise? Are we that incapable of artistic inspiration that we have to constantly copy and reuse other people’s work? I’d like to think different but the reality is a lot of it is actually true. And that REALLY grinds my gears!

It’s clear that designers, especially web designers, are expected to work like creative machines, spewing out great work day after day. Which, of course, is a lot of horse shit. We’re not superhuman. No one designer can say otherwise, lest he become a complete hypocrite and a condescending asshole. In this context, checking for inspiration, and I mean REAL inspiration, not stealing of copying, is more than acceptable, it’s a time-saver and a way to keep doing what you do.

Here’s something a bunch of the great designer bloggers forget about: most designers work in the corporate world, not freelance. According to the awesome survey by A List Apart, in 2008 71.7% of us work corporate versus the 28.3 % freelance. What matters to employers of the 71.7 % aforementioned is time. We all know time is money, but in the freelance world, this applies less than in the corporate sphere. And this time translates to us, designers, into 8-16 hours for each design. That may seem enormously little time for a full time freelancer, and I agree, it’s not fair, not for the client and not for the designer, but it is fair to the company you work for. So we make due with what we have.

In those 8-16 hours we manage to research the scope of the design, find inspiration, gather resources, plan the look and feel, behavior and experience of the website. Oh, yeah, and also to actually design the thing! In these situations, I forgive no man telling me that checking out design galleries is bad for your mojo. Screw you, freelance boy! When did you have 5 hours for an entire design? Mind you, one that came with acclaim from both peers and client? I have as little respect for these self-righteous, head-in-the-clouds freelancers as I have for “designers” that work 2 hours/design. You read it right. I know of such a situation. That’s 4 websites a day. Do I agree with this kind of practice? No.

I don’t even agree with the 8-16 hours designs, but I look at those as a challenge. A sort of 100m sprint for an athlete. Can I do it? Sometimes I fail and the design comes out less than awesome, sure, but don’t we all, sometimes? The point of the exercise is to be able to spark that creative fire at command and at lightning speed. It’s an exercise that has helped me as a designer more than anything. And I can take this work-horse exercise to the freelance part of my job and fire up that creative storm in my head whenever it is needed.

Stealing, copying? No. Of course nobody agrees to this and the article on Webdesignerdepot nails that proper.

But what about being inspired by others? That’s a way of passively bouncing ideas from one to another, as long as you keep this in mind: bring your own addition, your input and ideas to the object of your inspiration. Inspiration is not another word for Copy/Paste. It’s a way to create a better designed web, a tool which, if used properly, can and will advance you as a designer, as an artist and ultimately, as a human being.

So I say stop stealing, stop copying and be inspired. BY EVERYTHING!!!