preventing presentation heisting

[zoran]

When presenting logo design, or any other kind of projects to a potential client... what can the designer do, to protect his work while he is presenting it?

 

[buttongerald]

Watermarks. Or even using barebones/blueprints to show off layouts and UI designs. A good practice as well when working with clients when it comes to protecting your work is to NOT hand over any and all completed works until the bill is fully paid.

 

[MBAir2010]

5 or more different aspects of the design in rough form with the colors on the side.
email of everything and dated stamp on the drafts.
good for you, i used to design logos and art and was excited every time i landed a new project!

 

[zoran]

Watermarks. Or even using barebones/blueprints to show off layouts and UI designs. A good practice as well when working with clients when it comes to protecting your work is to NOT hand over any and all completed works until the bill is fully paid.

For logo design, what kind of watermarks can one use? Watermarks that can make it difficult for a thief to heist?
What are barebones/blueprints? Any examples to show, so i can fully understand?

 

[Silverjerk]

I'm not really sure what you're trying to prevent given your example. If you're showing a presentation to a client in a closed meeting, are you scared the client will pillage the design? Do you have a contract in place? If you're not doing spec work, a presentation would likely happen after you've signed some formal contract for the project and thus any theft of that design would mean litigation -- an easy case which you would win in court.

Are you hosting the presentation online and are in fear of someone coming across it and stealing it from your public link? First and foremost, design theft isn't as common as new designers might believe. Inspiration and borrowing ideas happens often, but straight out theft is actually rare; couple the rarity of that occurrence with the chance someone would happen along your work organically from something like a generated Dropbox link (also very slim), and you have a near improbable scenario that you're losing sleep over.

Again, I'm not sure what the goal is, but in 20 years working as a designer I've maybe seen a few designs poached and it never robbed me of any tangible income. First, the type of individuals that do this aren't going to last in the business and are likely charging pennies in comparison, working for equally "cheap" clients that wouldn't have made it on your client list anyways. Second, it just doesn't happen often enough to take big steps to prevent it from occurring. Third, and I apologize for being candid, unless you're the next upstart design genius, it's unlikely that anyone is really stealing from you anyway. If theft does occur, it's usually in the form of modified reproductions of popular works, from popular designers. It's not really going to happen to new talent. I'm not trying to be rude, but it's just the truth; I can tell by this and other questions on the forum you're relatively new to this business, so I wouldn't worry too much about having your work stolen and reproduced.

I think you're worrying about the wrong thing here, unless you have a very specific case where stealing is somehow more likely. Don't give yourself anxiety over something that may never happen, even for the entirety of your career. Learn to be a better designer, spend time honing skills and practicing your craft rather than fretting about how to apply watermarks to your projects.

 

[zoran]

#silverjerk thank you so much for telling me this, with the way you said it... but i was thinking how can this contract thing work, when a designer is dealing with small business clients? I mean a contract will definitely be seen like a very formal and professional move that many (or most) clients will not consider to use. I hope you catch m drift.

 

[theluggage]

#silverjerk thank you so much for telling me this, with the way you said it... but i was thinking how can this contract thing work, when a designer is dealing with small business clients? I mean a contract will definitely be seen like a very formal and professional move that many (or most) clients will not consider to use. I hope you catch m drift.

Short, correct answer: get a proper contract before starting work, or at least before showing them any product. That’s all.

Long, pragmatic answer: get the the client to agree to something in writing setting out your terms in advance - doesn’t have to be 30 pages of legalese, just enough to avoid any suggestion that you’re giving them a freebie. Crucially, it should say that you will retain all copyright in the materials until the final invoice is paid in full, and only then will you send them a written copyright assignment or license. If you’re dealing with Mom’n’Pop clients you’re doing them a favour by reminding them that they’d be daft to reproduce your work on websites, stationary etc. without evidence of copyright.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and anybody relying on an Internet forum for legal advice deserves what they get

 

[zoran]

Would you hire a lawyer for doing work for a new logo, corporate identity and 2-3 conceptional ads for a neighbourhood startup hair salon?

 

[Silverjerk]

Would you hire a lawyer for doing work for a new logo, corporate identity and 2-3 conceptional ads for a neighbourhood startup hair salon?

You don't need to hire a lawyer per se. You can find a lot of the language online if you need it. @theluggage is correct, you should get a proper contract in place. I do know that when starting out, the types of clients you're working with may not even want to take the time to read those contracts over. I've even had some of my early clients think it was unnecessary, given the project pricing -- and at the time, I was still a struggling designer, and just moved forward with the work because I had bills to pay. And that's the "real" crux of the situation, since in the early days you're at the mercy of the client in many cases. At least until you get good enough to start cherry picking who you work with, which will happen in time.

So yes, if you can, get a contract for those clients that are willing to follow standards of a client/consultant relationship. If on the off chance you can't get a signature, rest assured (as I said above), theft has almost never had a tangible impact on my income. Not that it CAN'T, but just that it's rare to find yourself in a situation where a project is going to keep the lights on for a time, and suddenly that project is pulled out from under you because the client ran off with the work before the invoices were paid. Even without a contract, in this day and age simple email receipts and keeping track of communication is enough to win a fight in court.

 

[whose]

A contract need not be paper to this end. A two-way confirmation of agreement via email would suffice.