Soooooo how do you guys feel about taking work you’ve previously sold to a band and reusing it for something new, either for a personal line or competition site.
Ive never done it personally. Nor have i ever established licensing terms with any previous clients. Seems like it would be fair game if i could justify the ethics of it.
seems like it would make for a good discussion anyway...what say you?
35 Comments
Simply Complicated said 4 months ago
I think as long as you do the whole "change %30" thing youll be fine, i dont see the harm in it
derekdeal said 4 months ago
what are you quoting, ive never heard that before in my life
Killer Napkins said 4 months ago
ya know .. i was wondering that.. l;ike if i took a character off my shirt i sold to someone.. and added more sshit background more characters.. words .. woudl that be ok still?
Simply Complicated said 4 months ago
some shop owner was explaining to me how 310 motoring changed %30 of one of the designs of creative recreations dicoco lo shoe and thats how they got away with it legally that could be wrong though i dont know, but it wasnt the first time i have heard it
heroes said 4 months ago
id ethically say no : /
as ive bought art and would be very sad someone is getting part of my tee
skullface said 4 months ago
as long as it’s not exactly the same and it’s for something personal or for a competition I think that’s legit. not like two different bands. just personal opinion.
love that shoe!
justinryan said 4 months ago
Yeah.. The 30% thing wouldn’t hold up in court, dude haha.
Also, if it is client work for a band, label, whaever, it would really depend on if they purchased the rights. If you still own the rights, technically it is yours to do as you please.
Killer Napkins said 4 months ago
that makes me wonder also... i have sold a design with a character that i have also done an oil painting of the exact same charcter in the exact same pose.. now copyrights confuse me...
Elks said 4 months ago
yea, probably wouldn’t get a lot of work afterwards.
collisiontheory said 4 months ago
Not sure that would go down well with the band. Plus, don’t they basically get the rights to reproduce that design on t-shirts? If you were to use it in say a print ad or something then maybe that might be more acceptable?
This is a good question and I see a good discussion on this.
Joey said 4 months ago
people do it with posters a lot...take off all the info and call it an "art print". i think that is a little different just because the poster is basically used once in one place.
you haven’t sold the rights, so technically it’s fair game. i think if i was the band i would think it was a little wack, but there really isn’t anything they could do about it besides complain.
personally, i’m still on the fence about this. i don’t really know how i feel about it. technically, you’re totally in the right, but something just feels icky about it.
heavyprints said 4 months ago
I don’t understand what there is to feel bad about? Give them the option to pay 1200(or whatever you charge) for explicit rights to the artwork, or charge them a smaller fee and do as you would like with it.
T-wrecks said 4 months ago
Well, honestly i can totally see this from both sides.
You could totally do as you will with your work as long as you have not sold the exclusive rihts to it , but
It is morally fucked up i think to do something else with it ,
I mean I couldnt do it i would feel like a big terd!
collisiontheory said 4 months ago
Just did some research.. DBH can’t accept designs that have been published somewhere else:
"Works previously published in any location other than DesignByHumans.com may not be submitted."
When you win, they send you an email that says:
".. the design is not currently submitted to any other design contest or being sold as a t-shirt (now or in the past) at any other location."
I’m sure threadless and other contests have the same kind of rules. So that leaves you with using it for a personal line.
I’ve never considered this before. I’m not sure any label/band merch company is willing to pay another fee for explicit/exclusive rights. I’m sure technically you can still use the design somewhere else but I’m not sure you’ll ever get work from the bands again.
Simply Complicated said 4 months ago
please dont say the 310 motoring one... cre rec did it first and the dicoco lo has to be pretty much my favorite shoe ever.. i own 6 pair of them, 310 bit the design so bad and their shoes are as ghetto as fubu
Joey said 4 months ago
i keep thinking about this. i’m way curious as to what other people think about this.
heavyprints said 4 months ago
You might want to check with them about it. If they’re only printing a shirt to sell on a specific tour, then once it’s over, they may not care about the artwork. They’ll probably think long and hard about any discount you offer them.
derekdeal said 4 months ago
good form, i forgot about those rules, i guess that just leaves the personal stuff
collisiontheory said 4 months ago
Hmm well not sure that’s how it works. If i’m a merch company and see that a design sells really well, I’d reprint that shirt and sell it over and over. hehe
In my experience, some bands will have a deal with Hot Topic and sell that exclusively with HT. That adds another problem because you’re now dealing with HT’s rights to print the design on shirts? Oh well all in all, i reckon it’s a bad idea.
derekdeal said 4 months ago
Im starting to think that even from a p.r. standpoint its not a great idea. Its probably not the best move to give off the impression that you’re incapable of coming up with fresh ideas all the time.
I guess you can only hope that you charge accordingly for the pieces you really love and make sure you’re happy with how its going to be distributed and redistributed until its retired.
heavyprints said 4 months ago
In my experience, and I have never run a merch company so take it with a grain of salt.. But, the companies I have worked for put out new products at regular intervals. Even if something sells well, it’s eventually pushed off of the shelf by a new product. People don’t want to see the same designs every time they return to your store.
It might pay to look into. Jm2c.
Joey said 4 months ago
tooootally thought that said Jnco
heroes said 4 months ago
this kinda ties in with a conversation i was having the otherday
if you work alongside a brand and they help develop a concept and the concept is very specific to there brands style but they keep rejecting your work and they offer no kind of kill fee
what do people feel about selling those pieces
Joey said 4 months ago
sell the shit out of it
skull with hair said 4 months ago
or another band! haha.
but for real ive wondered this myself. screw the whole thing you’re talking about and picture this...
said band you’ve designed for ends up getting super huge (misfits huge) and 15 years from now they are selling that art on shirts, hats, pants, guitars, coffee mugs, shot glasses, dildos, ect... but they never ever had you sign over the rights to the artwork in a design agreement like some companies require. technically you still own the rights to that artwork and can print it all you want and deny them from printing it all you want. after all, all they really paid for was a shirt design, you are owed residuals.
so yeah, if there is money being made off your art, go get it. i guarantee you that exact scenario will happen to one of us in 15+ years, just watch.
skullface said 4 months ago
I meant the Dicoco! your six pairs impress me highly. and haha I thankfully don’t even know who 310 is
Master_Control said 4 months ago
MykeCatastrophic said 4 months ago
Tender Branson said 4 months ago
This situation actually came up at work not too long ago. To save you from all of the lame details - we basically ended up being told "...the company has been using the logo so long that they have become accustomed to using it" and since we never gave them written limitations or asked for payment before then there was nothing we could do about it after so long.
Probably could have taken it to court and fought it but honestly? You won’t win. Courts just don’t understand art and ownership rights. We’ve actually lost cases before having had legal copyright documents through the government. Bullshit if you ask me.
Simply Complicated said 4 months ago
"shot glasses, dildos, ect..."
haha
but yah, now it sounds like it would be kind of shady from the points everybody is making
we should still have an official emptees competition site though like dbh haha
horsebites said 4 months ago
Great discussion. I know that I’ve used elements that I’ve drawn for other clients. I’ve never used the same design as a whole or too similar (at least I don’t think so). I almost see it as clip art that I created and I’m allowed to use little things for other art because it’s part of my style. I will never use a main graphic though, that’s too obvious and wrong I would think.
Joey said 4 months ago
HORSEBITES USES CLIP ART!!
godmachine said 4 months ago
i drink soy milk.
justgeoff said 4 months ago
I wouldn’t reuse art that I previously sold somewhere else. If it’s a design that I pitched that didn’t get accepted, that’s one thing. I’ve done that on a few occassions. But I want the client to know that whatever design I sell them isn’t going to be popping up on other band or tee company’s tees.
Mr.Stan Geek said 4 months ago
I think it kind of wrong if I payed for a custom design and later on I found out someone else bought it also. Design recycling is equal to a ripoff design if your first client did not know about your plan to reuse it. If you want to do resell a design have some remade designs were you add the bands name to if at a lower rate then a custom design