[amayausers] Re: question about design ownership
- From: "John Yaglenski" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 14:39:41 -0500
As someone who does design work as part of my living - I would like to point
out that the end result that you see (such as your tic tac toe city design)
is often the result of countless hours of give and take, multiple designs,
color and texture changes and dealing with clients who are never very sure
exactly what they want. This is often done as part of a process or
collaboration with a number of different people.
What appears to be a lot of money, when broken down in terms of hours spent,
might not be as much as you think. Also the assumption that "that any
local high school kid would have done for free" gets you exactly what you
pay for. I have heard the same thing about web design for years - and more
times than not, I can spot a professionally done site or design in a few
seconds after looking at it.
Anyway... Just my 2 cents.
John Yaglenski
President / Chief Executive Officer
Levelbest Communications
I: www.levelbest.com
P: 301.591.2481 / 888.229.1779
F: 501-631-4544
active website design . web hosting . content driven websites
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-----Original Message-----
From: amayausers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:amayausers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roland R. Irish III
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 2:16 PM
To: amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [amayausers] Re: question about design ownership
Copyright law was also the subject of several articles in Sign
magazines-that's where I learned it all, also went to the gov't website to
get a copy of the laws.
Aaron's post with Helens remarks boils it down nicely.
Now, here's what we have been hashing around on the 'sign' chat I'm in all
the time.
Designing/layout/artwork-there are 'companies' out there that do this for a
livingl. That's all they do-generate logos and artwork. They don't make
signs, they don't print business cards, they don't embroider shirts. They
CHARGE a fee to design your logo or teeshirt design. They charge a BIG fee
to do this. Not $5 or $10...the 'average' fee I've heard to do a simple
'real estate logo' design is $250.00 Our city manager (without any
permission) contracted with a 'consulting firm' to get a new city logo last
year. For EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS he got a simple 'crosshatch'
tic tac toe design (as everyone calls it now) that any local high school kid
would have done for free. It is supposed to represent the original weaving
mills that were built here 150 years ago.
So he got this 'logo' and 50 pages of blahblahblah explaining how they came
up with the idea. That's alll-not even business cards-for $8500.00 The last
'logo' for the city, only 5 years old and I did it for shirts, signs,
banners, you name it...was the result of a contest with the school kids and
cost nothing!
So, moral of the story here...IF YOU DO DESIGN WORK GET PAID FOR IT.
DON"T GIVE YOUR TIME AWAY....not when someone else will charge them for you!
Why did the client come in and ask YOU to design their logo? Well, chances
are good they called a graphic designer and found out how much THEY would
charge, and figured YOU wouldn't charge because you are going to do a couple
shirts for them.
Look at what you have to pay Dakota to get a simple 5,000 stitch design-not
a custom one-a stock one-about $25.....THEY charge YOU, so why don't YOU
charge the client for custom work?
Embroidery costs almost nothing-look at how many shirts one cone of thread
will do. It is our TIME that costs money.
Roland
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