━ what is plagiarism and inspiration

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

here's is my short meaning of what plagiarism and inspiration means:

plagiarism: pretending to own an exisiting idea or graphic or style as your own with no credit. or stealing someone's work and removing their watermark.

inspiration: there should be credit if you borrow someone's ideas and not copy the whole look. You're taking inspiration from borrowing similar elements and creating it as your own work.

it's pretty difficult to define what plagiarism and inspiration is as a graphic designer or as an artist.

most the time plagiarism occurs if:

- stealing a work (through screenshot or downloading the original work), maybe adding text and removing the original owner's watermark while claiming it as their own

- copying someone's graphic by copying their original ideas or styles which ends up looking as a knock-off and claiming it as their own

- recreating an original work with the same resources, look and everything and claiming it as their own

you will see that most of occurrence i mention involve a similar aspect of "claiming a work as their own" it's pretty obvious once someone knows who's the original owner if someone do plagiarised. 

how do you avoid plagiarism? just don't steal or copy and give proper credit if you're inspired by someone's ideas through borrowing similar elements and creating it as your own work. its 100% okay to be inspired but focus how to incorporate your own idea and understand what inspiration and plagiarism is. however no one should ever rely on "being inspired" all the time, we should all think creatively and try our best to create our own style at one point. for example if someone says "highly inspired from the lovely _____ <3" even though they very much copied the person work from head to toe by saying who you're inspired from is not an excuse to avoid plagiarism. 

overall if there are any obvious similarity of the works of others that you obviously was inspired from, you should certainly indicate the reference and give credit. It's important to have you own sense of creativity and originality so refrain from obviously making a graphic the same as someone's and claiming it as your own originality.

I know it may be hard to find you own styles but remember everyone started somewhere. I think i said this alot before but i highly suggest experimenting and practising. it's painful already when i see people obviously copying other's editors styles with no credit and claiming it was their "original idea". I already experienced some cases where people actually copy specific styles of my covers and claiming it was their own idea when other people compliment them for the nice covers and makes me feel shit and im sure no one else would like to have that feeling.

i know that most people think there is inspiration everywhere from a book, movie, a model pose and etc and why should we care about this issue but mainly i am focusing on other graphic designer's work. Admiring your fellow graphic designer's work and practicing the style is fine and all, but what makes the popular stands out is their unique styles and techniques, so it's always best to get to the level where you can develop your own. At the end of the day you want to be known for YOUR work not for being a look a like so avoid stealing an idea and always try to credit for any inspiration.

in conclusion, it's best to avoid copying someone's work and just stick to finding your own styles and always remember to give credit if you're inspired by someone even if they are outside wattpad like youtube, deviantart, twitter and etc.