Design houses are groups of (as the name implies) designers (illustrators, graphic designers) that all work within the same house style. Those within these groups often have to adopt a certain style and work to that. People of design houses usually work with clients who have been discovered by the company itself, working through an agent, it is easier to find work, and will be a lot more regular than those in freelance.
These jobs supply a lot more security in that you don't have to depend on your own networking to find work, and your work will usually be shown to a fairly large audience. However, it has its drawbacks - most companies require you to conform to a certain style and cater to more corporate customers; those that don't demand you have very impressive work and stand out. In order to have your creative freedom, you need to work much harder for it.
This way of working is a lot more stable and probably offers a lot more restful nights - however I personally don't think I could work this way, as I require a lot more freedom; the stability would be nice but it is more my style to work hard for a more regular income than to give up some of my creative freedom.
Thursday, 2 October 2014
Freelance
Freelance illustration is a very independent way to go - you get to keep your own style, work your own hours, and work from the comfort of your own home- this makes it sound like the ideal lifestyle with a lot of creative freedom.
Whilst the latter is true, this ideal lifestyle doesn't come without its hardships. Though you get to choose when you work, you will have to work hard and often and this requires a lot of self motivation - especially in the beginning. You can go weeks without work, only for it to all come through at once, which can seem quite overwhelming. Though you get to keep your own style, you have to make sure you sell it well - and to top it off you have to network as if your life depends on it (which, it kind of does).
All of these facts make freelancing a difficult (but enjoyable) path of work. It is important to keep enthusiastic about what you're doing, and to never turn down any opportunities - this includes competitions, exhibitions (make sure you photograph them well!) and - mainly in the beginning - any cheap or free work. Collaborations are important too, as they expand your network and show your work to a wider audience - not only to your own following but the person(s)' you collaborate with too
Ultimately, it seems like something I would find difficult but much prefer over to any other style of work. Though I like working to a brief, I love to have my own freedom, and freelancing is a bit of a mix of the two.
Whilst the latter is true, this ideal lifestyle doesn't come without its hardships. Though you get to choose when you work, you will have to work hard and often and this requires a lot of self motivation - especially in the beginning. You can go weeks without work, only for it to all come through at once, which can seem quite overwhelming. Though you get to keep your own style, you have to make sure you sell it well - and to top it off you have to network as if your life depends on it (which, it kind of does).
All of these facts make freelancing a difficult (but enjoyable) path of work. It is important to keep enthusiastic about what you're doing, and to never turn down any opportunities - this includes competitions, exhibitions (make sure you photograph them well!) and - mainly in the beginning - any cheap or free work. Collaborations are important too, as they expand your network and show your work to a wider audience - not only to your own following but the person(s)' you collaborate with too
Ultimately, it seems like something I would find difficult but much prefer over to any other style of work. Though I like working to a brief, I love to have my own freedom, and freelancing is a bit of a mix of the two.
Friday, 26 September 2014
It is important to remember that plagiarism occurs across all planes of creativity - it is not limited to reprinting someone's illustrations or rewriting someone's story, it can reach out across different media such as using a novel to heavily influence your illustration, meanwhile claiming all concepts of your own.
It is with this realisation I'm going to look at the famous Shia LaBeouf case study - one that we all know fairly well by now. In 2013, LaBeouf created a short film (Howardcantour.com) and released it as his directorial debut. It was an impressive conceptual film about the nature of criticism and its power to sculpt the creative world, definitely something its audience had been captivated by.
Shortly after its release, buzzfeed noted a familiarity with the film, and began to compare it to a comic piece by Daniel Clowes - as it turned out, the script from the comic had been lifted and used, word for word, as the dialogue in this short film. When Clowes realised what was going on, he mentioned that he had never even spoken to LaBeouf, and was shocked that his work had been stolen and used elsewhere.
Immediately after, LaBeouf issued a formal apology after stating he was a fan of Clowes' work, and, in his enthusiasm, had 'forgotten to give credit where credit was due'. As it turned out, the apology he issued was awfully similar to, in fact one could say he plagiarised, a yahoo answers response.
" Copying isn’t particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work. In my excitement and naïveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation. Im embarrassed that I failed to credit @danielclowes for his original graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, which served as my inspiration. I was truly moved by his piece of work & I knew that it would make a poignant & relevant short. I apologize to all who assumed I wrote it. I deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that I have a great respect for his work." - part of the apology offered by LaBeouf.
Read the article here: http://www.avclub.com/article/shia-labeouf-plagiarizes-daniel-clowes-comic-for-h-106565
It is with this realisation I'm going to look at the famous Shia LaBeouf case study - one that we all know fairly well by now. In 2013, LaBeouf created a short film (Howardcantour.com) and released it as his directorial debut. It was an impressive conceptual film about the nature of criticism and its power to sculpt the creative world, definitely something its audience had been captivated by.
Shortly after its release, buzzfeed noted a familiarity with the film, and began to compare it to a comic piece by Daniel Clowes - as it turned out, the script from the comic had been lifted and used, word for word, as the dialogue in this short film. When Clowes realised what was going on, he mentioned that he had never even spoken to LaBeouf, and was shocked that his work had been stolen and used elsewhere.
Immediately after, LaBeouf issued a formal apology after stating he was a fan of Clowes' work, and, in his enthusiasm, had 'forgotten to give credit where credit was due'. As it turned out, the apology he issued was awfully similar to, in fact one could say he plagiarised, a yahoo answers response.
" Copying isn’t particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work. In my excitement and naïveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation. Im embarrassed that I failed to credit @danielclowes for his original graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, which served as my inspiration. I was truly moved by his piece of work & I knew that it would make a poignant & relevant short. I apologize to all who assumed I wrote it. I deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that I have a great respect for his work." - part of the apology offered by LaBeouf.
Read the article here: http://www.avclub.com/article/shia-labeouf-plagiarizes-daniel-clowes-comic-for-h-106565
Thursday, 25 September 2014
(Image taken from telegraph.co.uk)
The similarities between the style and design are too many to ignore - from the looks of things, the image has been traced and slightly altered to create the piece on the right. Originally, though absurd as it sounds, the design company affiliated with Paperchase and this blatant rip off (Gather No Moss) denied any plagiarism at all initially.
Soon after this incident, Neil Gaman (a scifi author) posted about it on Twitter which caused the whole thing to blow up and rendered Paperchase unable to deny it any longer - a formal apology was issued to their customers and Hidden Eloise.
It can be argued that this is not enough, as the fiasco went on long after it was originally noticed, the multi-million pound company had initially ignored the artist's concerns, making a substantial amount of money before the design was officially revoked.
Read the articles here:
The Telegraph: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01576/Paperchase-460_1576762c.jpg
Bitterwallet: http://www.bitterwallet.com/paperchase-finally-say-sorry-for-stealing/25814
Are you plagiarising?
It does sometimes happen when someone makes work and does not necessarily realise that they are plagiarising - for some people, redrawing things or using photographs as a direct reference is something commonly practiced. If proper credit is not given, you are plagiarising work.
It may be that you are an artist who likes to draw buildings - looking at architecture and creating imagery from it is your passion. At which point are you plagiarising? You are doing so if at any point you claim that work is yours when it is not, or you fail to mention that it is not work (negligence to mention can also land you in trouble, so be careful). People need to be aware that you did not build this building, if you are drawing from someone else's photographs, it needs to be mentioned that you used those photos as reference and you did not take them. The drawing needs to be your own, you can't just replicate someone else's image and take credit for it.
How can you avoid this? Maybe you just want to draw a building without repercussions - for starters, make sure any references or materials you used in creating the image do not go to your credit - people need to know they're not yours. You could always take your own photographs of whatever you want to draw, then you do not need to credit an extra artist (photographer) as the artist is you.
Just imagine if someone stole the work you spent so much effort on - and use that scenario to drive you to not plagiarise someone else's.
It may be that you are an artist who likes to draw buildings - looking at architecture and creating imagery from it is your passion. At which point are you plagiarising? You are doing so if at any point you claim that work is yours when it is not, or you fail to mention that it is not work (negligence to mention can also land you in trouble, so be careful). People need to be aware that you did not build this building, if you are drawing from someone else's photographs, it needs to be mentioned that you used those photos as reference and you did not take them. The drawing needs to be your own, you can't just replicate someone else's image and take credit for it.
How can you avoid this? Maybe you just want to draw a building without repercussions - for starters, make sure any references or materials you used in creating the image do not go to your credit - people need to know they're not yours. You could always take your own photographs of whatever you want to draw, then you do not need to credit an extra artist (photographer) as the artist is you.
Just imagine if someone stole the work you spent so much effort on - and use that scenario to drive you to not plagiarise someone else's.
(Case study post taken from Dailydot.com)
It's no big secret, urban outfitters is one of the many retail chains that frequently plagiarises the work of other artists - although recently news of them doing so seems to be cropping up a lot more often, not that it seems to have slowed them down at all as shown by this report.
James Soares is the artist and designer behind Spires, and as he has such a variety of designs cannot keep a constant eye open on social media and the going ons around his art work. However, when someone shared on May 8th, 2014 the link to this skirt in urban outfitters, it was a comment that did not slip through the net and he decided to check it out. He immediately recognised the design as his own tryypyzoyd, as no other attempt than to rotate it 180 degrees had been made to alter it.
Once notified of this, urban outfitters immediately changed the design to 'sold out', and while they were not directly responsible for this rip off (the designers who stole the work were Bambam cloth), with something like this happening as frequently as it does with urban outfitters, you would think they would keep a closer eye on where their designs are coming from.
Read the article here: http://www.dailydot.com/business/urban-outfitters-steal-artists-work/
(Case study post taken from youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com)
The UK clothing website whoclothing.com seems to have made a slight error here - some garments up for purchase display the image shown on the right - which is nearly identical to the original work of Ben "Way Bad" Jensen. They apparently feel a need to keep the work closely similar, even going as far to name the design "Skull Plant" which is, oddly enough, the same title that Jensen has given to his original design.
As if to only make matters worse, Jensen has also previously sold this design to a clothing company known as wolveskillsheep.com, which is very artist friendly.
Plagiarism
The introduction of social media and the vastly expanding world of the Internet is making it easier and easier to find work to plagiarise - on this note it also makes it easier to find out exactly who is plagiarising and to source the image and artist who is having their work stolen.
The word plagiarise originated from the Latin word 'plagiarus' (kidnapper) and the Greek word 'plagium' (kidnapping). It is a very apt way to describe the theft of someone else's work, as your own work is something you have often spent a long time nurturing, thinking over and finding references, influences, to eventually produce your own piece of work that you should be proud to be the 'parent' of.
Unfortunately, those who are more creatively challenged fail to realise the amount of effort, time, blood, sweat, and tears you have put in to this and decide that they are going to make this work their own - rather than paying homage to your work (recreating it and placing their own spin on it, with no intention to claim the original thoughts and concepts as their own) they will simply rip it off and waving it about in the air proclaiming "look at what I did all by myself all my own work look!". More often than not the plagiariser will earn some form of money or exposure through doing this.
The following posts will take a look at case studies/examples of the act of plagiarism, all researched from different sources of which I will include in the post. Let's not plagiarise plagiarism.
The word plagiarise originated from the Latin word 'plagiarus' (kidnapper) and the Greek word 'plagium' (kidnapping). It is a very apt way to describe the theft of someone else's work, as your own work is something you have often spent a long time nurturing, thinking over and finding references, influences, to eventually produce your own piece of work that you should be proud to be the 'parent' of.
Unfortunately, those who are more creatively challenged fail to realise the amount of effort, time, blood, sweat, and tears you have put in to this and decide that they are going to make this work their own - rather than paying homage to your work (recreating it and placing their own spin on it, with no intention to claim the original thoughts and concepts as their own) they will simply rip it off and waving it about in the air proclaiming "look at what I did all by myself all my own work look!". More often than not the plagiariser will earn some form of money or exposure through doing this.
The following posts will take a look at case studies/examples of the act of plagiarism, all researched from different sources of which I will include in the post. Let's not plagiarise plagiarism.
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