Just a few things today. Two very good things. One not so much. We will start with the not so good.
We generally (like always) use our blog for positive subjects. Today, I'm venting. Just for a little bit and then I'll be over it. Here's what happened: Last night I had the sudden urge to see what was happening in the scrapbooking industry. The CHA convention is held every year around this time, and because we used to be in scrapbooking we had a booth at the show for 8 or 9 years. I sometimes miss it, especially at CHA time. So I was just interested in what was going on. Which led me to several scrapbooking sites. When I opened one page, I couldn't believe what I saw. Our fabric! This one:
From our Authentic collection. Designed by us in 2008 and in stores in 2009. Only it wasn't fabric. It was paper. And it didn't have our name on it. It had another company's name on it (which I had never heard of). And it was being sold. For money. By someone else. To be fair, the "designer" added the word "enduring" to our design. I guess that was his/her insurance that they weren't copying. If you are interested, you can find the image of the paper design here.
I don't get outrageously mad very often. But this was one of those times. Here's the thing. I totally understand that we are all influenced by what we see. I am. In designing, I'm influenced by magazine covers, store windows, a font on a billboard, a word in a book, lots of things. I'm also influenced by other designers. It is impossible not to be. There are things I love and things I don't. But…it can only go so far. It is totally unethical, not to mention illegal to copy someone else's work and claim it as your own. For goodness sakes if you are going to copy, change the words. Or the fonts. The style it was put together. The color. Seriously.
I also get that there isn't a copyright on words. Or numbers. Or stripes, dots, plaids, whatever. But this is ridiculous. I know there will be people thinking "why is she making such a big deal about one paper design?". There are about a bazillion patterned paper designs out there. This one isn't going to make any difference. I get that. But I also know we spend hours upon hours trying to come up with unique collections that represent our style. It's just the principle of it. Ok, I'm done. Here anyway. I will contact that company, give them my view on it and it will be over. Thanks for letting me vent.
Now, on a lighter note, we are so excited to be a guest blogger today over at A Little Bit Biased (Amber at GiGi's Thimble). Actually, Susan was the guest blogger. She is extra excited today that Amber gave her the friendliest designer award. She let us know about it first thing this morning. Anyway, Amber is totally sweet herself. Check out her blog, and a few photos of our studio here.
The last good thing is that we have a winner of our latest contest. Congratulations to Karen, who wrote:
Always love the charms ladies, soooo cute!
Just e-mail us at info@sweetwaterscrapbook.com and we will get a charm in the mail to you.
Oh, one more good thing. Mom is working on yet another Valentine project. Thought we were done with Countdown to Kisses, but I guess not. We will show you later this week!