Please Stop Copying My Designs

Discussion Forums General Zazzle Discussion
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Dear fellow creators,

I’m writing this because something has been bothering me for quite some time now, and I feel I can no longer simply ignore it.

I would kindly ask those who are using my designs and ideas as very close inspiration to please stop. I’m especially addressing creators who have already built a much stronger position here than my Bronze level, but unfortunately, it is not limited to them. I also see accounts that appear to be building a noticeable part of their shop inventory around ideas and designs that closely resemble mine.

And to those who are building inventory that closely follows mine, please keep one thing in mind: it may simply be a waste of your time.

The majority of my designs do not sell at all. Even products that look very similar to some of my stronger sellers often receive little or no attention. Some of my previous bestsellers are not selling much at the moment either.

That is simply how Zazzle seems to work. Certain products get picked up and gain visibility, while many very similar products do not. So copying a design that appears successful does not mean your version will sell, and copying a large part of someone else’s inventory may end up producing nothing but dozens of products that customers have already seen in one form or another.

Instead of recreating another nearly identical product, I honestly think your time would be much better spent researching the category, looking at what customers are searching for, and then creating your own interpretation and your own designs around that research. That way, when a customer comes to Zazzle, they actually see something new rather than another version of the same product. And you may have a much better chance of finding the one idea or product that the algorithm decides to pick up.

Over time, I have collected quite a large “collection” on my computer of designs that look extremely similar to mine, often appearing only a few days after I published my original products.

I understand perfectly well that many of us follow similar trends, work with the same seasonal themes, use similar fonts, or purchase design elements from the same independent artists. Sometimes similarities can genuinely happen by coincidence.

But when numerous products from the same creator repeatedly resemble designs I uploaded just days earlier, it becomes very difficult to believe that this is always accidental.

What makes this even more concerning is that, in some cases, I have noticed the same creators producing designs that also look remarkably similar to work previously published by other Zazzle creators. So this does not appear to be simply a matter of someone being new to the platform and not yet understanding where the line between inspiration and copying lies. Some of these creators have been here considerably longer than I have and are very experienced sellers.

I see it, and unfortunately it has reached the point where it sometimes makes me reluctant to create and publish new designs because I’m worried that shortly afterwards I will see very similar versions appearing elsewhere.

If this continues, I will simply have no choice but to start reporting these cases directly to Zazzle, design by design, together with the publication dates and examples I have already documented. Or, if necessary, I will start sharing some of these examples here on the forum so people can see for themselves what I am referring to.

At the same time, I want to make something very clear. If any of you ever feel that one of my designs looks too similar to something you created earlier, please contact me. I am completely open to discussing it. And I give you my word that if something I created happens to resemble your work, it was not intentional.

Maybe I’m naive for writing this. Maybe this is simply how the creative world works and people constantly take “inspiration” from one another. Maybe I should simply stop paying attention to it. I honestly don’t know.

But right now, it is simply upsetting to watch a noticeable part of the holiday card collection I worked so hard on throughout the entire summer gradually appear across other stores, including stores belonging to creators with much higher Pro levels than mine. And yes, that makes it even more frustrating, because these are already well-established stores that may naturally have far greater visibility during the holiday season than a smaller Bronze-level store like mine.

I genuinely believe that if you have already built a successful store, have been here for years, and have reached such high levels on this platform, you are more than capable of creating beautiful collections for future seasons through your own research, ideas, and creativity, just as I try to do with mine.

So I’m asking respectfully: please let my work be my work.

And please know that I do notice.

I wish all of us plenty of creativity and inspiration for the months ahead, especially during this difficult period when so many of us seem to be experiencing challenges with sales.

I truly hope things improve for all of us soon.

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I am sorry to hear that, I think in a creative world ideas flow freely, I think the more original you are the more you stand out. You own a copyright to your products and have a right to your ideas like any artist does.

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Sorry this is happening to you. And “not if this continues”…report them now.

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@Oli_Fleurs I agree with @Marcia_Luce report what’s stolen, it’s a copyright infringement and is protected by law.

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I know how it feels to have your work taken by a copycat, had my fair share in the past and I understand why this feels discouraging when you pour yourself into a design, it’s hard to see something pop up that feels close to what you made. But in the artwork world, especially on POD, there’s an important distinction between someone using your actual artwork and someone working within the same artwork style. A lot of creators purchase the same illustration bundles from places like Creative Market, Etsy, and other marketplaces. Those dainty florals, tiny stems, soft palettes, seasonal motifs are extremely common right now. When many artists start with the same source materials, it’s very easy for designs to look alike without anyone intentionally copying.

Style overlap happens everywhere in art. Once a look becomes popular, it spreads glitter initials, minimalist botanicals, script monograms, watercolor wreaths, all of it. People echo the trend, not the individual creator. If you ever see someone using your exact artwork, then absolutely reach out to Zazzle’s copyright team so they can review it. But when the similarity is more about shared elements, shared bundles, or shared trends, that’s usually just part of how POD platforms work.

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IP theft sucks. Sorry you’re dealing with it. I’d say don’t hesitate to report the copycats, though. It’s usually not just a one-time thing, and the thief is stealing or will steal from others too. I’ve dealt with this plenty and try to look out for other designers too when I know their original work is being ripped off.

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I’ve seen a lot of designs that look very similar to something I’ve created, because the designer is using the same stock image I did. As Susang6 said, people use the same source material from Creative Market or Etsy, and it will look very similar. If you see an item identical to your design, report it.

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I understand your frustration. I looked up the shop you were referring to, although I had not known it before. I hope I don’t have anything in my own shop that looks too similar to your work. If I do, it would be purely coincidental.

I don’t really follow many trends, and I don’t regularly look at what is currently popular on Zazzle. The main thing I look at here is typography, because fonts often have different names on Zazzle than elsewhere. For me, it is less about thinking, “I want to copy this,” and more about noticing that one particular font might work well with another.

As for what to do about it, I think that is a decision each person has to make for themselves: whether to discuss it publicly in the forum or use the reporting option Zazzle has provided for exactly this purpose. I assume that option exists so Zazzle can review possible cases, even when the designs are not formally protected by copyright or trademark.

I have also used small hidden signatures in my images, and sometimes in my text. They can be surprisingly useful for discovering where something has been copied from. Even little things such as a typo, or an unusual wording, can reveal that someone has copied and pasted text without noticing the hidden marker.

At the same time, there is probably also an element of the zeitgeist. Several people may respond to the same trend independently, and some similarities may simply be coincidence. Gingham, for example, is everywhere at the moment. (not in any of my shops :wink: I think)

But yes, I understand why it is frustrating. Especially when more successful sellers seem to benefit from designs that are very similar to your own. I don’t really have a solution or a useful tip beyond that.

And if anyone ever feels that something I created is too similar to their work, I would genuinely appreciate being told. I would much rather have an open and respectful conversation about it than unknowingly cause someone the same frustration.

None of us can completely avoid working in similar ways. We all see many of the same things every day — consciously or unconsciously — and sometimes similar ideas can emerge independently.

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Thank you all so much for your kind words and support. I really appreciate it, and I completely agree with what has been said here.

If these were just random new accounts on Zazzle, I probably would not have hesitated to report them right away. In this case, though, I personally feel a little uncomfortable doing that straight away because some of these people are active here on the forum. I know they read and participate in discussions here, although of course I do not know whether they have seen this particular one, and they generally seem like nice people.

That is why I felt it was worth giving someone a chance to correct the situation first. We are all human, and I am sure I have made many mistakes in my life too. It is even possible that at some point I unintentionally created something too similar to another person’s work. If that has ever happened, I am genuinely sorry, and if anyone has ever felt uncomfortable because of something I created, I am always open to a conversation about it.

Next time, though, I probably will not hesitate to report something directly. At least now, regardless of whether this message actually reaches the people concerned, I feel fair toward myself because I have let them know that I am aware of what is happening and have given them a chance to reflect on it, if they happen to come across this discussion.

This situation has actually been going on for quite a long time. Some time ago, perhaps a year ago or even longer (I did not check the exact date), one of my designs was recreated by Creator A in a way that was almost 1:1. I decided to let it go. Later, I found almost the same design again in the shop of another popular Creator B, and again I chose to ignore it.

Then Creator A made another design that was very heavily inspired by one of mine. In that case, I would still describe it more as inspiration, although it was very, very close, so once again I let it go.

But when I saw what has been happening more recently, I started to feel that it no longer looked like coincidence. Believe me, if I posted the comparison images here, I think it would be much easier to see what I mean. This is not simply a case of people using the same purchased elements. Even when creators use the same stock elements, there are usually many different ways to build a design around them.

Some of the designs I am talking about do not even rely on purchased elements. Sometimes it is the whole concept, composition, or structure that is extremely close.

For example, Creator C made a card that was almost 1:1 with one of mine. My original was created using Zazzle’s Design Tool, together with a frame that I had made myself in a graphics program and an additional element that I had specifically chosen to fit the overall composition. The recreated card looks almost identical as a whole, including the layout, the colour choice, and even the use of the exact same element placed in practically the same position. So in that case, it was not simply a matter of two people purchasing the same elements from the same Etsy seller.

It is also not really about copying bestsellers. Many of the designs I am referring to were created relatively recently and had not even sold once yet. That is one of the reasons it started to feel more like a repeated pattern of behaviour rather than simple trend overlap. I can also see that some of these shops contain designs that appear to follow the work of other creators very closely as well.

At one point, even a friend of mine started sending me links to some of these products because, at first glance, she genuinely thought they were mine. At that point, I felt it had probably gone beyond coincidence.

As for why I chose to say something publicly rather than simply report everything straight away, one reason is that I am honestly tired of this subject. I do not have the time or the desire to keep checking other creators’ shops every day just to see whether something else has appeared that is too close to my work. For me, saying something publicly felt like a more reasonable first step, simply to make it known that the issue has been noticed.

The second reason is that I thought this might also be useful for both newer and more established creators. Copying another designer’s product too closely is, in my opinion, a very poor strategy even if we put the ethical side aside for a moment.

Two almost identical products do not start from the same position simply because they look alike. They may have been published at different times, by stores with different zRanks and different histories, and one product may already have built up its own history through views, clicks, shares, outside traffic, and other signals over time, including exposure generated through Zazzle’s own marketing.

My understanding is that this kind of history may be part of what helps an algorithm learn that a product is responding to an existing market need and is worth showing to more people.

A second, nearly identical product does not automatically receive the same kind of support. If the first product is already established and the marketplace already has something very similar to show customers, I would imagine there is little reason for the algorithm to push another almost identical listing in exactly the same way. A marketplace also needs variety in its results.

I think this may also help explain why creating many very similar versions of the same product within one shop does not necessarily mean that all of them will sell. One version may gain traction, while several almost identical ones receive very little attention.

I think the same applies even to very new products. If one design was published only a few days earlier, it has already had a head start in building its own history and position. A near-identical product published later does not automatically inherit any of that simply because it looks the same.

Of course, none of this makes the copying itself any less frustrating or acceptable. A near-identical design can still create confusion, blur the line between original work and imitation, and simply feel unfair to the person who created the idea in the first place. My point is only that, apart from the ethical side of it, copying is not even a particularly smart business strategy.

I have been working here every single day for about a year, with the exception of three days when I was sick, so I know how intense the pace can be. I can also imagine that after doing this for many years, it may become exhausting to constantly come up with something new that might sell in the next season, especially when you feel pressure to create a certain number of products every day and there is never enough time.

On top of that, we all have everyday life to deal with, and life’s challenges do not always go hand in hand with creativity. So I can understand how taking a shortcut may sometimes seem tempting, or simply easier in the moment.

But in reality, shortcuts often end up being the longest road.

I also know that this line can sometimes be crossed unintentionally. We all work within trends, use similar product types, seasonal themes, fonts, colours, layouts and ideas. That is normal. At the same time, I believe there are so many places where we can find fresh inspiration and prepare ideas for the next season without following another creator quite so closely.

I know that many of you have dealt with your own work being copied or stolen, and unfortunately it is probably something many of us will have to deal with again in the future. What saddened me most in this particular situation is that it happened here, within the same community. This is not about some random seller on Temu, AliExpress or another distant marketplace (which is of course also painful and unacceptable), or someone completely new who may not yet fully understand how things work here. These are experienced creators who are part of the same creative space and, very likely, have dealt with this problem themselves at some point. I think that is what makes it feel especially disappointing.

I genuinely hope that anyone who may have gone a little too far in that direction can find a creative path that feels right for them and allows them to build their business in a way that feels fair both to themselves and to other creators.

For now, I feel that addressing the situation this way was the fairest approach. The people concerned will know exactly what this is about and what they need to do. If something similar happens again in the future, I will simply handle it through the proper reporting process.

Thanks again, guys. I really appreciate your support. :heart:

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@Oli_Fleurs You are welcome and good luck to you, my ideas have also been taken and I also let it slide. I don’t even know how would I approach it. I also saw a product exactly like mine on the Marketplace and too just brushed it off. Just thought that’s odd. That’s why I said ideas in creative world flow freely. It makes you proud though when you come up with something original and one of a kind like real designers do.

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@Veselka_store Exactly, that is the feeling. You just do not really know what to do with it. I am very sorry you have experienced the same thing too.

I also hope that the point about the algorithm may help some people understand that, apart from everything else, copying like this simply makes very little sense.

That is also why, when these were just isolated cases, I mostly let them slide. I assumed the algorithm would probably not be particularly interested in those copied designs anyway, and from what I can see, that often seems to be the case.

I am attaching one example below. This particular design of mine now has around 1,800 views. When it was copied, it had around 500 views. The near-identical version, which was uploaded about three weeks later and then repeated in several variations, has received only around 50 views since then.

So if someone randomly copies our designs without even knowing where our products are already positioned in the Marketplace, it can simply be a waste of time.

Another thing I keep wondering about is whether people who copy in such an obvious way realise that their products often appear right next to the originals, for example in Swap Design, and that it is simply very visible that one design was copied from another. The same can happen in search results, where the copied products sometimes appear right next to the original design.

And do they realise that the creation date is also visible in the product details at the bottom of the page, so it is actually very easy to check which design was created first?

And then there is one more thing. Do they also realise that one day they may copy the wrong person, someone who is a little more annoyed than I am :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: and that person may simply post a side-by-side comparison here on the forum?

That would honestly be quite embarrassing, especially when some of these accounts are already well established and rank highly on the platform :slight_smile:

Zrzut ekranu 2026-10-01 155813

Zrzut ekranu 2026-10-01 155838

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It’s sad for sure, I just shrugged my shoulders. Thank you, take care.

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I’m sorry you’re feeling so discouraged, but it’s hard to know how to respond to your post since you haven’t shown any examples of designs that you felt were copied. In looking at your store I see a lot of designs using stripes, coquette bows, wreaths, and hand drawn squiggly borders - all of which are trends that were explicitly recommended in Zazzle’s recent Wedding and Holiday guides. And many of your designs look really similar to ones featured in those guides. I’m not saying that people aren’t copying your stuff. It’s hard to say without seeing which designs you’re referring to and being able to compare the dates that things were created. But you might want to consider the possibility that other designers may simply be picking up on some of the same design trends that you are.

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@Cat_Ritchie Thank you. I understand your point, and I agree that without seeing specific examples it can be difficult to judge exactly what I mean. I also understand what you mean about different creators picking up on the same trends, especially when those trends are being featured or recommended by Zazzle.

For example, lace is quite popular at the moment, and I see many creators using it. Even with something as simple as a lace frame on a solid background, most designs are still clearly different from one another. The same is true with stripes, colours, wreaths or other popular elements. Even when creators use the same purchased elements, you can usually still see their own individual approach in the final composition.

The situations I was referring to were more specific than that. This is not something I have noticed once or twice. It has been going on for quite some time, across many different products, and not only my own. I have also seen the same pattern involving other creators’ work.

Some of these are simple designs, but others are much more complex and made up of several different elements. In those cases, the later design can still look almost identical to the earlier one. Sometimes the changes are very small: the wording may be exactly the same with only the paragraph order changed, the background or bow may be different while the rest remains almost unchanged, or even the same font may be used with only one element, such as a wreath, replaced.

What makes it difficult for me to see this as simply two people independently arriving at a similar result is that the same kind of similarity appears repeatedly, across different products and involving different original creators. That is why I see it more as a repeated pattern of very closely recreating or modifying existing designs rather than simply following the same trends.

There are many talented creators here using similar themes, elements and product types while still creating work that is clearly their own, and that is why I do not see similarity in itself as a problem.

I know that without seeing the side-by-side examples it may still be difficult to fully understand what I mean, and that is completely fair. I deliberately chose not to post all of them publicly because I did not want this thread to become about naming and shaming individual creators. My intention was simply to address the behaviour itself.

Anyone who is simply creating their own work has no reason to feel uncomfortable about what I wrote. My hope was only that those who recognise this behaviour in themselves might reflect on it and reconsider how closely they are following other creators’ designs.

I hope that bringing this up will help improve the situation.

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@Oli_Fleurs I think those who do that will continue doing that since that’s what they do, just remember ideas are your intellectual property.

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Naming and shaming other creators has always been against the forum rules here, so I would not advise that. What I would advise, is if you see a design in the MP that you believe is a direct copy of your work, to use the report feature on the product page and let zazzle handle it how they see fit.

My 2 cents, FWIW. :blush:

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I hear you, and I wasn’t suggesting that you post examples of anyone else’s work. I too have stumbled upon designs that appear to be copies of my work and I know it can be frustrating, but unless it’s stolen artwork, I don’t really think there’s anything Zazzle can do. I don’t think you can copyright general text layout and stuff like that - though I could be wrong. If you truly feel that someone is targeting your work you might try contacting them directly and politely through chat.

I do know that I have several times received requests from customers for a product based on someone else’s work. Sometimes they’ll say things like “Can I get this with your artwork on it so it matches my wedding suite?” In those cases, I try very hard not to copy the wording, fonts, or layout and simply present my own take on the idea.

One thing I will say is that in my experience, having a good design is really only the starting place for success. There’s just sooo much more involved (marketing, presentation, matching products etc.) So anyone who thinks that simply copying a successful design will bring them sales is really wasting their time and barking up the wrong tree.

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I’ve seen some of their store designs featured (business cards) in Zazzle’s facebook ads. Wonderful.