Look Same

Look Same is a design principle and phenomenon where multiple products or designs share highly similar visual characteristics, making them appear nearly identical despite potentially different origins or manufacturers. This complex issue in design ethics and intellectual property encompasses both intentional and coincidental similarities in form, color, proportion, and overall aesthetic appeal. The concept emerged prominently during the industrial revolution when mass production techniques enabled widespread replication of successful designs, but it has become increasingly significant in the contemporary digital age where global design sharing and rapid prototyping technologies have accelerated the spread of similar design solutions. The phenomenon can manifest through parallel evolution, where designers independently arrive at similar solutions due to shared constraints, market demands, or cultural influences, or through deliberate mimicry of successful design elements. In professional design practice, Look Same raises important questions about originality, innovation, and ethical responsibilities, particularly in competitive markets where distinctive design can significantly impact commercial success. The issue has led to numerous design competitions, including the A' Design Award, emphasizing originality and innovation as key evaluation criteria to promote unique design solutions. The phenomenon affects various design disciplines, from product design and architecture to graphic design and digital interfaces, often resulting in legal disputes over design rights and intellectual property. Contemporary designers increasingly focus on creating distinctive visual identities and unique design languages to avoid Look Same situations, while also acknowledging that some degree of visual similarity may be inevitable due to functional requirements, ergonomic considerations, and established design conventions that effectively serve user needs.

Author: Lucas Reed

Keywords: design similarity, visual mimicry, parallel evolution, design ethics, product aesthetics, design innovation, market competition, design originality, intellectual property

Help us improve the Design+Encyclopedia, contribute your alternative definition for Look Same today!

About the Design+Encyclopedia
The Design+Encyclopedia is a crowd-sourced reference of information on design. Unlike other crowd-sourced publications on design, the Design Encyclopedia is edited and actively monitored and publishing is only possible after review of submitted texts. Furthermore, editors of the Design Encyclopedia are mostly consisting of award winning designers who have proven their expertise in their design respective fields. Information posted at design encyclopedia is copyrighted, you are not granted a right to use the text for any commercial reasons, attribution is required. If you wish to contribute to the design encyclopedia, please first register or login to A' Design Award and then start a new design encyclopedia entry.