I’ve started to get bigger and bigger clients. I always draw unique artwork and I research my designs carefully but the world is a big place and I’m worried I might pitch a concept or design that exists out there already without knowing about it. How do I avoid this? It seems tricky especially when the client wants a very popular or generic idea drawn. Is it the client’s job to research all potential designs that are out there or is it mine? the art director? or is it everyone’s job?

dearartdirector:

There’s only so many ideas, and no matter what you think up, some aspect of it will have been done before. If you start from an original place and accidentally have a lot in common with a piece that has already been done people can always tell the differences. HOWEVER people can always tell when you’ve started from copying something else then just “changed it enough” to make it yours. The bones are obvious. 

A good example is these Star Wars posters. The idea of having a painted figure/scene inside type has been done a hundred thousand times. But there’s no way you’d end up at the same font, the same parchment background, and the same coloration to the images if you hadn’t started from the originals. Inspiration is great. But the trick is to be inspired by more than one thing at a time. That will always save you from copying too closely. Here’s a good example of how inspirations should work.

And beware, clients will want you to copy things they have seen all the time. Always try to explain that you can be inspired by something, you can’t outright copy it, or the internet will always know. Pitch it not as you refusing to do the work they want, but as you being an educated artist who is trying to save the client from scandal. Break down with them what they like about the piece they want you to copy, then make a piece that solves the same problems in a different way.

So no, don’t worry if you genuinely stumble on the same ideas as a piece before — there will always be enough differences in style and execution to tell the difference. But beware looking too closely at too few pieces of inspiration for a piece, because that’s when you get in trouble, and it’ll be your reputation on the line.

—Agent KillFee