Brand Confusion

I'm a great fan of 37Signals and love all their products especially Basecamp which I did a screencast on not too long ago.. I also like the minimalist style of their website.

Just notice a new startup with some startling similarities on their website:

BoxCloud.....



BaseCamp...





BoxCloud....



Basecamp looks like.....




Update: Ash from BoxCloud has taken the time to respond to the original posting with an explanation for the similarities and announcing they are doing a complete redesign of the site. I've removed my potentally imflamatory comments in response to him stepping up to the mark and fixing the problem.

technorati tags:branding

Comments

[Ash Maurya]

The last time I checked, there was no shame in imitating good design as long as due credit was given and we do that on our blog. We too liked the minimalistic design style of 37Signals, read their book and decided to take a cue from them. Our designer seems to have taken more creative liberty though than orignially intended with certain design elements.

I understand how that can lead to brand confusion and we have already started undergoing a complete redesign of the site. Thanks for keeping us straight...

[Don]

Ash, I appreciate your comments and the fact that you're taking steps to address the issue.

I did have to do a double take when I saw your site and did try to find reference to 37signals but didn't find any reference at all. I've also searched your blog and can find no due credit to 37Signals.

Anyway, as you've indicated you're fixing this, I've toned down the original posting and wish you well in your endevours.

[Jason Fried]

Thanks for taking this seriously.

We're obviously thankful that you purchased our book and found it valuable, but when you buy our ideas our design language/asthetic doesn't come with it. Copying someone's design is akin to plagiarizing someone's words. It's a serious offense. And when it causes confusion in the marketplace it's even more serious.

Thanks for making a complete redesign a priority.

[Ash Maurya]

Don, the 37Signals reference was made back in May on our blog (http://www.wiredjournal.com). Here's the post: http://www.wiredjournal.com/?p=57.

Jason, we are putting out a quick interim design today that should address most of the "cause for confusion" (if not all) and will spend the coming weeks implementing a longer term design that we can live with...

Thanks for understanding.

[Don]

Ah, it wasn't on the BoxCloud blog which is where I looked. There doesn't seem to be a link from the boxcloud site to the wiredjournal blog.

[Don]

Erm....

It's been 4 weeks and it still looks like a 37signals site to me?

There's even solid highlighted text (OK so it's green not yellow)

Manifesto still appears in the menu bar

The Plan grid still looks the same

And something new - those thumbnails and the font and the layout of the metadata as illustrated on the blog look awfully familiar!