With all the brouhaha over logos and designer’s fees, I’m surprised there isn’t a greater force out there advocating open source design similar to open source software. Lots of programmers spend their precious free time writing quality software and distribute freely under a license. This license basically says: use it, copy it, modify it, even make make money off it as long as you didn’t claim to create it and any changes you make are made public for others to improve upon. This idea can be adapted to design; it probably isn’t new, but it’s radical the traditional way of thinking. Will it hurt designers and take away business? Not necessarily. Open source software isn’t crippling commercial software. Could it be revolutionary? You betcha! But not if we stick with the “I and only I own the rights” and “pay me for my services” mentality. If you don’t want to participate, don’t. If you think it’ll destroy the market, well, it’s regrattable that you think that way.If this idea is a miserable failure and this thread gets no replies, then it’s a shame that we could miss out on a great opprotunity.
Lets hear your arguments and flame away, I have a hose ready.
To get us started I present this public domain design: the circle
“Software is like sex: It’s better when it’s free."
Linus Torvalds (Creator of Linux).
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