Concept Work repurposed by client
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- humanot
I have something of a situation, and I'm basically curious if anyone has ever dealt with a situation like this.
I had a client awhile back that I did a logo and website design for ... we went through about 3 rounds of logo concepts, with alot of different takes on a concept. The final product was nothing like the original concepts at all.
Well the company sold the project that I did the logo and site design for to a larger company (they retained the logo and basic design, making small upgrades to make it match another theme). Anyways, I saw one of my concepts that never saw the light of day being used by a seemingly unrelated website ... and the site design was also ripped off.
I assumed this was someone who just ripped it ... but the logo was unseen by but me and the client, so I was curious where they got their hands on it. After a bit of digging, I find out that this is a new side project done by the same people I did the original work for, and they simply took my concept work and used as their final product.
Now, they paid for the final product logo, and the concepts were retained as mine, not theirs to use freely. This is standard practice. When you hire a designer, you don't get every concept they create as available for use for you ... you get the final product and thats it.
I'm curious if anyone has had a similar situation, and how they handled it. Thanks guys.
- Dublao70
I cant say this has ever happened to me but you are right and they are wrong. I hope you get this worked out soon!
- willhaven0
study your contract with them on that particular project, if it was not explictly included in the fee- then it is copyright infringement. Send them a cease and desist letter better if you have a lawyer draft one up. give em 2 weeks and then send the dogs out on them,
- fresnobob0
Ideas don't belong to anyone.
- liquid0
fresno....ideas dont...but he did finished design concepts...
the client is not paying for the comps....they are paying for a completed selected design..
get a lawyer to write a cease and desist or tell them they can compensate you for use of the design...
- fate_0
It is kind of tricky though. I'm not saying you're wrong for wanting retribution, but in fact you /were/ paid for those comps. Part of your fee HAS to take into account the rework and revision time of multiple concepts.
Otherwise, wouldn't your price have been a lot lower if you only had to spend time on 1 concept?