Ethics in Graphic Design: 2A

2A) In my past classes, I have used images and work from people. I got these images from free online websites, such as Pixabay and Freepik. However, even though they are free, that doesn’t mean they are mine. Every time I use one of their images, I always give credit where credit is due. These images are not my own nor do I claim they are my own. This can be done a number of ways.

As stated by AIGA’s Use of Photography, they say that, “The photo credit and copyright notice would ideally be placed adjacent to the image, whether horizontal or vertical, but can also be placed elsewhere as long as the reader will be able to relate them to the image” (GrefĂ©). I did this very exact thing in my classes. A big example of this is when I took Publication Design. In that class, we were working on our very own magazines, so we were using images to help our magazines.

In my case, my magazine was about video games, so I had to credit where I got the images from. I would either credit them by usually leaving a small caption. The caption would be the artist’s name and the location where I got it from. In my case, I would credit the images if they came from the video game company themselves, or from an online article.

However, this does not only involve work in the creative field. This can be applied to anywhere. One example of this are students. When students are writing a paper, they do research to support their thesis, and usually quote the original source. When they do this, they have to give credit. Students usually do this by leaving a MLA citation at the end of their paper.

These rules also apply to some professions like journalists, where they have to show where they got their information from. If someone is using work from another source, they have to give credit to the original source. It is not only the right thing to do but also the ethical way to do it.

GrefĂ©, Richard. “USE OF PHOTOGRAPHY.” AIGA, 2001. https://www.aiga.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/Design-Business-and-Ethics.pdf