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| My Mondo (designed by me) in a light Tri-Color |
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" wrote Charles Caleb Colton back in the 1800's. Here we are in 2014 and those imitations are being found instantly through social media. It is not sincere. It is not flattering and is most sincerely is not a nice thing. It sucks. You want to start a trend wearing a certain shade of lipstick or rolling one pant leg up, if you think you started the trend, then yes I understand this little saying. But if you took the time to design a solid wood rustic bed, finalize the details, build it and then launch it on your site to brag to potential clients under the guise of "look what I did". You give it a fantastic name - the Mondo. You expect the recognition. You expect the praise. You expect the proverbial pat on the back. You get all of this. You know because of your sales and inquiries of this magnificent bed. It screams everything that is good in design. You are so proud of yourself. Then within a year someone local who is in the same field as you - takes this design and builds it under the label "custom", your world and your sense of designer extraordinaire goes from happy go lucky to I want this person to put her drill through her hand.
There is not much you can do to them. Patenting is an expensive way to protect your artistic designs and truth be told is fiscally impossible for a crafter (because in reality we don't make much money).
A Hamburger is a Hamburger regardless if you buy from McDonalds or Burger King - they are both burgers, right? So you would think that a bed is a bed, right? No. Most local crafter's have a sense of ethics or a code we'll call it. I am not the only solid wood bed builder in Southern California. I am not the only designing Mom in Southern California. I am not the only #momthebuilder in Southern California. I am not the only female designer woodworker or carpenter in Southern California. I am not the only platform bed maker in Southern California. I am however, the only one that designed the Mondo bed. Apparently now, I am not the only one making it.
I don't think she got the memo about the ethics or codes. Writing this blog I am wondering if I should mail a copy of it to her, if I could find one. I, and this is my fault, was under the impression that everyone thought along the same lines like I do.
Like I mentioned, there are others out there that do the same thing that I do. We advertise the same way (Craigslist - more on the pitfalls of that in another blogpost). I build solid wood platform beds, they build solid wood platform beds. What sets us apart - they have their style, I have mine. I have on at least 3 occasions in the past year being here in Southern California referred my clients to another company because my clients wanted something similar to their box build and did not know the other company even existed. See my platforms hug the mattress (preventing slippage) and their platforms are the traditional (mattress sits on top of a platform - duh!). They can easily copy my designs too, but they don't. I have quite a few different styles of solid wood custom beds, platforms, bunk beds, kids beds, craftsmen & mission, rustic and modern. I can count on my hand the amount of other companies that do what I do here locally. None of them have taken any of my designs (down to the seems) and copied them for themselves. Till now.
This code is pretty strong within all crafters circles I believe - or at least the ones I know. Yes you can copy something you've seen online from a box store or pinterest etc. Half those pictures of furniture and beds are a genius marketing strategy by companies anyway. Most of them are not hand made or hand crafted - they are CNC cut and put together with directions. With the proper photographer, even Ikea's beds look great.
Knowing that I was the one who designed my Mondo, you know that all knowing feeling that you are the one, the special one, the only - yeh it doesn't help the bittersweet taste in my mouth. Whats worse is there is nothing I can do about it. I guess i have to sit back and watch her get all the glory on a job well done. One thing I can count on though - she started up the middle of last year (2013) and I've been doing this since 2010. So I do have experience on my side. Maybe I should look at it as flattery. Maybe. If she credited me with the design or at least my companies name, I would be happy enough. But she won't because she has her followers convinced these are all her designs, she wouldn't want to let down her followers now, would she?
What is even more ironic - I don't have too many followers. Hence the blog - so please start following me, I beg you. I don't really network either, maybe I should. I don't hit the sidewalk telling everyone about my company either and I don't enter contests to gain notoriety, maybe I should do that too. In fact I don't advertise, except for Craigslist so my marketing costs are zero, zilch, nada, zip, nothing! But I am busy, I do have a waiting list and the majority of my business is from word of mouth! That in of itself screams success to me. Did I mention returning customers?
My sister was right. Writing it down did help. Thanks!
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