Yep, another Pinterest Post. It seems that everyone has something to say about it.
I love the site, I think its amazing not only for storage of your favorite things (instead of having to use your computers bookmarks feature), but also to discover new things! I have found so many new blogs & shops that I might have not found if it wasn't for Pinterest.
This post isn't to tell you how to pin properly (don't worry I already covered that), instead this is a post to share the impact of Pinterest on an artist when not used properly! In a matter of a week I have heard how someones creation (from over a year ago) wound up on the cover of a magazine with no credit to them, I have also seen knock offs from big retailers of things that originated from the handmade community. This is just one small story of a problem that is getting larger everyday. Artists have started to call copy cats out.
I firmly believe in DIY & creating things for your home or personal use, but making revenue from stealing is wrong.. this is why we believe rules should be set in place to protect artists! If these artists are not protected they might have to put blocks on their photos they share, where will the inspiration come from then? xo heather
I firmly believe in DIY & creating things for your home or personal use, but making revenue from stealing is wrong.. this is why we believe rules should be set in place to protect artists! If these artists are not protected they might have to put blocks on their photos they share, where will the inspiration come from then? xo heather
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Hello Just Lovely Readers! Its me, Leonora again. Heather asked me to do an important guest post based on a very recent experience I just had which in regards to a recent post she wrote about sourcing work on pinterest.
But before I get there let me start by saying that I am the shop owner and designer for Yellow Heart Art. I went to school for graphic design (yeah I know I'm shocked one can major in "Making things look pretty 101" too) What I loved the most about being a graphic designer was the fact that I could stare at a blank screen and then POOF ya start to add some fonts, some colors, some illustrations and bada bing ya got yourself a pretty fun looking graphic.
When opening up shop I knew I had to give Yellow Heart Art "a voice". Something that when people experienced my shop they can see my prints on someone's blog or someone's pinterest and go "ahhhh THATS HER!". I wanted my prints and artwork to be fun, light hearted, playful and unleash everyone's "inner kid".
Here is the breakdown as to what goes into one of my graphic prints (same goes for designing my plushies and necklaces!)
• Come up with a rad saying
• Go cross eyed by browsing through hundreds and hundreds of fonts
• Lay out the art work in black and white
• Go back and start to add color
• "never falling in love" with my first draft and revisiting it to see how to make it better (by adding more KAPOW if you will--will you?)
• See if it needs an illustration, if it does then create the illustration from scratch on the computer
• Save my art as a low resolution jpg to be uploaded to my shop
• Come up with a product description that involves sizing, materials, shipping timeline and fun facts about the print
In total creating a piece of artwork from start to finish could take me anywhere from 3 days to a week. And thats just the creating process, thats not factoring in my ever growing Microsoft work doc of all the fun sayings that pop into my head that I jot down all the time.
So you can imagine my disappointment when I woke up to this in my inbox yesterday:
"Hi, I have long been a huge fan of your if you get eaten by a dinosaur print - i have a niece who would love it! I was looking on the Australian version of Etsy today, which is Madeit, and noticed three of your designs - I am hoping it is you, but people stealing others work is my bug bear at the moment, so I wanted to let you know! here is the link to the ones that I saw that reminded me instantly of your work…."
((Links to the other artist in question are not included in this blog post because honestly its not the right thing to do. The point of this blog post is to make people aware of stealing someone's art, not completely blowing up someone's spot by showing people their version of my stolen art))
I quickly clicked on the links and there it was--my art duplicated.
Now, I'm not talking about a "coincidence" I am talking 110% total COPY.
There was my colors scheme, my fonts, my illustrations, MY WORDING.
Days and days and days of original art that I worked hard on just stolen by somebody else that probably took them a few hours to do.
The best part? They actually watermarked the artwork so "no one else could steal it".
You can't make this stuff up.
After thinking long and hard what in the world to say to this artist I finally came up with this:
"Why Hello There! Do you recognize my user name? You might, since I have an etsy account by the same name. I have noticed there are 3 items in your shop that are 3 pieces of my original artwork.
The links in question are below. I'm a graphic designer who opened up their handmade shop as a way for me to have a creative outlet, create 100% original art, and have my artwork brace the walls of people's homes that really loved what I made. It was an amazing feeling knowing out there somebody wanted *my* artwork. I am so hurt to have stumbled upon your shop, see *my* wording and *my* artwork up for sale. My heart is sad because I took such a long time to come up with those sayings, those color schemes, those fonts, those ideas...and there it is up for sale in someone else's shop.
When you have a handmade shop *YOUR* personality should shine through, not someone else. You should be proud to stand behind your work knowing it is 100% your own. You should be proud to let your customers know that they are purchasing something you designed. I would really like it if you stopped selling my artwork. Like I said, I am more hurt than angry that another fellow graphic designer would steal another designer's work. Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing back from you.
Sincerely, Leonora
PS-in case you are unsure which pieces of artwork I am referring to I am attaching *my* artwork below
http://www.etsy.com/listing/68635952/graphic-art-print-get-eaten-by-a-t-rex-i
http://www.etsy.com/listing/69555028/graphic-art-print-making-little-pew-pew
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/58986854"
aaaaand exhale. I really had no idea what the person would write back.
Would they put up a fight? Would they deny ever seeing my art? Would they just shrug their shoulders, blow me off and leave it up anyway? Would they say sorry and just take it down? Will I have to take this to the next level? Why would they just copy another artist's work and claim it as their own?
As all these thoughts were running through my head I received a message back from the seller.
"Hello, Please note, I have removed the prints from sale. I'm sorry to have hurt you, I stumbled across your prints on pinterest, and being unable to trace them to a source, decided to recreate them. My apologies."
I'm sorry? You found my work on pinterest and because it "wasn't sourced" you just thought "oh hey, let me just re-create these bad boys and make it my artwork instead". Sourced or not sourced you DO NOT steal another person's artwork. Just because you can't find who originally made it does not mean it is "up for grabs" for the taking. Obviously SOMEONE designed it and SOMEONE worked hard on it. Even still, how do you even sell something to your customers that you are claiming is your own work that ISN'T your own work. There is no doubt in my mind that everything in that woman's shop was all stolen art. Her shop had "no voice". There was no originality, no creativity--nothing.
Do not get me wrong, I am THRILLED that she was so willing to take down the artwork. I mean, she really had no leg to stand on and did admit point blank "yes I copied your work". But just the fact that someone out there would do this is so discouraging. If I never got that email on etsy from that fan who found my art on another site I might not have seen it right away. By then that person might have sold a ton of *my* artwork.
I know this happens to a ton of artists who are not just graphic designers. I know people who design purses are hair accessories are dealing with "copy cats" as well.
Obviously we can't stop people from copying us. But we can try to source things correctly on pinterest-it might discourage others from claiming something that they think is "untraceable" as their own. Or maybe you are guilty of copying another artist's work, all I ask is that you stop and think for a moment what you are doing. Think about all the time that person put into coming up with that design. If the shoe was on the other foot would you want it done to you? And don't forget, you might have some nasty legal issues on your hand if you copy another artist's designs.
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Pinterest is an amazing free tool to us, the abuse by people not understanding how to use it will cause this tool to possibly go away. Respect others, use common sense and lets all be able to enjoy pinterest!