3 ms·

This is clearly an egregious case of design theft, particularly considering the fact that they're actually linking to assets off the Highrise site. But at the

This is clearly an egregious case of design theft, particularly considering the fact that they're actually linking to assets off the Highrise site. But at the risk of opening myself up to an absolute shit hurricane, I'm curious where my site would fall on the Highrise design theft scale: http://www.powerplayforsalesforce.com http://www.powerplayforsalesforce.com. Personally I think it's fine, but it's also obvious that I read 37signals' post a while back re: their a/b testing and thought to myself: Hey, that's a great idea! Instead of doing a long form like everyone else, let's blow up a picture of a guy (me) on the left, put a video in the middle, and put some bullet points to the right with a signup button on bottom. Short and to the point, and incidentally, a technique that's been in use by print advertising since the beginning of print advertising. So where exactly is the line? (and I'm asking because I'm truly curious if I've crossed it) 3 bullet points about your product is nothing new. The smiling guy you can relate to with a testimonial isn't new. Some screenshots or a product video above the fold isn't new. But I certainly wouldn't give myself a ton of credit for originality in landing page design. I guess I could put the guy on the right and bullet points to the left. I could move the signup bottom. I could have more content in my footer. How do you take the general concept and produce something that doesn't look like something of a rip off? Personally, I have a lot of respect for what 37Signals has achieved over the years. So while I certainly want to learn from their mistakes and successes, I certainly don't want to be accused of being a scumbag design thief. Any thoughts?

sixQuarks 15y ago
Looks like you photoshopped your face onto someone else's body.
- dave_sullivan 15y ago
  You're half right. Although this will make me sound like an absolute narcissist, I needed a haircut when I took the pic, so I photoshopped my twitter pic onto my own body rather than get a haircut and retake a bunch of pictures.
  - aaronblohowiak 15y ago
    The left side of your chin's shading is too drastically different from your neck, which messes with the perception of a light source, causing
ams6110 15y ago
a technique that's been in use by print advertising since the beginning of print advertising Making a web page look like a print ad is not a concept that I think 37signals would make any claim of ownership on, even if they were the first to do it (which I doubt, but don't know). I do know that people have been putting random stock photos of reasonable attractive people on web pages for a long time, for no apparent reason other than it must make the page seem more "friendly" to the average user. By the way have your shirt pressed for your next photo. Just a suggestion.
- dave_sullivan 15y ago
  I think the big difference, and what I think works well, is most sites I've seen do the stock photo thing as an accent (microphone girls anyone?) and it rarely works well imo. What I liked about 37 signals version is putting someone approachable and friendly--someone from their target market in particular--front and center and blown up. Again, often used in print, but first I'd seen it done well on web. And that's good, sounds like no points for originality, photoshop doctoring, or ironing shirts, but at least I'm not a total scumbag design thief. I can sleep at night :-)

sixQuarks 15y ago

Looks like you photoshopped your face onto someone else's body.

dave_sullivan 15y ago
You're half right. Although this will make me sound like an absolute narcissist, I needed a haircut when I took the pic, so I photoshopped my twitter pic onto my own body rather than get a haircut and retake a bunch of pictures.
- aaronblohowiak 15y ago
  The left side of your chin's shading is too drastically different from your neck, which messes with the perception of a light source, causing

ams6110 15y ago

a technique that's been in use by print advertising since the beginning of print advertising Making a web page look like a print ad is not a concept that I think 37signals would make any claim of ownership on, even if they were the first to do it (which I doubt, but don't know). I do know that people have been putting random stock photos of reasonable attractive people on web pages for a long time, for no apparent reason other than it must make the page seem more "friendly" to the average user. By the way have your shirt pressed for your next photo. Just a suggestion.

dave_sullivan 15y ago
I think the big difference, and what I think works well, is most sites I've seen do the stock photo thing as an accent (microphone girls anyone?) and it rarely works well imo. What I liked about 37 signals version is putting someone approachable and friendly--someone from their target market in particular--front and center and blown up. Again, often used in print, but first I'd seen it done well on web. And that's good, sounds like no points for originality, photoshop doctoring, or ironing shirts, but at least I'm not a total scumbag design thief. I can sleep at night :-)