Ethics in Graphic Design : Ethics Entry #1

Photo by Patrick Perkins on unsplash

1. The first journal entry will discuss their experience at the internship related to the ethical guidelines discussed in the AIGA guide.

a) They are to discuss how the design work they are doing handles sourcing of images and the company’s trademarks & logos.

I am working as a web designer/developer in a bags company called Manhattan Portage in the SOHO area. I love my internship, I have signed a confidentiality or nondisclosure agreement. So I never published the works that I designed or built to anyone. 

b) It will also discuss if they had to sign a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement for their internship site and how they have handled that with regard to their internship journal for this class

And our company follow the AIGA Design Guide. We do not use any photographs or designs that have been designed by other designers, artists, or photographers. We have our Design team with one graphic designer,  two photographers, two web designers, and two videographers. In other words, we use our own photos, graphics, and videos. We should not face copyrights issues.

In conclusion, this lesson is so important. If I want to be successful and professional in this field, I must follow design ethics policies.

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Ethics in Graphic Design: Ethics Entry #2

Illustration by Shepard Fairey on Art Institute of Chicago

2. In the second journal entry assignment students will write about whether or not the readings they’ve been assigned have changed their perspective on their own design work.

The copyright issue is always a big topic to talk about, especially in the design industry. Copyright protects original works of authorship and artist. In this essay, I would like to talk about the copyright experience of my first web design job, also my opinion after I read the article Shepard Faireyā€™s Hope poster case.

a)Students are to reflect on whether, in the past, they have used another’s creative work and how have they given that artist credit?

On my first web designer job, my supervisor told me the incident relates to copyright. She told me that one time her web designer used someoneā€™s free artwork from the website Freepik for the company landing page which was commercial use. A few months later, she got into a lawsuit because of the one artwork. She didnā€™t tell me the details of the story. However, she showed me how to credit the author by adding the attribute link. First I use an HTML attribute tag (<a>) to paste the authorā€™s link and include this attribute tag in the paragraph tag (<p>) to give the author credit. For me, this lesson is very useful, I learn the important thing from someoneā€™s experience. 

b) Students are to give their opinion of the arguments and outcome of the Fairey Copyright case.

In my opinion, the settlement is fair, According to the reading, Fairey has agreed not to use any AP photos in his artwork with first obtaining a license. Both Fairey and AP share rights to sell the ā€œHopeā€ image and make profits from it. First of all, Fairey made a lot of editing from the original photos. Mannie Garcia is definitely a professional photojournalist and the original photo was a masterpiece; however,Ā  Fairey is the one who made the photo famous. Without his design and Obama Hope campaign, I guess not that many people will see this photo. I guess AP just wants to get a piece of the pie from Fairey. But one thing I would like to point out is that Fairey shouldn’t lie about the reference of the photo. People thought the reference photo was Garcia Clooney instead of Garcia Obama. I guess that is where the argument came from.

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