Mr. Splashy Pants is an Impostor
December 5th, 2007 by TheVerve
(40 votes, average: 3.13 out of 5)
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Inspiration but not a straight rip imho
oh wow. thats just absurd. they’ve taken recycling way too far this time.
it DOEs look a bit like a ripoff but it’s for a good cause so they get the pass.
http://paidandpopular.blogspot.com
“It’s a good cause so they get a pass”? That’s stupid.
I don’t know if it’s close enough for legal recourse, but it’s still close enough for shame.
Greenpeace: “Don’t rape the earth, but go nuts rapin’ art.”
This is not even close to plagiarism. Yes, they are both whales and one can argue that the position of the mouth and eye and the exhalation are the vaguely similar, but that is just indicative of the basic whale.
Arguments against plagiarism:
The overall style is different
The shape of the tails are different (Splashypants’ is a bit more realistic)
The fins are treated much differently
Splashypants’ body is less stylized
The exhalations are treated completely differently
Compared with some of the disgustingly blatant commercial rip-off on this site, this doesn’t measure up.
not a rip if you ask me
it’s a rip-off! way too similar, and poorly executed as well. the type is hard to read.
is Green peace guilty of not hiring real designers? typical for cheap capitalists, but super-embarrassing for do-gooders.
i agree that it looks like a rip, but who is to say that they didn’t license this image? i work in business and sometimes people license old art for current uses. as long as it’s done with everyone’s agreement, everyone wins.
This is a rip-off. The greenpeace “designer” probably googled whales in the image search and found this picture and decide to make their own crappy version.
I agree with the above comment, but I really don’t think it would hold up in court. Inspired.
And what is this site FFFFound? All it really says about who they are really is: “an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!”.
I know it’s all innocent and everything, but really they’re asking for that stuff to be ripped. Not saying that the rips that come via their site are their fault, but I guess I’m saying designers should be careful about surrounding themselves with too much “inspiration”.
ffffound is AWESOME. It is a constant source for inspiration and beautiful imagery.
What anti-inspiration bollocks, I can never do with enough inspiration. It interests me, it informs me, I learn from it and also find out about cool art/photography/designers/agencies/graff writers/music from an inspiration site such as ffffound.
To say that it will promote more plagiarism is so naive. And just plain stupid.
both whales look pretty stupid. so nobody wins.
yeah fair enough anon, but i did use the words “not their fault” and “careful”.
And “inspiration” in inverted commas. As in: there’s “designers” out there who use stuff this way and call it “inspiration”, which is not cool.
I agree, the site does seem pretty cool. I never said it would promote more plagiarism, and if I gave that impression, i did not intend to.
It isn’t a total ripoff, only because the Greenpeace artist is so inferior. I am sure they TRIED very hard to rip it off.
You know, it occurs to me that while people are ranting and raving, Greenpeace and some other organizations may have actually hired the same artist or special licensed out the image. There’s a ton of jerks out there, but without actual testimony of acrimony over the theft of this image, I’m prone to think there is likely a reason for similarities. Indeed it may turn out to be that this is a rip and that Greanpeace unknowingly hired a corrupt artist, or it may turn out to be something less deviant here.
Greenpeace seem to have a new whale design they ar using instead. This one with pants on:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/whaling/great-whale-trail/mrsplashypants
There are way more copies of the old image in this Cafepress shop though: http://www.cafepress.com/thesplashypants
The Greenpeace cafepress shop seem to have a mix of both but mostly the new image: http://www.cafepress.com/greenpeace
Perhaps they get donated these designs and don’t check where they came from.
Greenpeace “may have actually hired the same artist” ??
Um no, the artist in the *original* would not likely have ruined such a wonderful illustrationas Greenpeace has done. The GP version is lifeless and looks like he’s about to be harpooned. The original actually looks like a whale who would be named “Mr Splashy Pants”!
If GP has any clue at all they would track down that original and really license it– it’s classic.
Although, the original is a rendition of a blue whale (hence the curve of its mouth, which is lost in the derivative version) while the real life Splashy Pants is a humpback whale, a whale that has a very distinctive silhouette of its own, but one that is completely different than one they used. Whoever “drew” this for them was an idiot; a humpback whale outline drawn by a real artist would be a million times better. What, GP doesn’t have a single artist in their entire organisation??
GP continues to demonstrate just how out of touch they are, I hope the whales never have to count on them.
Interesting discussion. I’m the designer at Greenpeace that did the Mister Splashy Pants design in question. We all know there are grey areas between what’s derivative, what’s original and what’s plagiarism. In this case, I can show you my actual illustrator files so you can see the evolution of Mr Splashy Pants.
The other whale illustration did influence my design. But as others have noted, I was influenced by other designs, styles, ideas and images, and the result is a amalgam of all these.
I don’t believe that what I’ve done here is anything less than what any designer does – looking outside their bubble (and yes google is useful for this) and coming up with a combination that they call their own. I don’t call that plagiarism. I call it the creative process.
THIS is what I call plagiarism:
http://www.dhadm.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/splashy.jpg
For those of you who want to do something to stop the slaughter of whales and save Mister Splashy pants, whatever he looks like, visit: http://www.greenpeace.org/greatwhaletrail
Elaine: Thanks for being honest. And I shall be honest with you.
Your version of the whale does nothing for me. It dosen’t inspire me to save whales or donate money. However, the original has MAGIC and makes me want
to save the whales and kick down a few bucks due to the cute graphic.
If you would have created something special from scratch without so much inspiration from GOOGLE maybe it would have magic. It isn’t easy to create graphics that move people and that is why so many artists get copied or borrowed from. I feel that you used the original as a templet and changed everything just enough to make it your own but I don’t call that being creative.
What would the whales think?
Elaine, thank you so much for posting here, that took courage!
Arkonby has it right. The differences are significant. This isn’t a ripoff.
Susie, what I think the whales would think would be this: “Umm, hello!!! We’re about to be harpooned! Do you think we really care about how we’re depicted?”
Obvious homage and shame on any losers who thought otherwise.
Design Wants to be Free!
Adbusters
Elaine, you copied.
Your placement of mouth on the whale, the line flow of the mouth in relation to the whale’s snout, the direction in which the eye is pointing and where it is placed is nearly identical to the original art. No other illo I searched up on Google placed the mouth line where you two did.
Also, both of you gave your whale a “shark” tale with the bottom part of the fin extending out farther than the top of the fin. (Whale tails are flat in the water like an orca, or a dolphin, whereas fish or shark tails are straight up and down. you would know that because you would have searched up references of a whale since the client was Greenpeace.)
Elaine, even the campaign name, “Splashy Pants” seems quite reminiscent of ” SpongeBob SquarePants.”
I dont see it. Yes they both are whales they both look somewhat the same but changed enough to make it different. Maybe they did base their idea off of the other but its different enough.
DamnSkippy, is your opinion that if someone takes an original piece of art and simply alters it that the plagiarism suddenly is null and void?
I disagree.
Elaine, you should be ashamed of yourself. You created a design that blatantly copies somebody else’s work without permission. Maybe you should go back to design school and take “Don’t Copy Other People’s Art Wholesale 101″ again.
Too close for comfort.
Well you can see on FFFound that this pic was found on 7chan.
In case you don’t know the chans, they are anonymous imgboards where stuff from the entire internets might or might not appear.
So FFFound containing this Image via 7chan says nothing of it’s origion.
@Elaine
No that’s satire not plagiarism.
for a good cause? the artist didnt care about the “cause” he/she got paid regardless… this is a blatant rip.
I don’t quite understand how people think they can get away with stuff like that.