Article: Coping With Clients Who Use Your Concept Design Without Paying

[morea]

A great blog from Pariah S. Burke of Designorati:

http://designorati.com/articles/t1/graphic-design/654/coping-%20with-clients-who-use-your-concept-design-without-paying.php

"A client has taken your concept design and hired someone else to execute it for less money. The client is reaping the benefits of your talent and skill, but you’re still eating generic mac n’ cheese. What recourse do you have?"

It is a must read!

[morea]

another good read:

Educate Lowballers and Stop Lowballing
(from our sister site, the creative forum)

http://thecreativeforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155

[Navian]

Watermarks with a date stamp in them are wonderful things. :)

*EDIT*
OR you can put this at the bottom (small) of every page for concepts:

NOTICE: THE DESIGNS SHOWN AND DESCRIBED HEREIN INCLUDING ALL TECHNICAL DRAWINGS, GRAPHICS AND MODELS THEREIN ARE PROPRIETARY AND CANNOT BE COPIED, DUPLICATED OR COMMERCIALLY EXPLOITED, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF [insert your company name]. AVAILABLE FOR LIMITED REVIEW AND EVALUATION BY CLIENTS, CONSULTANTS, CONTRACTORS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, VENDORS AND OFFICE PERSONNEL ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS NOTICE.

We have this ^ on our drawings.

[morea]

seriously, this article should be read in its entirety and bookmarked in case you ever need to refer to it. It is incredibly well written and straightforward and offers professional ways to stand up for your rights.

[Navian]

I'm reading it, and I'll print it out for class on Wednesday (business and marketing for graphic design).

[morea]

excellent!

[Patrick Shannon]

Good links....I especially like that picture they used with the first article.

[morea]

yeah, that was a classic! :D

[PersonasBinar]

where's the paragraph about chasing and beating? lol

[morea]

it's implied, I think. :p

[reuber1]

Defeated by the unassailable fortress of deliberate ignorance, you thank the client and hang up.Bookmarked.

[flutterby nut]

morea...the designorati article is choice read...looks like a choice site too...now i'm off to read the other one you posted...lol...thanks so much...this is very helpful!

[Gillis Media]

As part of the services I offer, I make signs. I recently made a "coming soon" banner for a local resturant, and was lined up to work on their logo and do signs, menus, etc. the project went cold & I was busy with other work. A couple of months later my girlfriend came home and told me that the resturant had used my banner design as their logo. the banner was nothing special, but was one of a series of designs that I use as "standards". But I know my rights, what they had done was steal my intellectual property. Any design set in any medium, is your "original work of authorship" and is protected by law. So I sent them a strongly worded letter informing them that they had indeed used my design with out my permission, and they owed me my design fee or would have to face court action. they paid.
Know your rights & always include on any sketch or proposed design that the design is yours and giving them a copy is in no way implying that they have any right to it. And if they use it, take them to court, you will have an easy time proving that you own the design, and they will have to pay.

[morea]

Well done. Thank you for sharing your experience, and welcome to the forum!

[panzer]

morea a question

what if we design say a leaflet or some one and (we print it ) then later on they get some one else to do a leaflet that is nearly 90% the same as we had given them in the past

the point is if they paid for it isnt it now fully theirs

[reuber1]

It's the difference between ownage rights and usage rights. Very much like the photography world.

[morea]

that sounds like a question about copyright infringement... and I am not terribly well versed in that subject. It would probably depend on what was included in your contract and what the laws are in your area. In that case, I would think the best thing to do would be to consult an attorney.

[tZ]

You can't copyright a concept though… right?

Thats more like ethics- they will burn in hell,lol.

[morea]

There you go, that's a good answer. ;)

[mac.FINN]

YAY, this just happened to me! I'm glad I read this a while ago :D

[Sanjana]

Hey something similar happened to me too.



I was freelancing for one of the big tea making companies. Had finished designing packaging for one of their premium products. And was breaking my head creating new identity for them.



The owner’s wife wanted me to help her design a wedding invitation card for someone (Not paid of course!!) Which she wanted printed and ready in 5 days!!!

( Oh in my country Wedding Invites are a BIG thing.. everything has to be exclusive)



Politely I told her that I won’t be able to as I was too busy with other projects. But I offered to show her few of the good examples that I had.



One of them was a card designed by me for my sister’s wedding. I clearly told her not to create anything similar to that as only wish of my sister was that her wedding card should be totally different than anything that we have ever seen till date. And my design had surely matched that brief!! Even after the marriage we kept getting calls telling how beautiful and exclusive the invitation card was.



So I took a few cards to her the next day. She said ‘she was busy and so why don’t I leave them behind so that she could go through them later’.

I dint have very good feeling about that but still I did so.



That evening I fell sick for about a week. And so my next visit to that office happened only after 20 days. After the work was done I went to meet their in-house designers, who are my friends too. There, one of the junior designers showed me the latest work he had to do…. Which was COPING MY CARD!!!


It had the same concept, colours and layout as the card designed by me!!
The only thing which was changed was that, there were no floral graphics but just the empty colour patches. And that too was just because the designer who copied my work would have taken at least two days to reproduce the graphics!!



Ohh I was so furious ….. I just left that place.

But I still feel frustrated cause I dint say anything to that bitch!!



This whole issue was about ethics …. I was just helping and this is what I got in return!!!

[orkaknos12]

moreover.. did anyone notice this site in the article.. I thought it was a joke, but it's not? http://GetAFreelancer.com? read this site and see how low people go for the all mighty dollar ...breaks my heart .. it's pure exploitation.

-Jon

[panzer]

i feel ill

[maemae]

Thank you for posting this article! I appreciate it!
~Mae

[bejamshi]

moreover.. did anyone notice this site in the article.. I thought it was a joke, but it's not? http://GetAFreelancer.com? read this site and see how low people go for the all mighty dollar ...breaks my heart .. it's pure exploitation.

-Jon I just get worried if the designs they do is original or they copy copyright material since they live in foreign countries.

[vaughn]

Sue them.

[bejamshi]

Sue them. You can not sue them if they don't live in canada or the states. many countries are using copyright material all the time. I will not name the countries but they are many.

[bejamshi]

Never leave any of your work with anyone. Never.
I don't care if the job is worth millions. Make sure you charge them good for the tea design your doing.

[budafist]

Slap them with a wet fish.

[bejamshi]

Slap them with a wet fish.:eek::rolleyes::p:D

[budafist]

I’m quite skilled with a sewing machine and pattern, but that doesn’t grant me the talent, skill, or right to call myself a fashion designer.

So true in the design world. Just because you can use the program, doesn't mean you have design skills.

[creative 3d]

"It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all.

When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot -it can't be done.

IF YOU DEAL WITH THE LOWEST BIDDER, IT IS WELL TO ADD SOMETHING FOR THE RISK YOU RUN and if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better."

Wise Words....

[mooseman]

Im NOT defending them, but I will say I've worked in companies that the owners/managers making the decision to re-purpose some artwork that someone did into something else, just dont know any better.

I've seen some that do, but most are just ignorant with no idea of the whole copyright process. They figure, its their logo, so anything you do with it must be theirs.

Ive had to explain it many time to people like that.

[mchilly]

"It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all.

When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot -it can't be done.

IF YOU DEAL WITH THE LOWEST BIDDER, IT IS WELL TO ADD SOMETHING FOR THE RISK YOU RUN and if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better."

Wise Words....


Yes I do agree! :)

[budafist]

Yeah I agree too. I love a good bargain, but sometimes I end up buying a product that doesn't work at all. In those cases, I might as well has chucked my money into the toilet. It's a fine line between a good deal and buying a piece of junk.

[jimmiecat]

I had a "friend" do that to me. I pitched 3 ideas for a pc design, one was chosen, designed, printed. After a few months of being busy, we naturally grew apart, I then saw one of my other pitches, made of 72dpi images from her site, and photocopied to quarter page. I couldn't believe I atleast wasn't asked if it was ok. LOL. I got the final laugh though because it looked awful!

[Blak_Phoenix]

Great article, can anyone email me the document he has at the bottom, i cant seem to download it.

[Big Gabe]

Slap them with a wet fish.
dirty fish slapper!!!

[Cooper]

morea a question

what if we design say a leaflet or some one and (we print it ) then later on they get some one else to do a leaflet that is nearly 90% the same as we had given them in the past

the point is if they paid for it isnt it now fully theirs
Not necessarily. Unless your contract stipulated that the price includes transferal of all rights including the right to alter the artwork then they are in breach of copyright.

Copyright includes the prevention of altering existing artwork. Now, even if they recreate the artwork from scratch, if it's still provably derivative of your original piece, you can go after them. 90% similiar would be fair game, I believe, although you'd have to convince a judge of the degree of similarity.

You can not sue them if they don't live in canada or the states. many countries are using copyright material all the time. I will not name the countries but they are many.

Only half true. Any designer working in a country that signed up for the Bern Convention for the Protection of Copyrights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_an d_Artistic_Works) is likely to be fair game for sueing. As you can see from the map on that article, very few countries are excluded.

[Emily0415]

Though I am not familiar with technical terms, I still should it is a great work.