Moving the lines between copyright and fair use
Image by Richard Prince from “Canal Zone” series
Last month Richard Prince made history when the court ruling against him for copyright infringement against him was overturned.
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Loserville
This ad appeared recently on my local Craigs List job board under the category for graphic design. It drives home the point that working as a graphic designer is as much about proving your value, as it is about creating valuable work.
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Girl Power
Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
March is Women’s History Month. Today, March 3, is the 100 year anniversary of the suffragists march on Washington. Friday, March 8, is International Woman’s Day. It’s the perfect time to look the power of graphic design and the ways that has been used to affect women—starting with girls.
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Contests—who wins?
Contest entry by Sérgio Neves
One young designer that I’ve met through this blog asked me to write an article about contests and the practice of “voting” for winners. He says, as many would agree, “that ultimately it becomes nothing more than a popularity contest between the candidates; it’s really degrading for us.”
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Turning Trash into Treasure
Portrait of Irma from Waste Land Gallery
“Waste Land” was a project created by the artist Vik Muniz where he enlisted the help of workers from the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to create art out of garbage.
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Do We Need a Copyright & Fair Use Best Practices Document?
While issues about copyright and fair use are not new, our feelings about them may never have been more divisive than they are today. It’s also highly unlikely that in today’s work environment, graphic designers won’t be faced with these issues on a daily basis.
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Social activism, served best with a side of laughter?
It’s been almost a year since the Yes Men launched the Yes Lab, an organization devoted to helping activist groups carry out media-getting creative actions. The Yes Men, Igor Vamos and Jacques Servin (also known as Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno,) are culture-jamming activists who have been creating actions since 1999. Their work focuses on creating parody and involves the impersonation of famous figures or creation of bogus media campaigns.
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Was Shepard Fairey’s use fair?
Los Angeles street artist Shepard Fairey poses in front of the Barack Obama Hope artwork he designed in this 2009 photo. (Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press / September 8, 2012)
Last week Shepard Fairey was sentenced to two years probation and a $25,000 fine for tampering with evidence in his copyright battle with the Associated Press. Some, including prosecutor Daniel Levy, felt Fairey should have served jail time. Levy contends, “A sentence without any term of imprisonment sends a terrible message to those who might commit the same sort of criminal conduct.”
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The Power of Photoshop Users
Before-and-after sample from Photo Rescue
Much has been written about the atrocities of Photoshop. It has been used for all kinds of photo manipulation—some is considered racist, like the OJ Simpson image that graced Time magazine’s cover; some is considered dangerous and ridiculous, like the Iran missile image explosions; and some is considered anti-feminist and irresponsible as shown in this video “Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women” with Jean Kilbourne.
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