Design work isn’t free!
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When I’m chatting to signmakers, one thing that many of you have complained about over the years is the time and effort you spend designing signs or vehicle liveries for customers who then go and get the job produced elsewhere, without having paid a fee for creation of the design. Richard Rogers of TechnoSign in Leighton Buzzard recently contacted Sign Update on
this very matter. He said what triggered this most recent grumble was a potential customer who came in with visuals and was quite happy to announce that he was looking for whoever would produce his van graphics at the cheapest possible price, using the design created by another signmaker. He said the potential customer commented that the most expensive of three estimates he’d obtained was the first company he’d gone to. Richard says he pointed out that this was probably because that signmaker had already spent an hour or two on the design and quite rightly was including that cost in his estimate. It won’t be a surprise to many in the trade that this potential customer was fully intending to use the design without ever having paid for the creative work. I’ve been hearing stories like this for years, we all know it happens. How many times
have you been approached by someone with a design or layout that you know full well another signmaker’s done, and the customer is just looking for the cheapest quote? But the design belongs to the person who created it, at least until they’ve been paid for it. Has this become even more common now with customers almost always asking for
colour visuals of possible designs before they’ve even agreed you’ve got the job? Do any Sign Update readers have ideas how this can be stopped, or at least reduced? Would it work if signmaking companies put a copyright symbol and their name on the design? Would cheeky customers just blank this out? I’d love to hear from anyone who has thoughts on this topic, I don't suppose we will ever
sort out the problem, but between us we could give it a try. Go to the Sign Update forum at
www.signupdate.co.uk/design and click on “Customers using designs they haven’t paid for” or email me at
roger@sign-update-magazine.co.uk
Sorry to bother you, but I have lost my wife on the 9.15 from Paddington this morning.
Lost your wife? Goodness , that is unusual. If you care to follow me then.
Hey, I thought you said it's unusual for anyone to lose a wife. You have loads
No, what I mean, its unusual for anyone to claim them back.
ISSUE 130 JULY/AUGUST 2011 Sign Update 5
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