Inspiration

Over the years, I’ve seen my work ‘inspire’ others in lots of ways: everything from design work to copy, uncredited research and lots of other examples. Some of these are more obvious than others, but they were all unmistakable for one reason or another.

Wherever the line is on inspiration and plagiarism, these incidents cause me to reflect on my own practice. It’s not always possible to give clear in-situ credit: I’ve generally done my best to credit ideas and work wherever I can, but I can do better.

Things I’ve failed to previously properly acknowledge include:

• Project collaborators on my work portfolio (developers, animators, copywriters)
• Self-Aware’s every project they ever charged for that inspired my project duration table
• Trine Falbe, Martin Michael Frederiksen and Kim Andersen’s Ethical Design Handbook for their phrase connecting sustainability to user privacy practices

These omissions have mostly been down to practical roadblocks, but they’re things I want to rectify.

Transparency is a key part of the work I do and the way I run my business – striving to relentlessly give credit feels like something that should be a key aspect of that.