There is nothing new under the sun. It’s true, and no big brilliant idea ever thought up has ever skipped over countless millions of people before us. The technology of today may allow for more of those ideas and practices to be practical, but the ideas themselves are not new. There’s always been a desire to tell many people the same thing at one time, but before e-mail, it wasn’t practical to try.

There is a difference, however, between doing something that someone else had done before, and doing something because someone else has done it before. Especially in design.

It’s no secret that every designer has a whole slew of tricks up his or her sleeve that helps him or her come up with “great ideas”. The lines between outright plagiarism and “borrowing” other ideas are taught, but blurry. VERY blurry. Churches look to other churches, businesses look to other businesses, designers look to other designers for “inspiration”.

The question I have is…even though there’s nothing new under the sun, aren’t designers and communicators responsible for at least trying to fin