Battle against imitation

In the light of the recent Herman Miller triumph I have reason to post about the topic of imitation again, so I am. When I was at art school, my teachers, practical and theoretical all strongly believed and taught us that there is a difference between art imitating nature and art imitating art. In the case of producing art that imitates art, they taught us that unless you give credit where credit is due you are misleading your audience and prospective buyers, infringing on the copyright act and quite possibly infringing on an artist or designers intellectual property. The battle against imitation within our art and design culture is frustrating to say the least but kudos to Herman Miller for standing up for authentic design.

Below are images of our original Lump Designs that are most popular with the imitators.