Forum

Hi,

First time that I am posting to the site. I am a professional photographer and know well about copyright infringement as well as intellectual property. However, I have a small now getting serious problem that I hope that the boards can help me with.

I was recently helping some friends with a logo and went through a designer that is great. We were working together and came up with the final idea with some color changes as well as few things that were going to be taken off. He was paid for the design in full. I have I believe a .jpeg and .tiff file with no layers. It just shows what it looks like and I have circled all the changes that I have wanted him to do.

There was some major tragedy in his life and he sort of dropped off the face of the earth. I did receive an email from him saying he was going to try and get it done in a few days, however, it's been almost two weeks. I really need this logo finished and completed yesterday.

I don't hold any animosity toward him as he's done some great stuff for me personally but I need this artwork. And it won't affect our personal and business relationship in the future.

My question is, could I start a contest here and have someone redo the artwork according to the images that I would upload to this site. As I have all the corrections that I need. And know exactly what I want.

I do not believe that it would be copyright infringement as I did pay for the artwork. I just need to know if that's possible and what would be a fair price to pay someone to duplicate the artwork.

Any help in regard to this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help and I look forward to any ideas and or comments to go forward with this ASAP.

Best regards,


Gino

as i see it its your logo. you just asking "the new look" for your logo.

price is depends on you, we have minimum price here set i believe. but as we are designers here you might want to see what we have to offer you. we can take you r logo as guide and might get better reults than the original is. it all depends on you how you like to do it. but thats just my idea

Well, it sounds like the kind of contest i would love to participate, because, and i dont have problems to accept it, im really good following orders :) So i cant wait to have a chance with that logo!

:)

We'll be watching for your contest.
Probably needs to be given to one of the LT staff to coach on on the direction to get this resolved.

Thanks for all great feedback and for the information that you all have provided. I am giving him till Monday to send me the artwork. If not, you'll see a contest soon. In regard to Plasticity's comments, it's exactly what's needed after the changes as they are VERY happy with the logo. But who knows, since it is a contest, we'll be open to seeing something different.

Teregraphics, brought up a good point as to how this should be handled. If this is exactly what we want I guess we'll have to pick the one that resembles the artwork or who interprets the original artwork the best.

Thanks again and if anyone has any comments to share in regard to this matter, I am still very open to any suggestions as to how this is handled.

Regards,


Gino

Hi Gino,

Was the work done under contract? If so, was it stated that the job was "Work for hire"? The law stipulates that an artist retains full legal ownership unless otherwise stated. Even if the job has been paid for, in full, and the files were sent to you. As for Logotournament, and the designers here, you don't need to worry about ownership, because we basically sign off ownership to the client in the contract you recieve. However outside of Logotournament, it is a common mistake that most people make, thinking that because they hired and paid for a job, they own it. In essence you only have a license to use the logo. I personally transfer ownership to all my clients, but not everyone does. Some contracts will only allow you to use the logo only in a medium, anything beyond, may have to be renegotiated. Without permission or release (such as a "Work for Hire" contract") from the previous artist, you cannot legally rework the logo, unless you are doing a completely different logo. I know it may not sound fair, but it is the law here in the United States. You may want to talk to your previous designers and have them sign off a waiver relinquishing full rights to you. It may be a pain, but you never know when a business relation might go sour. That is usually when the client first finds out that the logo they have paid for and been using for years, never belonged to them.

Hope this helps. Good luck and all the best.

Night Owl

Hi Night Owl,

Yes, it's the same thing for photographers and photographs. Unless a release is signed by me stating that I am signing over the rights of usage to them, I still own all the rights to all photographs and even though they paid me for the assignment, that was just for my fees, not the photos.

Also what is interesting as well as most photographs if it's not a full buyout has terms. A lot of times I negotiate (or my rep) a one year or two year usage fee and if it goes past that time and if they want to continue using my photographs, another contract has to be written. And I get paid again. I think that's pretty hard to do for logos and graphics as such, but it's nice to have the copyright laws backing you on your artwork as well.

So, it all is pretty much the same across the board. I'll see what I have as we had a mutual agreement that everything we did for each other would be ours in regard to full ownership and rights.

Thanks for the information and there may be others out there that we can educate as well.

This is seriously a great board.

Thanks!

Regards,

Gino

Geeno

I've contact admin about your request I am sure they will help you out!

Scott

This one time... at band camp...

Gino, if I were you, I would not waste my time starting a contest if all you want is someone to recreate the logo as a vector. Just choose a designer to work with that will accept your proposed rate and has a proven ability to work in vector. Logo contests are for generating ideas, and you already know exactly what you want. I hate to discourage business for LT, but if all the designers are entering the exact same thing, how will you even choose a winner? It would be completely arbitrary and no more or less risky than just choosing someone with the technical skills to get the job done. Also, it would be done much faster. Good luck.

A+ Lindsey

Hi Lindsey,

Thanks for the great advice. And yes, you're exactly right. It would be just as you said and I guess it will all depend on who was able to get it done first, more like a race to the finish.

I hope that's okay, I have used this site before for a few logos and I don't want to rock to boat or make any waves, if I were to do that.

Thanks again,

Gino

Hi Gino,

You could do a contest but the designers would be under the understanding that they are using an existing design and their entries are not reusable unless they take the logo in a totally new direction (which seems against what you are talking about).

Depending on the nature of the requests any specific feedback to a designer would be considered their idea unless you specifically state advance directions you want all designers to incorporate.

Tough call. :)

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for the reply and for the info. I do have some things to think about and I appreciate your help. It's going to be hard for a contest since I know exactly what I want. The difference would be the changes that I want and it's mainly color changes to the already completed artwork.

I'll take into consideration as to what you and also to what Lindsey has said that make my decision in the next few days.

Once again thanks for all the help and suggestions that you and everyone else in this forum has given me.

Also, it's great to get feedback from staff and moderators about this subject.

Best regards,

Gino