Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Stories to Tell

When I first blogged the Cody Foster fiasco I received stories directly from artists who had similar experiences.


Pictured above left and below center are beds made by Shawn Lovell, one of the artists with a story to tell. Pictured above right is a bed from the Anthropologie catalog. 

Your blog was forwarded to me by a friend with a link to your "Drawing the line on theft" thread. I was approached by Anthropologie back in 2008 regarding my Tree Bed which I designed and began making in 1997 and have been perfecting ever since. Anthropologie asked if they could use one of my beds for a “photoshoot”, but I didn’t have one in stock to lend as they are one-of-a-kind and take about 200 hours to make, and are made on commission. Without any acknowledgment or permission they are now clearly selling a simplified knock-off version of the bed. I've attached a shot of the bed being sold by them as shown in their latest catalog and a shot of my original bed. Fortunately for me the Treebed is a difficult design to mass-manufacture and this is the closest they could come to reproducing it. (Notice, they even shot the bed in the exact same angle as my shot!)

Friday, May 27, 2011

It is, indeed, a very Long Thread.

Cody Foster Continues




Well, kids, I hate to say it, but it appears someone is back at it, and they seem to love Alyssa's work. If you recall the cable knit bone china candle holders last year at Anthropologie, also a riff from Alyssa's catalog.

How is this still going on?

What can we, as designers, do to claim ownership of a design without sinking all our hard earned money into the process?

What can we, as consumers, do to let companies know we won't support those that support design theft?

[Originally posted here.]