Coming full circle...are the designers inspired by the past?

Both of those look like they were originally inspired by Scandinavian folk artists to me which goes way back before OA's time. I do think people need to give credit (the recent Paige Evans scandal comes to mind where she clearly copied another artist) but there is not a whole lot that is truly original anymore. I recently saw this tedtalk on this topic and found it pretty interesting: ed.ted.com/on/JkoLAuJQ

That's a very common & popular motif. I can recall seeing things similar to that long before scrapbooking hit its peak. Particularly the OA one. That has a very vintage feel to me.

The Beep Beep definitely has a modernized feel to me. The familiarity of the OA paper definitely is tied to the neat rows for me. Whatever I have seen in the past had the neat little rows. So just in the scattered print alone, the Dear Lizzy paper loses the vintage feel to me.

But yes, I certainly agree that they have a similar theme to them. But it's not something that would bother me.

I recall a paper awhile back from WRMK, I believe, that was way too close to something else already out there, and that one really bothered me. But this one doesn't bother me in the least.

ETA:   I remembered what the OA reminds me of, but I can't show it to you because it's packed away with Christmas things.  I have a little bit of a vintage wrapping paper with a winter scene very similar to the OA.  It's houses & trees, but with a sleigh & horses in place of the cars, and it's in blues & whites & golds, but the feel is the same.   The same style of artwork and in repeating rows.  Instead of leaves in the wind, it's swirls of snow.     Save

It's funny, when I read the title to this thread I immediately thought of this same DL collection and how she used hot air balloons as a motif. Remember when hot air balloons used to be everywhere in scrapbook lines? I was never a fan of them because I always had a hard time using them on my pages.

I believe Doodlebug also has papers that show a house/neighborhood scene. I'm pretty sure I have a Halloween one in my stash somewhere!

That being said, the similarities don't really bother me. The turnover time for each collection is so fast and there are really only so many things you can do...there are bound to be repeat ideas.

I so totally agree..!

I love the OA one but not the DL one - to me they're pretty different. The DL one feels "newer" and has more space on it - which is what I tend not to like in paper patterns. The OA one feels cozier, more homey, in keeping w/the home theme. But I've noticed a move toward the more open patterns, which is probably why I can't find as many papers as I used to that I like.

It's REALLY hard to find an original design. American crafts is cycling about 10 designs through their main brands-Amy tan, shimelle, dear lizzy and Maggie Holmes.

We've had the discussion before but Amy, Lizzy and others are not designers in the sense that they sit down and design their collection. They have solid fanbases, a name, a relatable persona (or, I should say, an aspirational persona they cultivate through online presence - which is obviously a narrative construction and not a reality as many are pointing out with Queen Lizzy's perfect family life) and appeal. That's it. They'll inject some personal touches like brush script or go-to design elements/overall feel. And voilà. The AC design team peddles and does all the hard work. They set the tone based on current trends, including colour schemes, and their in-house sale reviews. That's what big monopolies do: they push product in as effective a manner as possible, trying to limit cost damage of unsuccessful collections by having their finger very firmly on the (large) pulse.
There will necessarily be overlap between the Amy Tangerine and Dear Lizzy brands design-wise because there's quite a bit of overlap between their target audiences.

And yes, a lot gets recycled over and over again. I definitely do not see much direct copying between Dear Lizzy's and OA's papers because I've seen this type of design so many times already. As scrappyem pointed out, they're both  descendants of typical Scandinavian designs from the 1960s and 1970s. We had some vintage Swedish towels with a similar design distribution picturing a town with cars and trees when I was growing up.

this is in the new Pinkfresh Dream On collection, similar pattern but the style is must different

All I can see is the Brazilian flag-inspired house/door in that design! And there goes my brain...

Agreed......as long as it is NOT pink gold and aqua!
hahahaha!

Becky Higgins comes to mind.SaveSaveSaveSave

I have the haunted house neighborhood paper and I'm pretty sure they also have a springtime Easter one with houses on it. Maybe more than one.