Designer Applications Exploitation?

[stattsallfolks]

* Not sure if this is posted in the correct place?*

 

I am a set and costume designer and am seeing increasingly that applications for jobs no longer just want to see examples of your work (I just direct them to my online portfolio) and a CV with a cover letter.

 

Requests for design proposals at a page or two long, research, initial idea sketches, references and general first thoughts (I have even seen a company ask for photos of a white card model - needless to say I didn't go for that one) are becoming more and more commonplace.

 

I understand that a producer or director may want to get an impression of you and your work, but isn't that what interviews are for? Isn't it as much about the person in person rather than what they are like on paper?

 

Also, after considering these applications how safe is the work the applicants have sent in. What happens if ideas you proposed are used in a production you had nothing to do with past the application stage?

 

I am happy to prepare a bit of research or develop some thoughts/read a script for an interview, as these can then provoke discussion, and is a good way to help see whether a good working relationship could be established, but in advance of an interview (which you may not even get seen for) I can't help feeling a bit exploited.

 

I'd be interested to hear some thoughts on this issue.

[LXbydesign]

I agree.

 

As an LD, I have been asked to render 2D and 3D visuals for selected scenes of a show or for a number of songs and thats of course having done a 'design' in the first place to go from. So, not only having designed a rig but then also gone one stage further and produced visuals.

 

All this of course - if you got the gig and are in the pre-production stages or maybe some BASIC idea visuals if your pitching for a job. Expecting all that at interview stage however - thats taking the p*ss and I wouldnt bother even applying for it OR if it was something I really wanted then not allowing client to keep any data or hard copy.

 

I know of a few friends who pitched for a job, realising 3D renders and didnt get the gig but then saw pretty much their design for real on the job as he had left them with the visuals and CAD plans. . . . . .

[cfmonk]

It's not just in this industry that it's a problem. I've had web designer friends asked to submit (in electronic form) Fireworks mock ups of websites. It takes the michael really, "Do the work, let us see it (and possibly keep it) and we may decide to pay you for it...."

[kerry davies]

As a computer geek friend once said of me, I am computer illegitemate so bear with me here.

 

Is there no way of either copyrighting the design/plans or can you slap a "watermark" across it? You know, like the photo libraries do to stop reproduction without payment?

 

Edit; just remembered pre-digital days, one of my mates used to stencil "Stolen from XXXX Design" as a highlit area across submissions for advertising.

[mar]

That wouldn't prevent them from 'stealing/borrowing/taknig inspiration from' the design. They could easily pass your watermarked designs onto their chosen designer and ask them to work from that. Assuming their designer also sees no problem with this.

[musht]

Having had renders sent out to others for quote,drawings never leave my screen without a watermark nowadays;

 

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/f/watermark.htm

 

Also had others designs passed over for quote, encourage anyone that encounters clients that think this is acceptable, to firmly tell them to go forth and multiply and also to alert the originator, where possible, that their intellectual property is being hawked about.

 

Its a very sick feeling being ripped off by other `professionals` who know enough about the creative process to understand exactly how many hours of work they are stealing with treating drawings as worth simply the paper they are printed on.