are you serious about your graphic design career because if you are serious
about it then you really should be serious about copyright to so you can
actually protect your artwork in your designs but also so you don't land in
any legal hot water follow along today with my guide on copyright in graphic
design and sponsoring today's video is vexos which is a graphic stock website
where you can find a lot of pre-made graphics for any purpose they have more
than 71,000 high quality designs for you to choose from with content updated on a
daily basis learn more about VEX holes later in today's video by definition
copyright is having the exclusive right to control reproduction and commercial
use of your work you want to make sure that your works of Arts are cherished
designs that remain yours and also you want to avoid legal issues with your
career now just to quickly get something out of the way the difference between
copyrights and trademark is well they both offer protection they protect
different types of assets copyrights is geared towards written and artistic
works such as books and videos a trademark
protects items that help define a company's brand such as a logo or a
symbol listed on screen are a few things that designers cannot copyright so it's
good just to be clear the differences between copyright and trademark
many people will say that if you create something then it's yours and you have
automatic copyright to the design this is somewhat true but not always an
exception would be if you are designing something for an employer then more
often than not they're going to want to own the copyright to that design this
probably will be stipulated in the contract but it's not totally necessary
to make one most companies would want the work that you make for them to be
solely theirs but it's good also to get shared rights so you can claim it for a
solid reference in such things at your portfolio usually these agreements
prohibit you from using the image anywhere else but you can still claim
that you created it apart from this one scenario any original work that you
creates is most definitely yours
so let's venture into the situation where someone has used your work without
consent this is known as infringement and this is when someone takes a
substantial part of your design without your permission
exact standards vary from nation to nation but generally the substance is
considered the parts that defines your work as unique and truly gives the
originality firstly you should have a record that the design and the idea is
your aim and be able to prove that it is yours
so for example you might have some files saved on your computer that can be dated
so keep record of everything you design if you are sure that they've committed
an infringement it's a good idea to seek legal counsel and also to send them a
cease and desist letter this is the legal version of basically saying stop
using my design and remove it from every single location that you have used it if
you wish to take things further you're going to need to assess whether it's
worth it or not so for example if you've created a design for fun in your free
time and somebody has uploaded it to their Twitter account spending a huge
amount of money on lawyers and legal fees isn't going to be
a good idea the line between someone being ripped off and copied to something
being original is actually pretty gray and blurred your work doesn't need to be
mind-blowing in terms of regionality but it for sure it needs to be obvious that
is your own effort and your own style if you take for example the Nike logo which
cannot be copyrighted as it's a trademark thing as I mentioned earlier
but if you take the Nike swoosh and you reflect the swoosh and make it a bit
steeper that probably isn't gonna fly in your favor in the courts Plus Mikey can
afford the most expensive lawyers imaginable but you get my point here
it's a great area and a lot of the time it will come down to money and if the
costs are worth it so just try to be original as possible
with your designs in every single step of the process
I mentioned earlier that you need to prove that your designs actually are
yours as that's going to help you stand up in court if you need to but you can
actually register your creations for copyrights which is a watertight legal
rights to a design it also allows you the ability to sue someone for using
your work that little copyright symbol represents your claim to the design and
lets people legally know they can't claim as their own products using the
copyright symbol itself in the image is not required and necessary but noticed
needs to be given with the image that is registered in order for you to be able
to sue for damages Creative Commons is a form of copyright where content creators
who want to share their work can do just that
however it's usually in the condition that their work be given the proper
credits when used elsewhere there are six different types of creative common
licenses and I'm gonna post a link down below which will go into detail for the
six different types but they essentially allow you to use works that are not your
own as long as you give credit to the author or the creator
so how long does copyright actually last for while copyright laws do vary from
country to country in most cases it lasts until 50 years after the person's
death so in the United States copyright protection lasts for 70 years after
someone dies so it's probably a good idea to check out online about the
situation where you live so again thank you to vexos for making today's video
possible and head over to the link down description box below to browse over
there seventy one thousand plus design asset library ready for you to use and
download subscribing to vexos is going to allow you to download any design and
use it wherever you like but they're also free downloads to available for you
when you adhere to the licenses VEX all assets are amazing for merchandise
designs and there's even tips and tricks on a monthly basis on how to make your
very own merchandise so do check out vexes a link down description box below
so there was a video all about copyright and just remember it's not the same as
trademark so you do want to familiarize yourself with copyright and also
trademark but the general rule of thumb here is to make sure your work is
original and if you really do want to make your work secure you can go ahead
and register it as a copyright work I'll leave links down below for registering
your content and also let me know if you found today's video useful and if you
learn something if you want to keep boosting your awareness as a graphic
designer subscribe to my channel for weekly
graphic design content and until next time guys design your future today peace