Artist _Disappointed_ That Borderlands 2's Manual Art Swipes From His Designs [UPDATE]

If you’ve seen artist Olly Moss’ work, then you’ve gone out and learned his name. Over the last few years, Moss has won a loyal following with his impressively designed homages to geekdom’s sacred texts, as well as cinematic classics.(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); His posters for The Dark Knight Rises, Source Code, Moon and Rocky create visual puns and motifs that boil down what’s great about those works into a singularly striking iconography. He’s done work based on video games, too, with prints based on Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. And Moss turned in striking cover art—maybe the best of 2011—for Resistance 3 last year. I'm a huge Gearbox fan so I was really disappointed to see this image inside the Borderlands 2 box. http://t.co/a5OTn3MU — Olly Moss (@ollymoss) September 21, 2012 But a piece of art in the Borderlands 2 box—which looks a whole lot like Moss’ signature silhouette style—isn’t by him. And Moss is bummed out u31.com เข้าสู่ระบบ by it. @VigliottiD Well technically whoever made the image did lift directly from mine http://t.co/CkWyxLPH — Olly Moss (@ollymoss) September 21, 2012 In a series of tweets this morning, Moss reacted to an image inside the Borderlands 2 manual, which riffs heavily off of his own work on posters for the Star Wars movies. In particular, the zig-zagged clouds in the Borderland 2 image appear a direct copy from art Moss did for an Empire Strikes Back poster. But Moss also claims that he’s a big fan of development studio Gearbox and would have loved to contribute to Borderlands 2. Moss goes on to state that he knows this isn’t outright theft and that his own work is done in reference to things that others have created. He’s just really bummed, is all. Kotaku has reached out to 2K, Gearbox and Moss for comment and will update this story if we hear back. Update: Olly Moss has responded to Kotaku with the following: I really don’t want this to turn into a whole thing. Obviously there’s a lot of give and take in this business. As a homage it’s totally fine – the only reason I was originally disappointed is that I’d have loved to have done it myself! Then someone pointed out to me that the clouds in the background were directly lifted from my Empire strikes back poster – which strikes me more as laziness than anything else. I’m sure it’s probably the work of a well-meaning internal designer who didn’t know any better. No hard feelings. The game is great. I bought two copies. Update 2: Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford and Olly Moss u31 ทางเข้า are talking on Twitter, with acknowledgement from Pitchford that “the bit that was lifted is uncool”. @DuvalMagic Haha! This whole thing is so far from a big deal. I wish I'd never even said anything. — Olly Moss (@ollymoss) September 21, 2012 @ollymoss You're amazing. Inspiration is part u31 เข้าสู่ระบบ of art and you've inspired us. But the bit that was lifted is uncool, so… consequences. — Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 21, 2012