In 1915 the German design revue, Das Plakat, published a special supplement devoted to plagiarism (and influence) titled Plakat und Plagiat. It compared a variety of posters, advertisements and publicity that overtly, covertly and cleverly copied work produced by others. Sometimes it was clear as a bell. Other times, it became clear that the designers or illustrators traced parts from this or that image and pieced them together. We now call that “sampling.”

Here are some of the examples from the 1915 document. You decide whether or not the editors’ indictments were fair or not.









Source: http://imprint.printmag.com/