Hello everyone it's been a while since my last post and I‘ve been made redundant. Yippy !

I’ve decided to give freelance a proper go of it now.

I’m trying to approach the matter as positive as I can and I figure if it doesn’t work out
at least i’ll know that I’ve given it my best shot and it won’t be nagging me in the back
of my mind anymore. My company image is now coming together and i’ve sorted out
a small promotional leaflet to send out to local businesses and my website is 70% complete.

Some of the best design work I have done so far has mostly happened over the past 2 years
and I would like to use some of this on my company website to promote myself and abilities.
It’s mostly advertisements that I want to use as I worked for a local newspaper. I know the
artwork belongs to the newspaper, but what I want to ask you all, is what would you do
to promote your work here.

I figure there are 4 options for me to take here.

1. (The Honest) I could ring up the company I did the artwork for and explain who I am (I have met
some of them before) and ask would they mind if I used the artwork on my website. I can’t see this
being a problem as its free publicity for them. Then I could ring my previous place of employment
and explain that the clients are ok with me doing this and would they be ok with it too and I don’t
mind putting a note on the bottom saying who the artwork belongs to.

2. (The Slightly Less Honest) The same as option 1 but keeping hush hush to my place of work
because it’s possible they could be unreasonable and say no, then replace the work once I have
better stuff 6 months later, or I could slightly alter the artwork so it is not the same as what was published.

3. (Re direct them) I could just re-direct them to my personal portfolio website. I don’t want to
do this, as people would wonder what was going on and not sure where I stand on this.

4. (Forget it) Even though I give it my all and did everything right whilst working for the company.
They we’re arsey about giving me a written reference because someone sued them in the past and they
don’t want it to happen again. So why should they look after a small time designer trying to make their
way in the world.

damn shame about the redundancy (unless you wanted it, of course). i hope it goes well for you freelance! post some of that collateral up so we can see it then, eh?

it'll (most likely) come under fair use. i'm guessing (reasonably) that the company that chinchilla was working at when it was made still owns the copyright.

the right answer is to ask the company that you just left for permission to display the work (and giving appropriate credits and information), to keep the relationship sweet, innit.

Thanks for the comments people. I feel a bit more settled now about what I'm going to do.

and sinars quote " leap forward aggressively with your teeth showing and a hungry belly and you'll do fine!"
ha ha ha - I'm going to do exactly that !!!

I was just typing this out before......

Regarding the redundancy, I had a so called none speculative "skills interview" for my job place and
apparently I wasn't ranked high enough, "you just missed out" they said !!!.

I'm still quite cut up about it because I took my portfolio along to the interview and tried to open it 3 times to back up some of the skills questions, each time they refused me. I do a lot of different types of design work outside that job and I wanted them to see that, and realise I could be an asset to the company. It's what would have set me appart from the other designers. I've really hammered flash over the passed few years and although I've a lot more to learn, this was the next logical step for a static advert. Trying to offer this skill to the company was almost impossible. I had a studio manager who was jealous off me (from his own admittion after a final drink), and a advertising manager who was from a sales background, who chatted briefly to us once a month, if luckly. (No studio meetings) Oh and a invisable MD.

I'm a quiet/none pushy person and this proberly hasn't helped my case, also because the UK newspaper advertising industry is in decline at the moment, I feel it's breeding selfish people, with there own interests at the heart of every decision, The truth is, I'm better off out of there, it's just, I really didn't need redundancy at this stage in my life!

I just recently became a Dad : ) and there doesn't seem as many hours in the day as there use to be !!!
Never mind find the time to set up a business.

I'm in the process of doing up my divey office room at the moment and I've just had the new phoneline fitted today
Yippy !!! my mac is sat on the dinning table with the baby crying in my ear (well sometimes!)

It'll be tough, but I'm won't crack easy.
I'm ready for the challenge !!!

I'd recommend your Option One. It's the most honest and therefore is not only the cleanest, but appears very clean and open, something that recommends you to new clients.

You said "written reference because someone sued them in the past" but that is in a different league altogether. Companies are being asked to write references and then any detail in it is material for legal wrangling. However, you're just asking for permission to use material that you created for the company, something they should be likely to appreciate, as long as it hasn't been changed or shows them in any bad light.

If you can - Option One, the totally honest one. (Also means you don't have to remember at some later time what you might have said now!)

baseisdead said...Why do you need to ask anybodys permission to display portfolio work, your not compiling a list of clients here, these are just working examples of what you can do.

This is all fair use, I don't believe you need permission from either party to use this for portfolio use.

true but

sinar said...Do ring up the companies that you did the work for and pitch them as a supplier for future work.

isn't such a bad idea - marketing and goodwill all in one hit

Just remember if you had used stock photography for work you had done previously, that the copyright and usage rights might not protect you. I know of a senior art director who had his portfolio online, get a not very nice letter from Getty telling him he had to remove all work of the site that contained Getty images. He did, but they chased him through their legal dept to recover costs. In the end, he had to pay 4K of a 12K bill.

we produced images for Getty at my old workplace (and my, weren't they crap!), and my impression of them was that they would hunt you down and shoot you right in your stupid face if you crossed them...so yeah, no Getty! Good luck, Chinchilla -- I may wind up in a similar position soon; bit early to tell...I suppose you should always plan for it, though...