Ylunch.com and High5Advertising Are Thieves

Coming here from Google? please read this first as this situation has been cleared up and his company's site has been redesigned.

I debated posting this or not, but in the end I had to do it. The people who run YLunch.com and High5 Advertising are thieves, plain and simple. The High5 Advertising website is a blatant rip-off of my friend Doug Bowman's website, and he noted this recently in a post to his weblog.

Now theft like this happens a lot, and although it pisses me off to no end, the reason I am posting this entry is because of the way they handled the situation. A few days ago I received an email which was sent from the oddly 90s-style email address webmaster@ylunch.com, and was sent to Doug, me, as well as other designers on the CC. These other designers include Benson Low, Brady Frey and others. The email started off well, with someone named Vadim Lisserman essentially falling on his sword and saying that they have various designers with whom they work, and the person who designed the site is no longer employed. Okay, good start. But then it gets stupid real quick:

[...] "From my own personal business opinion there are tones [sic] of websites on the internet that have the same layouts. What makes a really good website is the color schemes, graphics and fonts. I compared the two websits and have found that there are no identical graphics, color schemes or fonts. I also have checked with my current webdesigner and was informed that we have all original copies of graphics and code that was used to design the website. I hope this puts everyone at ease."

Yes, thank you Vadim! I am so happy that your designer has the original files that were used to put together your table-ridden and blatantly lifted design. While I no doubt believe that your designer does have some of the "original files", they are only original in the sense that they were recreated in an effort to directly mimic Doug's hard work. They're about original as a fake Rolex is "original".

After reading this foolish remark, Benson, Brady and I all sent emails out (CCd to everybody) that discussed in-depth our feelings of such idiocy. Words like "blind", "crime", "acknowledge", "moron", "con artist", "liar" were used, and they obviously got the point. Our boy Vadim replied in terse phrases saying that he's not responsible for the design and that it will be changed. Okay, good, here's where it should have ended. But it didn't.

A little bit later I got an email from a guy named Greg Sirochinsky (another funny article) who sent me this tidbit of fun:

"My name is Greg I am the CEO of the company. Your input is greatly appreciated. I was wondering if you can show me some of the websites you created. Then if they are good we can listen and implement your feedback. I look forward to seeing links from you."

Hmm, okay, so now I have to prove myself to them in order to point out the obvious that they stole another person's hard work. They sent that same email out to both Benson and Brandy (CCing the whole crew on each one) and that's when the real good stuff started. See, Greg has this thing about talking on the phone... every time he sent us an email, it was usually ended with "CALL ME: 847.XXX.XXXX" so we could proceed to waste part of our day while he informs us that they're not thieves. Brady did some investigating and found out that our friend Greg Sirochinsky is a Ricky Martin fan who uses that same "business number" to sell Ricky Martin tickets. Greg also is a fan of Disney on Ice, but hey, there's nothing wrong with a little Ricky Martin and Disney, especially at the same time.

After telling him that I needn't prove my skills to him for this little pissing contest, he responds:

"As I said please send over some quality "ORIGINAL" websites, prove that you are worth talking with, and maybe we can continue this great discussion."

So by now you can imagine I'm a little miffed. We sent some emails back and forth after this, and then Greg Sincrhonwhateverhisnameis drops this:

"NEW DESIGHN WILL BE UNVALIED EBY ARTEMIS THE GREAT SOON.....THEN YOU WILL ALL SEE HIS POWER...AND BE IN AWW...HIS WORDS "THERE IS NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT STOP DESIGN I LIKED HIS SITE AND WAS MERELY GIVING HIM PUBLICITY" A NEW SITE WILL BE UP SOON ONE THE IS A LITTLE BIT MORE ADVANCED THEN JUST PURE PLAIN CSS THAT IS GETING OVERDONE AND OVER COPIED.... STAY TUNED NEW SITE WILL BE UNVEILED WITHIN 6 MONTHS"

Yes the email was in all caps like that. I believe that Artemis The Great is the web designer responsible for the previous rip-off, but I'm not 100% certain, but either way, once I stay tuned for the next 6 months I'll be able to preview his awesome and fearful web design power. I truly don't believe that Doug needs any more publicity after designing sites like Wired and Blogger, but hey, maybe everybody needs a kick.

I emailed Greg about the irony of him asking me to show him some of my original and creative work, when his own designer has stolen the work from others. I think that upset him a bit because in response he sent us this email:

"How many PAYING CLEINTS DOES YOUR COMPANY HAVE??"

Ouch! Right where it hurts! You got me Greg, I admit defeat in the face of your greatness, especially when you follow-up with such bourgeoisie classics like:

"I have 5 projects and over 75 paying clients each paying between 75 - 1200 per month to work with me."

I replied with this piece of quickly-written snark:

"btw, greg, this pissing contest is getting a bit old. why not just apologize for ripping off Doug's work and continue to work on your site so people stop making fun of it? wouldn't that seem like a better business decision instead of trying to make yourselves look better by comparing how many clients we have?"

In response he thought that instead of disagreeing with me anymore, he'd just try and partner with me:

"The new site will blow your mind away...maybee you can outsource some of your projects to my company....Dosent that seem like a good bussiness descion to you..."

And then...

"I know how to build a VERRY sucessfull bussiness..maybee we should talk after Artemis is done with the new portfolio"

I don't even know what to say to things like that, so I ended the email conversation soon thereafter. Lesson to people who steal other websites: fall on your sword, accept responsibility, and change it. Obviously creative work shouldn't have been stolen in the first place, but once it's stolen you shouldn't 1) email readers who are pissed off at you, 2) piss them off even more, 3) tell them how much money you make so they think you're a big-timer, 4) ask how much money they make to prove their worth, and then 5) finally ask them to do work with you and/or partner. Greg Sirochinsky is an idiot, and if you ever are in Chicago, don't use Ylunch to find a restaurant because it'll probably taste like bad PR.

(No comments on this post because I don't want Greg trolling. Sorry guys.)