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an optimistic story for any designer!

NewYawkSeahawk

By NewYawkSeahawk
in General Design

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NewYawkSeahawk

NewYawkSeahawk

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Some of you that I chat with outside the walls of this forum already know what I am talking about, but I thought about it and decided I would post it here to offer some optimistic advice / shared story of my own for any designers who have ever done any kind of professional / semi-professional design work for a company or sports team.

I had done some free design work 3 years ago for a professional sports organization, I had done this work for this team because I had personally known someone in the organization and wanted to offer something to them that they could use to give something back to their fans for free.

I collected no compensation and since it was not work for hire, I retained all creative rights of the design outside the realm of what was owned by this team.

Back in January, I noticed that this organization had allowed (without my permission) one of their corporate sponsors which they endorsed to use my designs to sell rather expensive goods and services. Needless to say I contacted the organization right away and within days we came to a simple resolution. In exchange for me not pursuing legal action for the offense, the organization offered me some team related items, valued at $600, however we agreed in writing that I still retained creative rights and all future usage must be requested to me in writing.

Thought that would be the end of that....

Well in the middle of June, sure enough.... my designs appeared back on these partner websites of theirs to sell new expensive goods / services, which they endorsed from their homepage.

What does a designer have to do to get some respect? I couldn't believe it... a slap in the face.

So I immediately contacted this organization and let them know they had violated our agreement and I would be suing them unless we could come to a mutually agreeable financial resolution. Their initial reaction was to have their partners remove my designs from their websites immediately and then set up a telephone call with their attorney for me a week later.

To make this short.... Their lawyer initially claimed the organization has no responsibility and that they would not be giving me a single dime. Which is pretty much what we all could expect to hear from a company initially.

After an hour conversation and me strongly defending my position, I made some ground with their attorney to at least acknowledge there could have been some wrong doing and he would have to investigate it. A week later their attorney came with a settlement offer.

I am a fair and reasonable person, and I wasnt looking to sue for the maximum to get rich quick, I only wanted what would be fair rate for the works based upon my experience level and position.

I took his offer into consideration and after a few days I told him it was not what i was expecting, and we needed to come up with a resolution somewhere between what my expectations were and what his offer was.

We were able to do that quickly..... and as a end result, we reached a 5 figure financial settlement plus some additional team related items.

All in all a good resolution to a unfortunate situation.

Why am I sharing this story with people here?

Simple.... because as a pro designer of 14 years, I have learned alot of things and the lesson I learned this time is..

# 1. Don't ever do anything for free for someone. If you dont want to charge them fair rate, that is fine, but get compensated something for your work initially.

# 2. ALWAYS get a written / signed contract. Even if you do work for your sister's boyfriend, of your neighbors' cousin, ALWAYS get the terms and conditions in writing ahead of time, so it is clear to all parties involved.

# 3. If someone uses your work commercially or otherwise without your permission.... you DO have rights you can pursue. If the work is used on a website, immedately take PRINT SCREENS of all instances, as well as physically print out all instances on paper for documentation.

# 4. Never sell yourself or your talents short just because you are honored or proud that a professional sports organization has used your design works. Professional sports organizations have enough money to pay a designer for works, and if they use those works to make $$$$$, than you should as well.

And that's really about it.....

I am very pleased with the outcome of this situation, especially since I handled it all on my own directly without getting lawyers involved.... Had I gotten lawyers involved, sure I could have probably gotten more $$$$, but for me it was more about making sure this organization acknowledged their mistake and compensated me fair rate for the usage.... and they did.

I apologize if I am a little vague on the specifics... It is intentional.

You may ask any questions you want, but I will not answer:

"What pro sports team is this?" (one of the major 4 leagues)

"What is the exact $$ amount that you received?" (5 figure settlement)

www.briandoakes.com
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Posted
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oh yeah... and I heard the Canucks might be redoing their logo for the 4th time.

Anything related to 'Canucks' this time?

no... LOL

That was a inside joke tween me and another board member....

I have a theory that people only start to respond to posts when we are talking about a redesign of the Canucks logo!

Bugger. They need a new one.

As for the original point of the thread, well done on taking 5 figures off someone for a design. (Unless one of those figures is a decimal point, then it's kinda underwhelming :) )

Oh, and I've got a site.

Footy Jumpers Dot Com

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