Several years ago on
a post appeared that garnered quite some attention. It is titled
Every day, there are more and more posts on here seeking "artists" for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.
But what they're NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.
To those who are "seeking artists", let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? …none?
These are just the first few lines - there is more, and there are hundreds of comments on it. READ MORE HERE
But as I had some good comments to add to it, I am afraid they might get lost in the crowd, so let me add them here on my blog as well, because one most recent incident needs to be put out front and center, the story of
Designer Juan Luis Garcia
UPDATE Dec. 5th 2013: well, the response below is still on twitter, but the letter posted on line, (with images , now gone) does not exist anymore. Is there a story? Perhaps. If the tweets exists, the story certainly had been there ..... bought out? chickened out? Settled? Who knows. There is still
a post on Yahoo with some info about it. More about it also on
The Daily Dot. And of course Spike Lee's twitter:
- this story is the perfect illustration for point 6 in the above article on deviantART, which reads:
6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to "submit work for consideration". They may even be posing as some sort of "contest". These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the "contest", or be "chosen" for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or "spec", work. It's risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely.
So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are "spec" gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them. Say NO to free art.
Some time earlier, October 2013, in the New York Times Sunday Review a article appeared:
- a short excerpt from the second page:
".....I know there’s no point in demanding that businesspeople pay artists for their work, any more than there is in politely asking stink bugs or rhinoviruses to quit it already. It’s their job to be rapacious and shameless. But they can get away with paying nothing only for the same reason so many sleazy guys keep trying to pick up women by insulting them: because it keeps working on someone. There is a bottomless supply of ambitious young artists in all media who believe the line about exposure, or who are simply so thrilled at the prospect of publication that they’re happy to do it free of charge......"
It is recommended to read the whole article by Tim Kreider, Published: October 26, 2013
HERE
Amidst the ongoing discussions about the value of music, British alt/rock/tronica artist Whitey has had enough of being asked to donate his music for free to large companies who, by rights, can and should be paying him. After receiving one such email from a company called Betty TV, Whitey, aka NJ White, wrote this caustic response and posted a
screenshot on his
facebook page:
I am sick to death of your hollow shtick, of the inevitable line “unfortunately there’s no budget for music”, as if some fixed Law Of The Universe handed you down a sad but immutable financial verdict preventing you from budgeting to pay for music. Your company set out the budget. so you have chosen to allocate no money for music. I get begging letters like this every week – from a booming, affluent global media industry.
Read more
HERE
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