Hi there, welcome to Tshirthelpdesk.com!
My name is Gary. I have been working as a brand graphic designer for 20 years now, and I am here to share my wealth of knowledge with you. I teach people how to design, market, and promote their t-shirt business.
Should you ever copy someone else’s design?
Now, If I get a dollar for every time someone I’ve been asked by someone about how they can stop other people from stealing their designs, then I would have been at least a thousandaire!
But this blog is about whether or not you should you be stealing designs from other people.
The answer is maybe, and it can be done!
I know that this is not something that you want to hear, but let me explain this to you!
Should you just outright take someone’s design and do the same word, font, and same everything?
No!
But, if something is working in the market, should you do an interpolation or an interpretation of the same design?
Yes!
As a matter of fact, as a person who has worked with many companies in the apparel and the fashion industry for a better part of 20 years, I can say that not only does it happen, but it is encouraged, and these companies would fly us all over the globe to buy stuff and bring it back to the office, only to copy the designs of these imported items.
Alright, so this is a part of all businesses, and let me explain this to you
with an example:
First, Toyota came out with the Corolla, then Honda came out with the Civic.
The main point here is that these companies have copied the primary idea of launching a product in the same segment. Similarly, it’s reminiscent of when the Blackberry device came out, and they were killing the game. Then, a few years later, the iPhone came out, and they pretty much put blackberry out of business, and now Samsung has come out in more recent years.
So, copying is the way of the world, and it’s the way of business!
The main question here is that can you ethically/morally copy and do an interpolation of something that is already out in the market.
Now, let me show you something.
This is a service called Merch Informer, and it is a fantastic service where you can see everything that is happening on Merch by Amazon. 
It is a great tool for learning! Let me show you something:
This design is called Gobble Til You Wobble, and this is selling on Amazon.com.
Here’s another one:
Now, both of these designs look way too similar, even though they are not the same. If I did the first design, then I would report to amazon to take this t-shirt down, because this is just blatant stealing.
Let me show you another one:
This design shows a turkey holding up a sign, which reads: “Eat Pizza”. That’s cute, and it targets people who don’t like turkey, or they just want pizza instead.
Now, look at this one:
It says: “Pizza Instead?”, and this is a different art style, there is no sign, and the turkey is holding a pizza box.
Now, this is different than the “Eat Pizza” t-shirt, but it is saying the same thing, but the interpretation is different.
So, this is technically the best way to copy and create styles for t-shirt designs, because while it falls in the same vein per se, it is done differently.
Hence, don’t just copy some text with the same font, and the same looking turkey. Also, this is not only for the thanksgiving stuff, but it is across the border and can be sold throughout the year.
So, I hope this makes it clear to you!
Also, if you want to get some high-quality designs created, then I strongly suggest that you should check out DesignCrowd.com.
They have designs from all over the globe that are waiting to do your artwork for a fair price.
Final verdict:
So, this was my blog that explains to you how you can morally and ethically “copy” someone’s design without straight-up stealing it, and where you can do a different interpretation, interpolation.
So, I hope that you got something out of this, and that it helps in clearing your mind up, because copying is the way of doing business in this world, and it is never going anywhere.
So, that’s all I have for you (for now)!
Cheers to your t-shirts!
