On with the show!

Good morning! Well, we've had a few set backs, lost a couple of models and of course yesterday's SL puke. But the show will go on. I just want to take a moment to wish Thadicus Caligari and Katrina Pugilist, two of the models slated for tomorrow's show, well. I care about you guys and you will be missed tomorrow night!

Last night before I went to sleep, I was thinking about some comments I saw on another blog. In a way, I understood the blogists point of view, but in another way I was slightly disheartened. Overall, there was a central theme of not ripping off other designers, either RL or SL. And while I completely agree that you shouldn't rip of a design or a concept, I do believe you should look at what other designers are doing, copy them if you have to (we all have to learn somewhere) and learn from them. I look at what's going on in the fashion-world all of the time in both RL and SL. My designs are influenced by them and I learn things from them. I buy things that I think are cool and I try to take them apart to see how they were put together. It's the way we learn. Many of the great masters of painting were once apprentices to the great painters of their time and they learned by copying. In major art schools, the same story... it's about technique and the how to of it all.

As a graphic designer in RL, I spend a lot of time looking at things. Everything from industrial design to functional stuff like door knobs. I know, sounds nuts... but I think if you took a poll, you'd find that many other designers do the same thing. I'm always experimenting and if I see a design that I think is just wicked as hell, I copy it so that I can figure out why/how the artist did it. Why does this work? How come it looks good? What is the function of this part vs. the other part? Does it have a message and if so, does the message communicate?

I didn't mean to turn this into a rant about design or how I do it... my point is that just because a designer may be copying someone else... it's not necessarily a bad thing. BUT... there is a huge caveat; Don't go copying someone else's design and then sell it as your own! And I think that's what the point of the blog was. People, SL and RL, make money by selling things that they claim as their own.

And while I'm on the topic of selling things that aren't your own. I hate re-sell items. I have some... I bought some prim stilettos that are full copy/mod/resell, etc. I haven't sold them... haven't copied them... in fact, they're in my inventory right now gathering dust. The reason that I bought them is so that I could learn from them. I want to make shoes. I want to be able to have complete outfits that have things that go together and look good. But what I'm trying to say is that I think it's sad that talented people are out there creating these items and then selling them to other people to re-sell. I know not everyone can make things and everyone wants to find ways to make money in SL, but it just doesn't seem right. Yes... I know... capitalism is awesome and in Real Life companies like Levi Strauss make jeans and sell them wholesale to retailers who re-sell them to consumers like us. But here's the difference... the retailers can't make unlimited copies of one pair of jeans. They sell the inventory that they buy wholesale and then they go buy more from the Levi Strauss Co.

Perhaps that's my issue. You buy these items one time in SL and you can make as many copies as you want and re-sell them as many times as you want without so much as a percentage going to the original designer. All the original designer gets is the initial purchase price. Granted, sometimes those prices are quite high for full mod/copy items... but I only paid $300L for the pack of stilettos I bought. And I think I got like 6 pair!

Let's think about this... perhaps some scripting genius could create a script that limits the number of copies. That way, the original designer could have the option of placing the script with the item or not. I don't want to limit people, I just think the idea of unlimited copies after purchasing the item once so you can re-sell it is hurtful to designers. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

Please comment on this, I'm interested in hearing your opinions!

As always, have fun!

Lissa