Your new cheap (STOLEN) design can land you in trouble.

I’m a designer. A real designer.
Meaning, I take pride in coming up with unique and original solutions for my clients.
I am very protective of the work I have created for them and I don’t take kindly to others stealing it for themselves.

There are laws.
This is not the wild west where anything goes.
Why is it, in 2015, people think that they can take whatever they want off the internet, repackage it, and sell it cheaply to another? They don’t believe they’ll get caught?
To go with this question, how is it that people believe that they are getting unique and customized work from a designer that only charges $5?

Many years ago, back in the early 90s, I designed a logo for a Toronto Comedy Club named “Comedywood”.
Because the most iconic symbol in this city is our tower, we (the client and I) decided that the character behind the logo should feature such.
I sketched and I sketched and I sketched some more, and eventually, I created the final piece that hung large in lights, high above a popular shopping plaza in this city where the club was located. It was well known. If you look closely, you’ll see that the lines in the logo aren’t perfect and there’s a lot of unevenness because I didn’t use computer vector arches and graphics, I freehandedly cartooned this logo using a pen.

What’s mind boggling is that for some strange reason, it is the most ripped off logo that I have ever created.

Thanks to reverse Google image search, I am able to find instances where this logo has been stolen and recycled on an ongoing basis. I’ve even seen it featured in a (foreign) designer’s portfolio. And as I mentioned, believing that this is not a free-for-all, I personally follow up on each and every one of these copyright infractions.

I usually start with a polite note of “you are using my work without permission so please remove it” and only ONE time have I received an apology.
Usually, the answers I receive are “F you”, “WTF?” and my all time favourite which happened to me this week “your problem doesn’t lie with me. It lies with the designer I hired”.

Actually, legally, my problem DOES lie with you as you are publicly using my work and showcasing it to promote yourself and/or your services.
But, I don’t believe the world is full of intelligence or those that fully understand the rules, so (as a nice guy) I’m willing to let this one slide.

However, my problem right now DOES lie with the designer. He’s the one that tried to pass off my work as his own.
Knowingly.
Deceitfully.

Want a logo for $5? You get what you pay for.
But don’t be surprised if you get a call/letter/email from the designer who actually created it, or even worse, a lawyer stating that you now owe somebody a whole lot more. 

Just THINK of the recognition!!!

I love when potential clients state “we know our budget is extremely low but think of all the RECOGNITION you will receive”.

Here’s my answer...

Two designers won the logo design contest for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games.

Their work was everywhere on a global scale.

Name ONE.

Bald Logo. The bald truth.

I had a lot of angry friends and colleagues calling me this month.

“YOU NEED TO HIRE A LAWYER!!!”

It appears an idea I once came up with has gone worldwide.
It’s been getting GLOBAL recognition.
Only, I haven’t received a single ounce of credit for it.

It is now a few weeks later and I have been lying VERY low. Trying to push emotion aside and act rationally. Wondering how I should approach a situation where I have been completely dismissed.

If there are lawyers to get involved, that to me is secondary at this very moment.

Now, this whole story may sound like sour grapes but as a friend of mine pointed out, it would be impossible for it NOT to.

Lying awake, staring at the ceiling trying to figure out my options, I have decided that what I want at this moment is for people to hear the truth.

It’s not because I’m bitter. I’m well past that.
It’s not about me speaking up because my ego was bruised.
It’s because, as a self-proclaimed “creative industry advocate”, I believe it’s my duty.

It’s because as a professional advertising creative director and designer, I believe in intellectual property rights.
I believe the creator of an idea should be given his proper dues.
I believe business is all about personal integrity.

This is what my parents have instilled in me and this is what the business world has taught me.
Personal integrity means everything.

With this said, here is the story…

Back in 2008, I was busy creating a bunch of promotions for a few different ad agencies and I decided to open a unique company. I was going to put advertising on bald human heads.
I named this company “Bald Media”...

http://ronnielebow.blogspot.ca/2009/10/bald-mediaa-new-launch.html

In 2009, “The Canadian Poker Expo” was coming to town and they were looking for vendors. I thought of a poker pro I had played with and befriended that year (at the WSOP in Las Vegas) who had recently opened an online, virtual poker training institute, and I believed my hired head models would be an amazing and unique way to promote his business at the show.
I decided to pitch him the idea.

I teamed up with an amazingly talented airbrush artist named Josh Andrews (Hi Josh), and we did a test run for 2 promotional videos.
One to show off the idea…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Wfsuywl4c

and one to pitch the poker pro/potential client (be sure to take note of the name)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MKEey9FLpA

He didn’t buy into it. But it appeared he liked the concept.
At this very moment, it appears in his public Facebook photo album...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1058631325794&set=a.1058631005786.8817.1826240023&type=3&theater

(If that goes missing, I’ll be sure to provide a screenshot).

EDIT May 2013: Of course they had it removed. Here's the screenshot....

The online videos I made for the pitch and my request for bald models on an employment website got discovered and I ended up making quite a bit of national press (here is one of them featuring the poker pro’s logo on my head)…

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/bold-bald-statements/article4297378

I pushed the concept to a few large corporations in North America and although there was some interest, the recession in 2009 had hit many marketing budgets pretty hard and they weren’t ready to spend the additional money. They were all trimming the fat.
I did however, hookup with one company who wanted me to come out to California etc. to see if it could fly.  With 2 young children at home, I wasn’t about to start flying across the country to launch a start-up in another city during one of the worst economies in my lifetime.

That year came and went, and I have been busy since then with my work as a freelance creative director.
I put the idea into my back pocket.

The Canadian Website Domain Registry decided to change a whole bunch of their rules (and I was getting annoying non-stop reminders from them about it) so I eventually let the website go (quite recently in fact, I’m guessing at the beginning of this year).
The truth is that I really didn’t feel I needed the website.
Corporations were not online SEEKING such a promotion.

I believe that a promotion of this nature needs to be kept unique. You need the right client, at the right moment and the right event to make it successful. Unleashing it on the masses for anybody and everybody just cheapens the medium and makes it quickly boring. “Oh look, there’s another guy with a logo on his head… Next!”

I wasn’t looking to have people walk around the city with ads on their head for “Joe’s air conditioning repair”. That’s not the clientele I wanted.
Also, a brand can be affected by the actions of the models that are hired.
How the models act in public would be completely my responsibility.
I made sure to screen each and every single model/candidate on my roster to see if they could represent a major brand in a respectable fashion.

I did however, have the right opportunity present itself when a journalist called to bring in my service for his charity fundraiser...

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/mike_strobel/2009/11/13/11731991-sun.html

Flash forward to a few weeks ago.

I was at my desk drinking my morning coffee, and I opened my email to find an industry newsletter to which I subscribe.
At the same time, my phone started to ring.

On my screen was a guy making international news for an AMAZING, ORIGINAL, and UNIQUE idea he came up with...

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/using-his-head-as-a-bald-billboard

Once I saw the name attached my mouth literally hung open.

To make matters worse (and what has TRULY horrified me) is that he is taking FULL CREDIT for coming up with the idea.

I don’t need to post any links to these claims. You can easily find them yourself.
Just start with his company website.

Recently, some angry designers etc. that follow my blog (and who remember the press I got way back) have begun commenting on his videos etc. and brought some attention to the origin of HIS great idea...

https://www.facebook.com/ModernSalon/posts/380194515407472

Their comments have been quickly and continuously erased from his YouTube videos and I'm guessing this is the reason why the question of where the idea originated are now being skipped.
Like, for example, on live Australian television…

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/-/watch/31288814/cashing-in-on-baldness

The company video on YouTube now sits at over a quarter of a million hits and he’s being hailed worldwide as a creative genius.
Original and unique.

It even got mentioned on the ELLEN show, and one female blogger actually offered to be his girlfriend...

http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-11-30/be-my-boyfriend-guy-who-rents-his-bald-head-as-ad-space

Now, I must admit, the video is well done.
He also took the PR to a MUCH higher level than I did.
This work is actually commendable.

But after being in the advertising industry for over 20 years this is what I see…

I see a guy who walks into a creative director’s office with a portfolio full of ads that aren’t his.

I see a guy who strolls up to the podium to receive an award for somebody else’s idea and then pats himself on the back for it.

You are allowed to make money as a competitor. As they say, imitation is flattery.
But as a creative professional, it’s the idea that is respected.
Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter if the idea flies. That’s just a bonus.
That’s why some award shows have a “Best idea never produced” category.

As an art director, if I win an award in this business and a copywriter helped to come up with the concept, their name ALSO goes on the award. So does the account person who helped sell it. So does the client who actually had the balls to buy it.

It’s only right.
It’s only fair.

That’s what people with integrity do.
They give people their proper dues.

I’m glad I got that off my chest.

And I will from this night forward sleep soundly because I believe deep down in the back of my mind that karma is an absolute bitch.

Dollar Store mentalities.

Last night, I attended a mini high school reunion.

When reconnecting with old friends, discussion always turns to questions about what you do for a living? Of course, this discussion often turns into the trials and tribulations of your industry in today’s global marketplace and the effect of the current economy.

Speaking with Ken, a long-time friend, I mentioned that the biggest challenge in my career today is trying to educate new clients on why they should spend more money marketing their business than what they spend to have the oil changed in their car. Simply put, people seem to want all their marketing materials produced for next to nothing.

Upon hearing this, Ken remarked “it’s because in today’s world, we have dollar store mentalities.”

This sentence from his lips stopped me cold.

“Brilliant” I thought.

Let me explain…

Dollar stores have sprung up everywhere. There’s a reason for this. It’s because we all visit them. In today’s marketplace, let’s face it, many want stuff done on the cheap. Quality in many instances doesn’t matter. In some cases, you may actually get a deal. But is the quality on most of the items actually there? If you were looking at purchasing a good brassiere, would you buy one from “Dollar Dollar Dollar”? (I just made this name up BTW). Did the cheap manufacturing job overseas (which put many in your country out of work I might add) give you exactly the quality that you were looking for?

Case in point, you buy your child a bolo bat. You get it home, they play with it twice, and it breaks. The ball comes straight off the elastic. Going by Ken’s “dollar store mentality”, do you go to a higher end store and buy your upset child a decent bolo bat for a few extra dollars that won’t break? No. You go right back to the dollar store, complain, and bring home another one which will immediately break again.

It’s not money well spent. Spending a few extra dollars the first time on much better quality is money well spent. What you’re doing is just throwing money away on cheap crap that won’t work.

Relating this to advertising and design materials/communications, many clients don’t see the value in paying a great designer $1000 to market their business when they can get the cheap “dollar store” version produced for $250. Of course, most of the time, there is a huge difference in the quality and when the $250 version doesn’t work, they will not only go back and complain, they will find somebody else to do another horrible $250 version, instead of originally paying $1000 for someone MUCH better that will deliver a piece that will meet the required objectives. Recently, I had a wealthy client ask me why he should pay me $1000 to produce a direct mail piece when he can get somebody to do the job for $250?

I immediately asked him if he had an accountant for his business?

“Yes” he answered.

I asked if this accountant does his income tax?

“Yes” he replied.

I continued… “why do you use an expensive accountant when you can go to the mall and use one that sits in a kiosk for $50”?

I could see the wheels begin to turn in his head.

“Well”, he answered, “if I’m going to spend $1000 with you I want you to GUARANTEE that my business will explode”.

“I can’t do that” I answered.

He looked at me angrily (and completely puzzled). “Why not?”

“Let me put it this way” I replied. “Let’s say you (god-forbid) get cancer. You have a choice. You can go to a $100 an hour doctor who’s mediocre, or you can go to a $1000 hour doctor who’s highly recommended and has a great success rate. Which one are you going to use for your treatment?”

“The $1000 doctor” he answered.

“Of course you are” I responded.

“Is he going to guarantee that you’re not going to die?”

As a long time, somewhat reputable, higher-earning professional in this business, I have to educate new clients and have these conversations with them on an ongoing basis.

Why would I use your services when I can easily get cheaper?

Of course, they will also be sure to show me the last piece that was designed by said cheaper designer and it’s seriously atrocious.

“This is good, no?” they ask me?

My first response to that is “did it work?”

“Not so well.” they answer.

Of course, they are now coming to me for a new piece that WILL work but they are looking to spend the exact same amount of money again.

Dollar store mentalities.

When will they stop being surprised when they pay bottom dollar and it doesn’t work?

I have two favourite sayings. I use them often.

“You get what you pay for”.

And “the poor always pay twice”.

Until next time, keep dreaming.