Need concrete evidence, pls.

Aha! I found what I was thinking of:

A very similar cartoon. It's called "Let's move on, there's no fish around here" by Jim Beran.



http://jimberan.com/catalog/popup_image.php/pID/199

ooops

same idea, different execution

erm, I think Tonteau asked for concrete evidence, not concrete rocket.

Lazy People

Yeah, it is quite similar.

I'd like to chime in on this, as I came up with the initial idea of this for my wife, Elise.



I drew a horrible sketch on my order pad while waiting tables. The idea itself stemmed from this... 1. I knew my wife was better at drawing animals than other things (at the time) and I realized that she hadn't done anything with fish. 2. I wanted to come up with some excuse to fill an entire shirt with fish.



I will say that she likes to come up with really strange ideas (her new one pending is Wizards Hitting on Mermaids) for exactly this reason... that everything seems to have been done before.



We thought this idea was particularly generic, as it's a very simple idea and there are no wizards making out with mermaids on it, so we searched through every fish design ever posted to Threadless. We did a Google Image search for things like "block of fish" "stubborn fish" and what not, but all you really get are page after page of guys holding up bass.



We're not blind, we can see the similarity between Finicky Fish and Jim's... but these things happen in the idea pool... which is to say, coincidences. If we had seen that prior to posting the design, the design would have never been posted... not because it's exactly the same, but just because we don't like controversy! Elise has thrown away entire, finished designs without posting them to Threadless because she finds something too similar in the archives. (Now we check BEFOREhand.)



I can't find anything on Google for that guy's design other than that guys website and this thread on Threadless, so I honestly don't know how we could possibly find something so unsaturated on the net. Elise's design was posted 80 days ago, I'm not wholly convinced that her design wasn't first, actually. I can't find anything dating Jim's.



Either way, Elise does go out of her way to be original and we can't say it was pleasant to see this today.

hmmm it is very similar but I can see how this would happen. I look at lots and lots of stuff and occasionally an idea pops into my head and I wonder if i made it up or if I saw it many years before. I think that happens to a lot of us.

i'd sorta felt like i saw the same idea before too. i think it's just the type of image you see in little joke panels in the newspaper or on greeting cards. it's sort of one of those really cheesy ideas that we've all maybe seen before maybe even in a cartoon on tv.



the difference here i guess is that the designer took it (an idea that no one can really copyright) and turned it into a good looking design - and i'm sorta fine with that.

Wotto: We were thinking the same thing... though we really don't think we could have ever even seen this one. He doesn't seem to be in stores or anything.



Thank you Ginette! I was about to say, it's not like his design is on some greeting card in Target all over the country. If this design idea came from anywhere subconsciously, my husband says it would have definitely been a cartoon.

the more designs inspired by cartoons the better, i say!

It happens all the time... and just recently, with one of mine.