we're about two months away from the national stationery show and i made the mistake of looking at the NSS2018 hashtag only to discover a design idea i released in 2015 prominently featured among the most recent posts. but it wasn't my design... it was someone else's image with my concept.
so immediately my heart sank ... #1, self doubt, is my idea so basic that lots of people thought of it too? ... #2, invisibility issues, since my brand is still pretty much unknown as fuck, are people going to find this other person's design first and think i copied their stuff? ... #3, business fear, are they going to be more successful than i am with my own dumb idea?
anyway, i'm trying not to be too bummed about this. it's a 3 year old idea of mine... it's a now very trendy creature... it is certainly not god's gift to the greeting card industry. it may have been low hanging fruit... but damn!
how do you deal with this feeling? my decision is to whine for a second on my blog that no one reads and just keep making stuff because i love making stuff. i know i didn't copy this person's design. i looked at their products and since they appear to make 100% animal pun items, i don't think they copied my design either. i think maybe it's just a concept that's out there like pineapples and unicorns and fucking monstera leaves. and i can't help what other people think. i can challenge myself to create more things that are uniquely my own which is something i've definitely been doing as my art has evolved over the past few years.
here's my design by the way. i'm not going to link to the other person's because i don't want to imply that they did copy me... but... picture a narwhal taking up the same space and facing the same direction on a card but surfing and the text says "have a gnarly birthday." not identical. but not too far off.
