Ok, I have to fess up with a little repentance here. I have been working for architectural firms as the in-house architectural illustrator for 20 years now. I am wishing to go solo this year and built a site and I began marketing it with pretty good search engines rankings. I can’t post the work I have done for the firms I have worked for because the work belongs to them (I think) so I posted the little work I have done on the side over the years and a couple I grabbed off the internet, which I know is so wrong so they are now down after getting caught. So I am apologizing for the lapse of judgment and would also like to know what else I can do to show work I have done while employed by architects. The work I have posted here is work I am currently doing for my current employer, which again I don’t think I can post as my own.
What would you do? Show the work anyway? I have done 100% of all the work I have ever done so it is mine.
you say you grabbed work off the internet that wasn’t yours and called it your own? Did I hear that correctly? If you did alot of work in the past for an employer and are looking to leave and strike out on your own, then who cares what they think. Show your work.
Yep, I did the unmentionable and used an image that wasn’t mine.
I could post my work and block my domain from my current employers IP via htaccess, but I am not sure how real going solo is. We do most of the big names stuff in the area so if a competitor sees a site rendering of a local project on my site I am sure it’ll make it’s way back to my office. I guess getting fired would propel my solo venture.
At least he admitted his wrongdoing. More then I can say for alot of people who steal others work. I give him props for admitting it like a man. He hopefully learned his lesson and moved on.
Claiming credit for someone else’ work is far worse than including work you did for your former employer.
First, you should ask your former employer if you can use the work you did there in your portfolio. Usually this is considered accepted practice in architecture. The only caveat is that you will probably need to credit them, which could mean simply placing their logo on the image or a credit line saying that it is their project. We do this all the time.
I think I’ll post my current and past employers work with credit to them and see what happens. Does anybody else have a similar issue?
In hindsight posting another artist work is far worse and shouldn’t have been done. The image I posted was posted because it was similar to a project I was bidding on.
I wouldn’t post, and then wait to see what happens. I’d rather contact them, if you’re no longer working for them, and ask before posting actually.
as dynedain says, usually this is not an issue. once you and your employer (or former employer) agree on what you can use in your portfolio and how, there shouldn’t be any problem whatsoever. it really happens all the time.
publishing the work without telling and blocking ips, doesn’t sound like a great idea to me. people tend to get really pissed off by this kind of things.
I have been using VRAY for the last year and I have been here since then so my best work is the work I have completed during the past year. I don’t think I would show much stuff that isn’t vray anymore.
I went to lunch and though a little more. I think I’ll take a different approach and post a personal portfolio apposed to a company site. When and if I do go solo I can re-think my things.
Hmm, my advice when you are going solo, Beg, steal, borrow and cheat its a jungle out there, Only messing , ok so you’ve seen the error of your ways, whats done is done. Forget the early stuff you’ver been doing and concentrate on a handful of decent images interior and exterior (all your own of course), better to leave potential clients impressed by showing 5 or so sh1t hot images, and just package it a “small sample” of your work, once impressed they wont ask for more.
Regarding the work you did for a practice, hell yeah show it, just be honest, you might’nt have designed it but you visualised it.
Good luck man,
actually i dont see anything wrong with posting work which was done while working for another employee as long as all of the proper credit is given. A description of what you did on the project as well as the company it was done for. Naturally when i leave any company i work for i ask them for use of selected pieces for my portfolio. This however is usually not a good idea if your leaving on bad terms. I walked away from my the place i used to work for with a full portfolio of my work done there. Doesnt matter now anyhow since they had to close down 3 months after i left them. (seemed the clients didnt want to work with my replacements)
Well, you have to check to make sure. If you did the work as part of your job while employed by them, you don’t own the copyright on the work, they do. So any rights regarding copying/distribution (including print and web use) belong to them. You can get into legal hot water for redistributing the imagery without their consent.
Also, they may have been under some kind of contract, such as a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that prevents them from displaying or revealing the work to outside entities. If that is the case, you can get in trouble for posting the work.
I was nearly dragged into a lawsuit over a couple images I used on my site that I had created while employed by a firm. I had left on very good terms, with an invitation that if I ever wanted to, I could come back. I had chosen 2 images that I had done 100% of the work on, I clearly gave their credit on the images and I chose images that were done as specs and had not even been given to any client. To top it all off, I had these images on my site (with their knowledge) prior to me quitting. As it turns out, and as Dynedain said, while employed, anything you create on their equipment technically can belong to them. About 3 or so months after I left, they got it in them to ‘protect’ all their assets. I was immediately asked to remove the images and then received a sepoena stating (among other things) that they would go after any profit they felt I made while those images were on my site. It was actually under a very bazaar and rather sad turn of events that I got out of the lawsuit. The person at the company heading up the suit was killed in a rollover accident in Mexico just a week or so after I received the sepoena. I never heard another thing about it. But you can be sure that I don’t use any of their images anymore.
So, be careful what you decide to use as it can come back and hurt you.
bobby,
its a shame you resorted to taking an image that wasn’t yours. i am wondering how long could it take to put together a simple house of your own design that shows off your skills? 20-30 hours at the most? you should have considered that before you did what you did. this is why i think its a good idea for everyone to create their own personal artwork on a regular basis. with personal artwork you are not bound by any guidlines from the client that tend to restrict ones creativeness. you can do whatever you want and with as much detail as you want. the work in my personal portfolio tens to look better than the work i do professionally. and i think you would want to have some really schnazzy, photo real images in your new gallery to set yourself apart from the rest.
as far as using images from your previous employer, i have to say thats a bad idea imo. if someone pays you to produce an image for them, in their shop, with their epquipment, then you shouldn’t be allowed to use it to try to get clients for yourself…seems like a no brainer to me…just my $.02
I guess it is safe to create a factious interior and exterior image and go from there. I’ll probably take that route. I’ll post something when I can. In the interim I have taken down my site.
I think as long as you get their permission, there is no problem with it. There are different kinds of circumstances. The place I worked at replaced me and continued to offer services. And while I was not even in direct competition with them on a number of levels, they thought it in their best interest for me not to profit off of them. They were a residential only firm, doing only track housing and had a digital rendering team of about 5 with a lot of render resource. I left because I was tired of residential (3 years of track housing can do that) and targeted commercial arch. I was one guy with 2 computers. I know of another company in town that does only visualizations, and they look for the small guy to pass off the small projects to. They too would probably have little problem with an ex employee using their work under the right circumstances. Another arch firm I worked at did only the 3d their clients made them do, so when I left, they couldn’t care less what I did with the images. They even went so far as to replace me, but still to this day will send over work if they have a particularly picky client or just too much on the table. To them, 3d is a necessary evil and having someone else who can pick up their slack or deal with keeping current on education and technology is a bonus.
So, it really depends on the situation, and the best way to know is to simply ask.
, ok so you’ve seen the error of your ways, whats done is done. Forget the early stuff you’ver been doing and concentrate on a handful of decent images interior and exterior (all your own of course), better to leave potential clients impressed by showing 5 or so sh1t hot images, and just package it a “small sample” of your work, once impressed they wont ask for more.