It’s often claimed that “imitation is the highest form of flattery”. You also hear designers say “Good designers copy. Great designers steal”, a slight variation of the famous quote “Good artists copy, great artists steal” claimed to be uttered by the renowned artist Pablo Picasso.
WordPressThemex.com is a new commercial WordPres theme shop which has quite clearly copied the designs of ElegantThemes.com and ThemeFuse.com as you can see in the screenshots below.
What do you think about the WordPressThemex design? Is it a copy? Is it okay for designers to copy and steal?
It is OK to get inspired, to take an idea and make it better, but when you copy/paste whole images, backgrounds, colors, fonts, buttons, etc., then this is no longer “designing”, this is blatant stealing.
Yeah, if you can take the idea and use for inspiration, it’s okay. But copy the whole concept is a crime. Not only people will stay away from you, but also they will boycott you. They know which is the real design, and which is just a copycat.
Seeing a store design like that makes me wonder where did the themes they’re selling come from?
They’re are Apples out there and there are Samsungs too.
They have a sales copy structure & font like elegant themes, orange in the
Logo like themefuse and a similar background…
I can think of hundreds of companies that share these types of similarities..
Sounds like you’ve got more of a personal vendetta then a solid alegation..
People do what sells.. Trends occur and similarities will be spotted anywhere and everywhere… My iphone is similar to other touch phones…
In both size, shape and design…
I have designer clothing that feature many similarities in style, size and even printed graphics..
Your site has a white background and features a magazine style structure… How many sites look similar to yours?
Also, i could point out quickly that studiopress & organic themes are very similar in structure to.
So yeah… They might be similar but
If you look close or invest an effort into looking for similarities in themes or websites, you’ll need to start making alot
Of these posts.
And this blog’s theme should be posted as well, since it’s a 2 column layout and the structure are mostly similar to probably hundreds of design out there. I’m agree with Jason huges, not sure why you posted this.
@ Jason
What similarities are there in the StudioPress and Organic Themes websites? I don’t see any.
We don’t know WordPressThemex and have absolutely nothing against them. We also didn’t say they are either right or wrong. We are merely making an observation and posing some questions.
@ Bill I’m not really an Apple fan, and actually prefer my Samsung Android Smartphone 🙂
The similarities i pointed out where in relation to structure. Elegantthemes has an almost “sales copy” type of vibe to it.. Even the
Inside pages are structured to sell, it is brilliant from a business perspective and something i havent seen used in a
Theme store ever before.. They set a new “fashion” or “trend” in this
Industry and people are going to follow this trend, it would be stupid not to..
I believe no idea is original.. I think everything
Is just being reinvented in someway, that is why we
Can find similarities everywhere we look.. To say everyone is copying eachother is silly.. And negitive.. Even if themex was soley inspired by both elegantthemes and themefuse.. The result is a hybrid and is still technically original because it reflects a combination of two amazing styles mixed together – resulting in something new.. Just like how apple was “inspired” by the touchscreen and inspired by the mobile device.. Combining these two ideas created by other people gave birth
To something new, original & unique.
Thank god they did. I love my iphone, without it i wouldnt by typing this right now!
Also, if themex did combine these juggernauts into one new style, they
Offer a unique mixture of two great theme providers to the
Market, perhaps something the market needs and people will want that they just cant get from just one of these other stores.
I personally dont see “stealing” or “copying” going
On, i see ideas no more similar then i do everywhere
Else.
I personally like it! Just my two cents.
Considering all the factors with this website, they are not here to last:
1. They have “wordpress” in their domain name, something that every WP developer knows is frowned upon. You are NOT allowed to have the word “wordpress” in your domain name.
2. The design is a complete ripoff (at the moment of writing this, they have removed the stolen background graphic from ThemeFuse). They have also changed the colors on their buttons, as to distance themselves from ElegantThemes colors.
3. ElegantThemes uses this for their main heading on the homepage:
#site-description h1 {
color: #454545;
font-size: 48px;
font-family: ‘Goudy Bookletter 1911’, Georgia, serif;
}
ThemeX uses this:
.welcome-message-inner h1 {
color: #454545;
font-size: 48px;
font-family: ‘Goudy Bookletter 1911’, serif;
}
Do I have to add anything else? I do understand using a standard combination like Arial 20px, but a custom font of the exact color and size, come on…
It is offensive to claim any originality in this.
4. “Find Out Why Thousands Of Happy People Are Using Themex WordPress Themes.”
There are 4 support topics in the forum.
———
I am not calling out anyone, I don’t care much who is behind this. I’m just saying that with a start like this, you won’t get much respect from your fellow developers.
The copy doesn’t look very honest and trustworthy, nor does their lack of an “About us” page, so it most likely is a one-man operation.
And claiming that the shop will release “up to 5 new themes every month.”, when even your very own shop theme is a ripoff, well… nothing fishy about that.
Don’t know if this ‘venture’ at this point deserves more attention than it already got.
Good luck to the guy(s) behind it.
That’s just horrible. You shouldn’t give these people free traffic by talking about them.
Looks like ThemeX took this to heart – Their site has been down for the last several days and now, behold, their new site http://wordpressthemex.com/
Whether you are a web designer or an artist in a specific field, you sometimes just can’t avoid copying or stealing someone else’s work – it just happens unconsciously.
However, if you are going to rip someone off with a clear intention, then you should do it as subtly as possible, and hey, it just might turn out to be an original if you hide the similarities enough.