the rip

If you must write prose and poems
the words you use must be your own.
don’t plagiarize or take on loan.

There’s always someone somewhere
with a big nose, who knows.
who’ll trip you up and laugh when you fall.
they’ll trip you up and laugh when you fall.
– Cemetery Gates, The Smiths

Important lessons learned in the tender angst-ridden years of my youth. I guess not everyone wore all black and penned Morrissey lyrics onto their jeans in high school.

So I’m sitting around this morning and a friend of mine sends me a link to a BigMuscleBear profile of some extremely woofy black guy to peek at. Of course, he wasn’t sending me the link to check out the guy – rather the t-shirt he was wearing: showing an appropriation off of my artwork.

I developed the identity for JJ’s Clubhouse and Bar with the help of cartoonist/illustrator and friend George Shea who did the initial character sketches. I’ve been managing their account ever since. It’s a scaleable identity – so I’ll tweak the bear around and put different outfits on him depending on season / special event, etc. It’s been the most successful identity I’ve ever done.

The t-shirt this guy’s wearing is a rather shoddy appropriation of the 2002 Halloween campaign / theme I did.

I’m used to my designs being lifted for personal use, especially from my bear / gay body of work. Some guy has tattooed the JJ’s logo on his arm and reports has it that someone at Folsom asked another client if they could put the logo I created for DV8 Leather on their body.

This kind of stuff I find EXTREMELY flattering – not to mention it’s kick-ass advertising for my clients.

The bummer on this one is that in the photo note on the link I got this morning – the guy said he “bought” it somewhere….

oooooo… that’s a no-no.

Now if you’re a graphic designer and you say you’ve never referenced a piece of clip art or another work for a project – well… I’ll tell you you’re a lying sack of shit.
We all have… And of course, (if you taken a media-law class as I have) you know to better be damn sure your referencing is so abstract and re-appropriated that the original artist could never recognize it.

My suspicion is that it’s one of those weekend warrior t-shirt makers you can usually see sliming around the vendor’s markets at bear runs.

I’ve sent an email to the guy…. complimenting him on his bicepts and asking where he bought the t-shirt. But THEN what?

Do I call the weasel up and say… “Hi… That’s my client’s brand identity you’re poorly re-rendering and peddling on t-shirts… Cut it out”….. or… do I simply send him a bill for $5000 and a cease and desist letter.

ugh…. why are people shit heads?

why am I not blogging about this.