How does intellectual property affects me as a Graphic Designer.
Actualizado: 31 oct 2021
As a graphic designer, I have to have a wide knowledge of what is copyright, how to make sure that my copyright is safe, what tools I have to defend my copyright and obviously how to not infringe anyonelse's copyright.
I know that, as a creator, everything that I create is protected by intellectual property rights, whether if they are economic rights, such as copyright, fair use, etc; or moral rights like the right of be credited as the author of the pieces that I have produced if that is what we have agreed to.
While working as a freelance, a contract must be signed before starting any kind of work as my time is valuable and arts are way to infra valued by society.
In this contract, the prize of the work will be stablished and in it every section will be specified: research time, sketches, reviews and feedbacks with the customer...
It will also be specified how my work is going to be paid and how the material is going to be presented before the final product is shown and shared.
This is because, as a photographer, I have had issues with people feeling entitled to use draft images as final images to post on their social media with the typical "valencia" instagram filter.
Once I had to research on the Spanish law as a clothing brand was using my images without my consent, cropping them and adding different filters in order to promote their brand and get an economic profit with them.
As a graphic designer I have to keep in mind the copyright as sometimes I might need to use pictures (for example) of other photographers as I have not been able to take it or I have not got any time to do it. In this case, I need to contact the photographer, ask if they would like to give us licence to use that picture on the piece of work that I am doing.
I also need to be aware of the typographies that I am using as most of them are free to use if you are not seeking an economic benefit by using them but when you are, you will have or to buy the font or contact the creator to ask for permission and requirements in order to use the font.
Reading about plagiarism, I noticed that (specifically with illustrators) big companies tend to take advantage and steal illustrations and I assume that this can also happen with work produced by a graphic designer. In this case, you have to be aware of your rights and how you can fight back.