What a fucked up and stupid thing to happen…
via Hero Design Studio – Local publication, Artvoice, stole original artwork that we created for the band Iron & Wine and altered it VERY slightly for a full page back cover ad, advertising their publication and their upcoming “Fall Arts” Issue. They even used our color scheme and textures. All of the major elements of the full page ad were stolen directly from our poster and used without our knowledge or permission!
This is a violation of the copyrights associated with our artwork and we are not going to deal with this lightly, we plan to take action and we are prepared to do whatever necessary to insure that this doesn’t happen again. Not only to us, but to other artists that the Artvoice and it’s designers could potentially steal from in the future. Another point to be made is when stealing artwork from a local artist, like us, whose work is known in the community, this causes causes confusion with respect to the source, sponsorship and/or our approval of their products and the services of their company. Within hours of the issue being on stands, and before we even saw it, we began getting phone calls, emails and texts asking if we started working with Artvoice and why did our artwork look like that, etc. This is embarrassing and potentially damaging to us and our company’s name and reputation locally.
Artvoice is aware of the copyright violation, but a solution has not materialized as of now. It’s really shitty this happened, and I’m sure everything will come out in favor of Hero Design, but the fact that the copyright violation came from just down the block, that’s the fucked up part. Jamie Moses, are you getting to be too old to keep your company in check? I had a much higher respect for your company before now.
Oh, and Hero weren’t the only designers to be victimized by Artvoice.
We also learned that one of the two elements that they added to our original design (beyond the type elements) was also stolen, from our good friend Julian Montague’s book cover for Mark Goldman’s book City on The Edge.
Update: Zachary Burns attempts to clear his name.
Attached below is a copy of the email sent to Hero Design, that was forwarded to me by Zachary Burns, one of the Art Directors at Artvoice.
I’d like to start off by stating that I was not the artist who
plagiarized the poster that was so blatantly and embarrassingly lifted
from your studio for the back cover of this weeks Artvoice. Let me
restate that again, I unequivocally and absolutely had nothing to do
with its’ planning, conception or design.
That being said, I would still like to apologize. You have every right
to be supremely pissed (as any designer would) and whatever justice
you seek is completely within your rights. I just joined the Artvoice
staff as a graphic designer about a month ago after moving back home
from Seattle where I was a designer at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
As a journalist and designer, this kind of thievery is an
embarrassment to me and a mark of shame upon the newspaper. I’m sure
you would like to know who was responsible for this, but unfortunately
I don’t want to name names. However, if you get a hold of Jamie Moses
or Geoff Kelly they will tell you who the culprit was.
Again, I feel completely embarrassed and ashamed to work at the paper
right now. If I had any knowledge that a designer was going to so
blatantly rip off an existing design, you can be sure it would not
have occurred on my watch. It was very uncomfortable to be around the
newsroom yesterday as this story broke and have to worry that by
mistake or some miscommunication my name might falsely be attached to
this unethical practice.
Anyways, just wanted to clear my name and show my support for you guys.
–zachary burns
Krudmart
Hero Design Studio
Sai One