Stealing Design, Copying of Other People’s Work

Recently, I stumbled upon a site belonging to an individual (www.xomox.cn) and discovered that my entire design portfolio has been stolen and copied word for word, to use as his own. I don’t think anyone has ever experienced this kind of blatant infringement before. I knew him long ago in New York City through a girlfriend as she was dating him. Let’s just say this has never been someone that I trusted, although we were in the same field of graphic design, I had advised him on many design and career path matters. Almost 10 years later, I discovered that he stole my work – he’s located in China so I can’t really pursue this legally (or could I?). He was wishing that I would never find out but it’s the web, so you can find anything. I called him and he promptly took it down, realizing that he’s in for a lot of legal drama. His explanation was that “my hard drive is down and I had to show my prospective clients some inspiration of work so I just borrowed yours and was going to call you for permission and now that we are clear, can I borrow your piece on Ann Taylor just to show my client that this is the direction I want to pursue?”. (As if I should be flattered) No, this guy didn’t credit my name, the companies I worked for. Even the project description and sizes of images are identical.

The images below show MY work on the left column, and his exact replica on the right. On his client list he listed all my clients verbatim.  They are completely identical. How can we protect our work so this doesn’t happen?

I hope this never happens to any designer out there.

jennyng.com (owner) vs. xomox.cn (copier)

A Long While

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted to this site. That’s because I’ve been busy blogging about animal advocacy. Not that people really visit Life + Design, not getting that much traffic anyway. But if you’d like to see more, let me know. I’ll continue to add a post here and there about great design and art. My priorities has just been elsewhere lately.

Lucky Ugly

It saddens me to see the new redesign of Lucky.com. I was just starting to lose interest in the ever bombarding you with expensive shopping print publication, and thought maybe the online experience would be easier to navigate, so this is disappointing. The site lacks structure, hierarchy, elegance and screams at you from all directions, not that the previous version was that much better. www.luckymag.com

London is Burning: Olympic Logo Under Fire

So there you have it, UK’s Olympic 2012 logo designed by Wolff-Olins. It’s universally rejected. As a designer, it’s my duty to evaluate with a fair and balanced view. Sure, it looks kind of old school retro, a bit unbalanced, awful color choices, and even a bit childish. Ok ok it’s ugly. HOWEVER, it is British, it has a certain explosive energy. The concept is sound but the execution can be much improved by a designer with a keen eye for sophistication (clean up the shape, better fonts, colors, etc.) But who cares what designers think?!

If the world hates it, the world shall get another logo. Afterall, the Olympics is about the world.

Design 21: Social Design Network

Design 21 has redesigned its site to include a smarter web 2.0 user experience. Users (designers, artists, etc.) can now upload a full profile and small portfolio, start a blog and engage with the design community. The network does great work promoting important social issues through responsible design, backed by UNESCO and sponsored by Felissimo New York. Check out the site here.

Humane Index – How we rank

The Humane Society of United States launched an exceptional website showing how cities around the US compare in animal and humane issues. New York ranked 12 out of 25, but San Francisco is number 1. The site is wonderfully interactive and robust with info on these cities and provide resources on how we can take action and simply become more informed about these important issues. Visit site

How Cool Are You?

Check out this popular site created by Josh Rubin—Coolhunting.com. Want to be on the up and up on all things cool (not trendy, that’s so mainstream!)? I also work with these guys at Bond Art and Science. Great content.

Delicious Illustration

By Autumn Whitehurst – Truly unique and sexy stylistic rendering done in adobe photoshop, not illustrator.

After These Messages

I’m freelancing at an agency that focuses on environmental and responsible advertising/marketing. Check out their open forum on the latest ads. Sign up and share your opinion on how ads contribute (or not) to our world. Link

Introducing DesignOutreach

I am pleased to announce the launch of my new company “DesignOutreach“. The official site goes live in January 2007. DesignOutreach is a design company that will be serving exclusively nonprofit arts organizations in the Asian American arts community. Please spread the word to someone who would be interested!