A few days ago, a client has been messaging me none stop about a vector design she saw that was similar to a design i gave her a week before. The client insisted that i explain how this happened. I have been a designer for a very very long time and had clients local and abroad. Clients don't get the fact that there are other people trying to get a hold of original designs and copying or uploading it as their own. Nowadays, young designers and clients make it a habit to google the designs they want and voila, everything's on the net. Designers who have been in the business for so long never had this chance let's say 10 years ago.
I remember when i was in college, my professors always made it a point that we render our projects and works manually. Manually means by hand... yes, with pencil and paint. I got used to rendering all my artworks by hand. When i was a fresh grad and had my first job as a fashion designer for high-end kiddie brands, i was introduced to photoshop and illustrator - which was not popular then. Designers like me never had it easy because designs were not widely available online. We had to design our own elements... we never had the chance to copy and paste... i wish it was easy then.
I always made it a point to design my own elements (call it vectors now). I now have hundreds of original designs that i personally designed. These files are so heavy that i used to have hundreds of cdr copies of everything. Since 2001, i made it a habit to upload my files via email, flickr, etc... I trusted all clients and thought that only... ONLY approved files are to be downloaded. and oooh was i wrong...
Many filipino graphic artists are hired to do vector designs. Vector designs are editable elements used on designs using adobe illustrator program. It is very disappointing to see how dishonest people can be. Most vector clients usually request the illustrator file to be uploaded since they need to check if these artworks being submitted are indeed editable using illustrator program. The internet is a very small world for all designers. A dishonest client could upload certain files and upload it without the knowledge of the designer. This is the part where some designers wouldn't have any control over copyright images - an original artwork circulating the net without their knowledge.
This happened to me a few days ago, when a client saw a similar vector file that i have originally designed for a client in 2001. I browsed a lot of free sites offering images and pictures and saw a collection of mine. I have messaged the site and they said that it would be pulled down in a few days. Pulling down the image won't help since the file was uploaded for so long and that some artists might have used them and uploaded it somewhere else. This is very frustrating since i couldn't do anything else except accept the fact that the designs are for public use.
I have messaged my client to pull out the collection which has been uploaded on the net. But the thing is that this "certain" client has been bugging me about these designs. The funniest thing about this client is that the collection submitted is not payed for! Stop bugging me about this "certain" design when it isn't even payed for! Of all the designs i have submitted this client could browse the whole net and look for the other designs i submitted. All my designs are original. Of all my years designing, i have never made it a habit to copy someone else's work.
Young clients just don't have any idea on how the designing world works. I have been designing since the day some of these clients were even born. The problem is with some client is that they want to have an original design (yet inspired by something they copied on the net). What is that? i don't get it. The designs on the internet are mostly made by designers who have been doing this for a living for more than 10 years or so. There is never an original piece of design. I hope some "newbie" clients get this inside their tinnie weenie minds. I understand that clients make excuses when they first of all; Unsatisfied with a design, found a cheaper graphic artist or doesn't want to pay anything at all. Stop complaining about a design that you haven't paid for yet! Most designs you have seen on the internet are done by creative artists that have been in the business for years... so, please...
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