1) One of the first things I remember about my internship related to ethics guidelines is the conversation that my supervisor had with us in the first week we worked there. He made sure to establish that though we aren’t going to be working on designs all the time in this internship, we are expected to make sure that we don’t freely take the work of others who have worked on banners and invitations already. While working on one of the actual designs itself, it had never occurred to me some of the implications of my work could be. Because the designs were meant to be advertising the company’s own events and workshops, not so much a different client’s, usage of logos wasn’t specifically an issue. What was a main point of focus from an ethical standpoint was how closely our design compares to previous designs from other designers that created posters. Had we gotten influence from another person’s work? This is very closely tied to the idea of copyright, and whether we were infringing upon that. I can say that at no point was I looking to other’s works while making my designs. Rather, I took creative concepts that I know I worked on previous projects in class and looked to apply them to what I was doing. This referred to mostly ideas that I learned from professors that taught me in college in my classes.  I can also say that I did not have to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

2) Because my internship was not geared towards creating designs for clients, but rather for the company itself, it did not occur to me so much of what I may or may not be allowed to use regarding copyright. I didn’t need to use photographs of something not given by my company, I didn’t need to worry myself over looking at other’s works. Rather, I am supposed to focus on what I need to do to get the information of a festival out in a presentable and appealing manner. However, after reading the assigned readings on business and ethics for designers, I can say that I should have been and should be more careful now. Just because I did not have to worry, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t. Though I was confident that everything I did was my own work, I still did not have the necessary agency to keep my work from being mine and not in the likeness of someone else’s.

Regarding the copyright case, my first thought was whether or not I knew the design myself, and after a quick google search, I realized I did. I saw that this is in fact a well-known work, and it apparently has been tried and shown that this is copyright infringement. It seemed all he did was take an established photo and edit the colors. Though this was definitely a powerful design, the question comes in how much of that is because of the original photo and not his design work. This shows me how easy it is for us to not adhere to proper copyright procedure. When in doubt, credit the original seems to be a goof rule of thumb.