Outlining Possible Pitfalls: Progressing Through This Week’s Task
The task for this week was to find out possible instance for copyright infringements in relation to graphic designs in a particular industry or to take a speculative approach towards it. The task of the first four weeks of the module lead up to writing a business plan, I thought that it was sensible to link these together. (In reality, I had a couple different ideas, but Alec – one of the tutors – gave me some good advice).
As mentioned in previous posts, my business idea is to work with musicians and artists involved in show business (you can read more about this here) and thought of putting together possible copyright infringements that might take place (on purpose or by accident) in a list.
Going About the Exercise
I started off by jotting down a supposedly ‘linear map’ / flowchart of how far and where my work will go once it leave the studio and is handed over to the client. This approach helped me in putting my thoughts in order and was able to look at all the possible outcomes in the end. It might not seem the most ‘linear’ of maps, but it does make sense if you look at it closely. Well it does to me at least. It is a fun and colourful read if anything. Anyway, the point of this was to create this map and that way I would be able to pinpoint the possible cracks in it. Sort of like an actual map and pointing out the points of interest.
Following this, I also looked up some sources where they discuss design in relation to music specifically. AIGA was once again a go-to resource. I found an article which was published back in 2016 were it discussed how the music and design industry work so well together and how as designers we should know embrace transitional thinking. In this case it would be coming to terms that our work is more likely to feature on digital platforms rather than being produced solely as album art. However, this should be something encouraging as for musicians, design is now “an opening statement”. They need to grab the users’ attention.
About Print Releases…
Another interesting website I stumbled upon is called TheLawTog.com. In a nutshell, this website offers legal advice and direction to creatives. It focuses mostly on photographers, but there are some really good resources on the site. In fact, I learned about ‘Print Releases’. This is different from copyright, however, this gives the client permission, rather than right’, to use the artwork designed for them to reproduce it for their own use. By ‘own’, I mean that the client can reprint or republish or re-use as needs may arise. This can be for a poster for a follow-up event, re-print of t-shirt designs and similar scenarios. A print-release DOES NOT give the right for the client to resell the designs as their own. Learning about print releases definitely helped in answering a lot of dilemmas in relation to where clients and myself stand when it comes to talking about rights on IP.
Will be sharing the list pretty soon, so stay tuned!
