Last week, I was invited to speak to a group of female interior designers who are learning about how to pitch their design projects to publications. As part of the conversation, they wanted to learn more about photo usage - copyright basics, what is licensing, how does it work when a publication wants to use photos?
I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that the conversation was amazing. It was eye-opening to see how many women in this group did not know anything about copyright, or the fact that the photos are "owned" by the photographer. It was also great to have a conversation that was genuine and open. One woman asked about the value of photo credit, and whether that was sufficient for compensation (because designers do often feel that it's worth a lot). One woman asked about who is supposed to be paying the licensing fees for publications to use the photos. Another asked about whether her design had any protection, and shouldn't she have some control over the use of the photos, too? All of these questions were asked honestly, with genuine curiosity. They were not coming from a place of anger, but one of trying to understand our side of things.
This is a much bigger conversation than what we could cover in that short hour that we spoke (we barely scratched the surface!). And let me tell you, it's an incredibly important one.
I tell you about this experience because: You need to be having clear and open communication with your clients... BEFORE the shoot! The conversations need to be judgement-free so that we can learn about their perspective and they can learn about ours Designers genuinely want to understand our point of view so that we can all work together more easily
So let's get a little conversation going on IG! I'd love to first hear about what you do when it comes to publications. Drop a comment in today's post to let us all know your approach - do you allow digital publication with your standard licensing? What about print? Do you always require a fee for publications? What about paid ads? Tell me about your licensing structure around the usage by publications!
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