Is this stealing or is it “inspired by”?

Furniture,Rants and Raves | May 22, 20095 Comments

Is this stealing or is it “inspired by”?

First up – this acrylic chair designed by Spectrum West. It’s icky, but the designer was really proud of it and was nice (at ICFF where I saw this). I’m not linking to his site in the hope that he won’t find this and start crying. spectrum-west-chair

Mr. Spectrum West said he designed his chair last year and went on to say that it was inspired by [insert indeciferable mumbo jumbo]. I thought hmmmm. This looks an awful lot like… lotus Artifort’s Lotus chair, which made its debut in Milan last year.

We’re all inspired by things we see around us. But is this enough of a derivation to be “new”? More importantly, should I get over my fixation on this and move on? After all, IKEA is always “reinventing” other designers’ work, and I don’t complain about it because Ikea’s versions are really affordable and I like IKEA.

Am I being fair or a bit too snarky?

Tags: Artifort, ICFF 2009, Ikea

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5 Responses to “Is this stealing or is it “inspired by”?”

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Posted by olya on May 22nd, 2009 at 8:45 pm

so they both remind me of nelson swag leg chair:
http://knockoffs.olya.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/whitechair_dwr.jpg

so i think you’re not being harsh enough on either :P

: Posted by Jennifer on May 23rd, 2009 at 7:39 am
Wow! Thanks for the link. They both look just like it. Hmmm…

Posted by olya on May 23rd, 2009 at 6:46 pm

I’m telling you, all the best stuff was already done in 1950-1960s furniture wise. We’re just copying it and either adding or reducing.

At least that’s my opinion :)

Swag leg chair is my dream chair, by the way. ONE DAY I shall own one. Until then… it sits on my desktop.

: Posted by BRV on May 24th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Snarky, NO! More Caddie and mean. If you are going to use this site as your platform to express yourself about someones designs then you own it and be proud of it instead of ( I‚Äôm not linking to his site in the hope that he won‚Äôt find this and start crying) Your giving yourself a awful lot of credit thinking your post might make a grown man cry.What I find a bit disturbing is that you are putting something like Mr Ross’s chair and comparing it to something you prefer at IKEA. I think it was a cheap shot you and that maybe you should be judging IKEA’s cheap furniture instead of Mr Ross’s chair.