Here's one for all your train spotters.

Exhibit one: Bounty Hunter "Guard Dog" tee, released last Friday.

Exhibit two: Neighborhood tee illustrated by Kaws, released at both Original Fake and Neighborhood stores, early last year.

When you see this kind of thing happen you don't highlight it to be a smart ass snitch and score points. You do it because, if you're like me, you're actually a fan of the Bounty Hunter brand and you're dissapointed that they can dish something up which on the surface appears this lazy and creatively complacent.

Sure, a brand like Bounty Hunter is derivative of a whole bunch of inspirations. And their graphics usually follow a fairly simple, routine formula. But I like the brand because it alway knows what it is. It has developed its own unmistakable graphic vocablulary that spells out a clear 'Bounty Hunter' story. And I think the ability to funnel creativity into a product or message without confusing it is something that's a lot harder than it sounds. Ironically, sometimes you can only define creative individuality through careful, conscious repitition and the tightening of your margins for expression.

Sure, you can appreciate that often different people can draw similar inspiration from a common creative reference point. Or two people can come up with a similar idea or image independently of each other. It's something that's happened to me before. But it's clear that this is the near exact same ilustration, which I'm pretty sure from memory Kaws drew by hand*.

There's nothing I can find to suggest that this tee graphic has been knowingly shared with BxH by Neighborhood and Original Fake. If that's in fact the case, email me. I'd gladly post an apology and set the record straight. But it doesn't look too good. And even if they've been given an ok to rip off the the image, frankly you'd probably expect better from them.

 * Yes, the artwork from the Neighborhood tee was hand drawn by Kaws, but both tees are actually taking cues from the same pre-existing image which is in common public use. Apologies for any misrepresentation caused by the above. Please see the next blog entry for the full story.

-Anthony