Over the last two weeks this has happened to me two different times.

The Good Idea

We recently landed a client in the residential development industry. Before we put together a proposal for her, my team spent a lot of time researching other companies like her's in the industry: finding out what other sites look like, what elements we need to incorporate it, and how would we create such designs without using Flash (Flash doesn't work with Apple products). After awarding Zenn Media the deal, the client sent us some phenomenal designs that she created and she asked us to incorporate into her new website. The designs looked fantastic and we were even more excited to work with such a youthful and cutting-edge company. It was only a couple of days after that I was looking through websites and saw that design again - on a competitor's website.

Today was the second time this incident happened. A little while back we were working with a prospective client to win their business. We were so excited to work with this client, we went above what we typically do for any prospect, which included taking time to photograph their products, creating some mock up designs and coming up with a list of new URLs that would really make their company name pop. After presenting our ideas to them, it was like being on 3 great dates and never hearing from the guy again. "It's not you, it's me" and "I just don't have a lot of time to devote to a relationship right now". But there, a few months later, were the designs we made for the client, now as a full-page ad in a Calgary magazine. I was choked!

Same, Same but Different

After taking some time to look at what we created our prospective client and the ad that was in the magazine, it was clear that although the concept was the same (and they did take one of the URLs that we listed for them), there was enough different there that we could not assume the idea was stolen. In the case of our new client with her design on her competitor's URL, the area is much less greyer, but still grey. The design looked similar, but was enough different that it could be "coincidence". Here's the thing: idea are just that - anyone can have them and spread them and sometimes it's worth fighting for and sometimes it's not. I don't know if our client ended up approaching her competitor, but I know that we're not going to approach our once prospective client.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

I decided to be flattered that our idea looked so good to the client that they decided to incorporate the concept into their own design. I feel flattered that we could create such an impactful piece, that it was used as a template for their design. After all, the hope is that once the creative juices stop flowing that bad date does decide to call us back - but only if we take him.