1A) When working in a marketplace tech company, all employees must act as a team that looks out for each other. What I mean by this statement is that the designers are to give unbiased criticism. Their comments aren’t influenced by unethical means like gaining an advantage, personal relationships, and status. Our goal, described in the AIGA journal “Design Business and Ethics,” is to work in the audience and “client’s best interest within the limits of professional responsibility” (AIGA 33). Furthermore, We shall not cause any harm to the audience, client, and environment. My company never portrays an athlete as physically or emotionally weak (like crying or losing) as it hurts both of their reputations. Most images we get on our clients consist of licenses with the freedom for manipulation or publication.
There’s a chain of command in approving the images, from the athlete, their agents, our accountants, creative directors, and the chairman himself. As mentioned in the article, “Copyright Fair Use and How it Works for Online Images, we have to be careful in dealing with an image or illustration as copyright immediately takes effect in its creation. By taking the risk of stealing creative material, the business can get sued, shut down, or be in danger of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). The company sometimes has overstepped as it was to create mood boards/samples to send the agents. The items are viewed in private as digital rough to give the client an idea of what the future product will contain. The final results remove all placeholder merch on some of the templates and use real in-store products demonstrated on the web instead. However, we try to pay respect by compiling a document with research sources linking to each asset we come across.
- Featured Image by mohamed_hassan. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/copyright-author-sell-license-5132627/. May 6, 2020
- AIGA Design Business and Ethics. https://www.aiga.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/Design-Business-and-Ethics.pdf
- Hawkins, Sara. “Copyright Fair Use and How It Works for Online Images : Social Media Examiner.” Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Examiner, 23 Nov. 2011, https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/copyright-fair-use-and-how-it-works-for-online-images/.
1B) My supervisor and other superiors within the company design branch haven’t sent me any confidentiality documents. However, they expect me to keep the projects I received confidential. I’m unable to share specific details that might harm the company in any way. I try to generalize or personalize the description of the workflow. For example, I stir away from images, names, dates, or locations that the direct competitors can use to damage revenue. In “Why Every Designer Needs a Code of Ethics”, we need to follow specific codes of moral and ethical conduct that will help differentiate between the good and bad in dealing with sensitive materials. It can affect all future clients that require your service. If the designer has a career history of producing discrimination, A family-friendly business that has an inclusive policy will see it as a deadly risk to hire. However, it is also our job as designers to be aware of any project for unethical actions taken and to report them. Best to stop the problem at its source before the issue escalates with irreversible consequences
- Cousins, Carrie. “Why Every Designer Needs a Code of Ethics.” Design Shack, Design Shack, 5 Aug. 2014, https://designshack.net/articles/business-articles/why-every-designer-needs-a-code-of-ethics/.
