# Strikingly similar designs between two VERY prominent designers...?
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527
**Category:** random
**Created:** [August 28, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527 "2004-08-28T20:13:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kristopher](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Kristopher)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/1 "2004-08-28T20:13:18Z")
Take a look at these two designs. They look remarkably similar. Both are designs from two very successfull, very popular, and very distinguished designers in the CSS world.
[Exhibit A](http://voisen.org/) \<- Weblog for Sean Voisen.
[Exhibit B \<- A submission to CSS Zen Garden by Didier Hilhorst. Didier is co-author of [url=“http://www.superfluousbanter.com”]www.superfluousbanter.com](http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=035%2F035%2Ecss).
Just curious as to who inspired whom…
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/2 "2004-08-28T20:38:07Z")
Oops - I clicked the wrong link earlier. Hmm…those are similar, but aren’t most blogs similar anyway 😉
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/3 "2004-08-28T20:48:42Z")
The colors schemes are similar but not the designs…
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/4 "2004-08-28T21:18:48Z")
so what? like Kman said, blog’s all look real similar 🙂
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/5 "2004-08-28T21:48:45Z")
Also, CSS Zen Garden allows user submissions of styles, so there are various designs from other well-known CSS designers: [http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/](http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/)
While I can’t find the style you posted in that list, I can’t say I looked really hard either 😉
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/6 "2004-08-28T22:38:50Z")
CZZ zen garden is a cool site! I’ve never seen it before. You can just take their CSS code and make a website in a few minutes.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/7 "2004-08-29T00:31:08Z")
i see no real similarity. as K said, its a blog… and most look the same. plus, #1 has a very ‘pixel-font’-y kind of feel to it. #2 feels more contemporary - sans-serif fonts, etc…
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/8 "2004-08-29T00:42:28Z")
I do see the similarity in their banners how they do the light color, then a thin line with a darker shade and finally another section with the darkest shade of the color. And they both have the same repeating background but since their layouts aren’t similar I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/9 "2004-08-29T14:11:54Z")
- matching style of headers
- exact same patterned background
- matching bullets
- same orange subheader
- nav boxes are constructed the same and have the same white borders
- same body font
I dunno, just a few of the similarities I noticed. (And now that I ponder this…-\>) To be honest, CSS Zen Garden is a place to show great CSS. Sean’s site is great CSS. Consequently, I have a feeling they are similar on purpose because Didier wanted to show what Sean’s site is all about.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/10 "2004-08-30T00:46:21Z")
yeah just the colour schemes are similar… thats all…
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/11 "2004-08-30T15:01:29Z")
They are similar but not really a copy, IMO of course. Also, they are both great looking sites. I really like the simplicity of them… awesome.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2004, 10:30pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/12 "2004-09-30T22:30:15Z")
> [@NeoDreamer](#):
>
> CZZ zen garden is a cool site! I’ve never seen it before. You can just take their CSS code and make a website in a few minutes.
You can’t simply use their css to make your site. That’s copying their code illegally. It’s simply a showcase of what css can do.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/13 "2004-10-01T19:53:59Z")
I’m pretty sure they let you use part’s of the code for your own sake. just copying the design/graphics is what’s illegal…
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/14 "2004-10-01T20:03:09Z")
That first link is not working. I got some Apache test page?
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/15 "2004-10-02T02:01:10Z")
you can use their code examples to learn from, but you can’t simply use the same replicate like all the code…
indeed it’s a delicate balence, with no real point where it’s ripping. There was an intersting post about this a long time ago on mezzoblue where he had an image that he slowly changed over seven steps to something completely different. Then he started a discussion over which image was no longer ripping the original.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/16 "2004-10-02T02:33:40Z")
Um, I’m VERY confused. The first link is for something called TriPrism and it’s an ugly rip of [Apple.com](http://Apple.com), the second one looks totally different… but looks awesome.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/17 "2004-10-02T02:40:46Z")
The first link used to look a lot different. I think the site designer changed it or something…
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/18 "2004-10-02T02:41:34Z")
I get the same thing Ishi… I am very confused. Unless they realized they were ‘found out’ or something. I don’t know.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/19 "2004-10-02T06:25:03Z")
I am still getting the same thing as I always have… no difference here 😜
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/strikingly-similar-designs-between-two-very-prominent-designers/62527/20 "2004-10-03T06:38:04Z")
ok NOW they look very much alike.
I would say CSS Zen Garden came first considering it looks much more complete.
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