How to conduct a Reverse Image Search

What is a reverse image search?

A reverse image search involves taking an image or a copy of an image, and then running it through an online database of images to check whether there are others that either match that image, or look extremely similar to it.

Why conduct a reverse image search?

Performing a reverse image search is an important step to help ensure that a design (or an element of a design) is free from a potential copyright infringement. While it is not a foolproof method of identifying the use of copyrighted material (because not all searches will return a relevant or useful result), conducting this search still helps potentially identify issues and takes very little time to do.

For designers

Since it is the designer’s responsibility to ensure that all submissions are original and free from copyright issues (see: minimum design standards), performing this step before submitting a design is the responsible thing to do, not only for the benefit of your client, but also for the sake of your account.

Performing this step is even more relevant when the design you’re submitting (particularly for logo design projects) is simple, minimalist, or even potentially generic. Ignorance that the design (or an extremely similar design) is being used elsewhere will not be a valid reason if conducting the reverse image search leads to that relevant result.

For customers

Conducting a reverse image search for your shortlisted designs or even your winning design before approving payment is a great way to help proactively alert yourself to potential copyright issues. While DesignCrowd has strict rules in play regarding stock image use, protecting yourself against irresponsible or malicious designers is in your best interest.

How do I conduct a reverse image search?

Step 1: Make sure you have a clean copy of the image you are looking to search.

Guidelines:

• The image must be placed on a solid background, ideally white (or black depending on the design)
• The image must not be in a stylized mock-up format
• All other irrelevant parts of the image must be removed to ensure accurate and relevant results; this includes removing logo text elements when you only want to look for matches for the logo icon.
• If you are looking to search using just an element of the design, that design element must be completely isolated.
• For customers: Asking your designer to submit a design containing just an isolated part of their design for reverse image searching purposes is totally reasonable and something that we encourage.
• Whenever possible, you should also search for a horizontally-flipped version of the same image to cover more ground.

Step 2: Conduct the reverse image search using the tool / website you wish to use.

We recommend using Google reverse image search or TinEye.

On both of these sites, you can paste a URL of the image you want to search, or upload a separate image entirely. We only recommend using the image’s URL if the image is already clean and free from any elements that may detract from a good result.

Step 3: For Google: Add in appropriate keywords to help guide the search tool and narrow down search results.

These are the default keywords that Google assigned and below are the returned results.



Changing the keywords ended up giving us more relevant image results




Finding the right keywords to use may be an exercise in trial and error. We’d recommend using common nouns that are relevant to what you are searching; some examples may be:

• “wolf logo” or “wolf vector” ~ or whichever relevant animal or object
• “accounting logo” or “real estate logo” ~ or whichever relevant industry or field
• “DC logo” ~ or whichever relevant letters or initials

Switching out the keywords shouldn’t take you very long as it does not require re-uploading the image again.

Step 4: Check the results

In the event that the results return an image that matches the design submission, either partially or completely, appropriate action must be taken:

For customers or contest-holders

Report the design to us through support@designcrowd.com or using our contact forms or hotlines and we will take the immediate appropriate action.

For submitting designers

You should NOT submit the design for obvious reasons. We will reiterate that Ignorance that the design (or an extremely similar design) is being used elsewhere will not be a valid reason if conducting the reverse image search leads you to that relevant result.

For any other users

You should also report the design to us so we can take the appropriate action against the offending designer. You are able to use the report functionality for that individual design by going to the design’s separate webpage, hovering over the image, then clicking the FLAG icon.