The Pot Calling The Kettle...
April 21, 2005 | 
32 Comments
So, Garrett thinks I ripped off Khoi eh? From what “dark corner” did that come from? Maybe he’s just jealous? I don’t profess to have the most original design ever, but it’s mine and it works.
Umm, yeah. This coming from someone who’s got an obvious infatuation with Signal vs. Noise. I mean come on? Could there be a more blatant rip-off? Let’s take a look at 2 (of many) comparisons.
First lets go with his headlines:
Next up, look at this use of whitespace, I mean COME ON:
I could go on, but that whitespace example pretty much shows you what I’m talking about. At least I admit my inspiration! You should give props to the 37 Signals guys and while your at it, all of y’all should give Mike Rundle his due.
F’n wannabes.
Update: It was a prank. Gotcha. :0)
Filed under: Life
Comments
1. Adam Michela said:
Yeah, all that whitespace is a dead give-a-way.
Garret is to Fried as Gates is to Jobs
;)
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:23 PM | #
2. Dale Cruse said:
Yeah! He uses WORDS on his website - just like 37Signals! I’m headed to PiratedSites.com right now!
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:23 PM | #
3. Justin Perkins said:
Definite pot calling the kettle black, it’s sad. I must’ve had about 5 or 6 different “previews” over at Garret’s site before I finally settled with my response. I almost went off, but boy am I happy about the preview feature ;)
Still, you’re showing your cool Keith (no pun intended). Those are some harsh words Garret posted.
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:37 PM | #
5. Andrew said:
No mention of his RSS button’s similarity to 37 signal? I guess in all fairness I too should mention that I’m coming out with a redesign which is very largely inspired by 37signals.
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:44 PM | #
6. Jeremy Boles said:
I heard that he even uses HTML and CSS on his website too.
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:49 PM | #
7. david gouch said:
Of course you’ll all jump to Keith’s defense, but are you sure he deserves it? Does this background look familiar?
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:50 PM | #
8. Mike D. said:
All the more reason to start using sIFR. Greatly reduces the “lack of original typography” argument.
But as for this fight… I’m staying out of it!
It does give me a new idea for the next (Now Devalued) iPod Shuffle Giveaway Contest. I’m thinking of basing it on The Contender… but for bloggers.
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:56 PM | #
9. Justin Perkins said:
That actually sounds like a defense for Keith too, because it would be insane to say that somebody can trademark a diagonol background. Kinda like trying to say that a little black box with a white border was invented by Subtraction…oh wait.
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:57 PM | #
10. Keith said:
david – Hey man, I’m pretty sure Tom must have got that from me…My design did go live 2 days earlier! LOL.
Mike – I see the point, but…original typography doesn’t always mean better. ;)
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:59 PM | #
11. Jeremy Flint said:
Wow. That sort of came out of left field. Sure, there are similarities (the nav is the only one I see), but c’mon, neither Keith nor Khoi are the first to style navigation like that.
Love the example of whitespace. Nice touch in keeping it light Keith.
Posted on April 21, 2005 01:59 PM | #
12. Garrett said:
Mike - Funny that you mention that. Had I been able to get sIFR working (only spent an hour or so trying.) The headlines would have been Frutiger.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:00 PM | #
13. Kyle Fox said:
Hahahaha….hahahahah….love the whitespace example. This is a joke right?? It’s pretty damn funny, and what’s funnier is that some people don’t get it yet.
Read between the lines people. I hope the punch line provides some edutainment as well.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:05 PM | #
14. Casey Gollan said:
Keith,
He had a haiku contest so I wrote him this (even before your observations)
“Your site looks like Sig’s vs. Noise
Its very cliche
Drop shadows and fades are in”
not sure I’m going to win though after that!
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:06 PM | #
16. Mike D. said:
It’s doesn’t always mean better - true - but to be honest, browser text headline just completely bore the hell out of me at this point. Not your site, not Garrett’s site, and not anyone else’s site in particular… just in general. We’re settling for too little. But that’s just me, and anyone is course entitled to feel differently…
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:07 PM | #
17. Adam Michela said:
Davidson: You guys get around that Firefox AdBlock problem yet?
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:10 PM | #
18. david gouch said:
Mike D.: But what happens when two people use sIFR, but they’re still using the same font? People are still going to be accused of stealing.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:10 PM | #
19. Mike D. said:
Adam: Yep, we worked with the FlashBlock guys so that their extension now gracefully degrades sIFR text to plain HTML/CSS text. It’s great. Haven’t announced it yet, but I guess this comment sort of lets the cat out of the bag.
David: True, but the chances are greatly reduced. 50 million people are using Helvetica right now, 50 million are using Georgia, and so on and so on. People use these typefaces because they don’t realize they have a choice. With sIFR, the universe of typefaces to choose from is just a ton bigger and the universe of people utilizing it is a ton smaller.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:14 PM | #
20. Justin Perkins said:
You mean this is a late April Fool’s joke?!! Tsk Tsk. It’s mean to trick the newbies, you know. It hurts our feelings.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:16 PM | #
22. Mike said:
I say steal away. Everyone copy everyone else and that way we’ll have nothing to complain about. Also, that will let the readers focus on the content of the site. Then sites with better content won’t be harmed because of bad design.
Yeah, this idea will catch on. That’s it, from now on all of my designs are going to be the same for every site I make. And the designs are all going to be copies of every other site out there. Being a web designer has never been easier.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:19 PM | #
23. Brian Fox said:
That is just funny…. Why do people have to start throwing mud? Where’s the love people? Either way, your design is NOT a rip-off IMHO.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:24 PM | #
24. david gouch said:
(I should add that, in my earlier comment, I knew Plasticbag’s restyling premiered after Keith’s. It was sarcasm without an emoticon.)
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:27 PM | #
25. B. Adam said:
The first thing I thought when I read Garret’s post was “Is that what I sometimes sound like?” I’d like to hope that I’ve never sounded that petty in one of my silly blog posts – but I think I might have.
Beginner’s mistake? Too much thinking inside a little personal bubble? Jealousy? Who knows, but being one of those on the other side it does, like several have told me before in my own somewhat negative posts, seem like an utter waste of keyboard time.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:40 PM | #
26. Colin D. Devroe said:
Umm, mine looks like Star Wars.com - but I admit it. The amount of sites on Internets now is amazing. Its been a pretty long time, errr 1995? since I’ve seen a Web site that was 100% original in its concept.
I believe it’s impossible to not be inspired by things we stare at on a daily basis.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:43 PM | #
27. Justin Perkins said:
david gouch, I picked that one up shortly after my post. I’m so tightly wound up right now, I can’t even tell what’s a joke and what’s truth. Ahhh, the deception of emotionless text.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:48 PM | #
28. Mike said:
See, now THIS is why I love weblogs. Controversy baby! Thanks for the link hug K-Style, I’ll buy you some more Patron next time we chill.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:48 PM | #
29. Garrett said:
Patron. Mmmm. I think I’ll have to get in on that. And Rundle, it never even occurred to me about your single column sweetness. Maybe it was subconscious.
Either way, some next time Patron to single column layouts.
Posted on April 21, 2005 02:52 PM | #
30. Chris K said:
I think to solve all our problems is have the government regulate the design of all sites. :)
Posted on April 22, 2005 06:11 AM | #
32. Rose said:
Has someone stolen your template design or theme, maybe your logo – if so post about them here at invision-graphics.com! Don’t let someone rip-off your site, let others know.
http://www.invision-graphics.com/forum-45.html
Posted on December 7, 2005 04:36 PM | #
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