PhilV

Crowdsourcing has been impacting the sign business for years. Most sign buyers these days will contact at least a few sign companies, if not every sign company in the area, to furnish a sign design and quote. The "winning" sign company is usually the lowest price, and in some cases the buyer will try to mimic the best design submitted with no compensation to the designer of the chosen design. How many of us have actually sued the buyer for copyright infringement? Probably not many have, we're all trying to run our businesses and don't have the time or money to spend on court proceedings. I applaud those sign companies who have tried to protect their intellectual property. I have a copyright statement on every drawing and still occasionally see my designs used by buyers and other sign companies, sometimes with minor changes which the buyer feels protects him from copyright infringement. When I hired an attorney to collect a $3200.00 past due which the customer refused to pay, the settlement just happened to be the same amount as the attorney's fee. I got nothing, the attorney got $1500. In another case, it was a law firm who stole my design. Crowdspring.com and 99designs.com have been around for years providing logo, web and packaging design to their buyers. Logos usually award $200.00-$250.00 to one of hundreds of submissions, often to the most decorative, over-photoshopped, non-relevant designs. This seems to be the future of graphic design and now the sign business. The old (pre-computer) days when the most skilled sign companies attracted the best customers are over. These days it's all about to most sign buyers. After all, a sign is a sign, right? PhilV