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19 responses to 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.

1. Dimitris Giannitsaros - Blog - Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 7:38 am.
2. Dimitris Giannitsaros - Blog - Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 9:30 am.
3. Prepressology - Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 1:49 pm.
4. youcantdesign - Posted on August 22nd, 2005 at 12:59 am.

1. 1 Adrienne Thibodeau
   Posted on August 19th, 2005 at 11:38 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   Well said.

2. 2 JaCkinbOx
   Posted on August 19th, 2005 at 11:42 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   Rock on.

3. 3 Patricia
   Posted on August 19th, 2005 at 11:53 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   Excellent!

4. 4 Jake
   Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 1:34 am. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   Sounded great! Very professional and nailed it!

5. 5 Bill
   Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 10:16 am. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   RAWK!

6. 6 Jeff
   Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 12:31 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   Well written. Though, I speculate on just how much “great pain” it really gave you. I’m glad someone had the initiative to write this letter and bring it to the attention of the National Media. I’m fascinated to see what becomes of this, and what reaction the WSJ will have. Again, nicely done.

7. 7 Chris Gee
   Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 12:35 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   Jeff, I gotta tell you it hurt like HELL!!!

   .chris{}

8. 8 Viki
   Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 12:40 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   Outstanding letter Chris - good job!

9. 9 taughnee
   Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 1:52 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
   

   To whom it may concern,

   I’ve been reading a lot of “buzz” on the net recently about your featured article on the company LogoWorks.com. I’ve seen many examples of what appears to be suspicious copyright infringement — in some cases, designs that appear to be copied directly from Logo books that you can buy at any major bookstore.

   I am concerned that many high profile publications and marketing experts appear to endorse their business model. I believe the consumer should know that their “bargain” logo might actually end up costing them a great deal more than they bargained for in legal fees.

   If you look at the terms and conditions on the LogoWorks website —

   http://logoworks.com/terms.html

   You will see that the client is FULLY responsible for ensuring state and federal intellectual property protection. In other words, LogoWorks does not guarantee that their clients’ designs are not trademarked by another company. They make no guarantee that the design is not infringing on somebody else’s copyrighted material. And LogoWorks, furthermore, will not assist them in any way if this turns out to be the case.

   If the buyer needs to read the fine print, and can’t safely assume that their logo is legitimate and legal, I think that any editorial comment about LogoWorks should at least warrant a footnote in this regard.

   “Buyer beware” and “You get what you pay for” are not just cliches.

   Thank you,
   Taughnee Stone

10. 10 Adrienne Thibodeau
    Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 1:54 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
    

    Here’s mine:

    Subject: LogoWorks… not quite the bargain they’ve been made out to be.

    I have some major concerns with the company you highlighted in your June 15, 2005 article “LogoWorks”.

    This company has some very important ethical issues regarding the theft of intellectual property from the very designers they are undercutting in the market.

    To quote Von Glitschka of Bad Design Kills,

    “I am not debating whether LogoWorks.com should be allowed to run their business. They have every right to and I’ll be happy to compete with them any day of the week. But that said they should not get a free pass to steal artwork and concepts from those they directly compete with.”

    It is my personal opinion that it the interests of your publication’s credibility, you will want to follow up on your recent article and address these concerns, as they are putting Logo Works customers at risk of legal action.

    Sincerely,
    Adrienne Thibodeau

11. 11 Jeff
    Posted on August 20th, 2005 at 11:06 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
    

    Chris, with your permission, I’ve posted your letter to the WSJ on my blog. And, will be e-mailing them myself sometime today, when I find time to sit down and compose it. I’m anxious to see their response.

12. 12 Simon S.
    Posted on August 21st, 2005 at 2:04 am. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
    

    From Logo Works/Arteis’ own web site (trying to entice designers to ‘join up’) -

    “ARTEIS is not for everyone. If it takes you 8 hours to do 2 logo compositions, it might not be in your best interest to participate. However, if you are good at logo designs you will probably earn well in the ARTEIS community. Most of our ‘expert’ designers make over $1000/month. Here’s an example:

    Joe works his way up to the advanced level. He generally takes 2 hours to create professional logo concepts, and about 1 hour to do revisions.”

    So - for $300, small/med business owners get ‘professional’ logo design that takes a ‘designer’ 2 hours to come up with, and 1 hour to do revisions? Most designers worth their salt take longer than that to RESEARCH the client/industry/competition before committing anything to paper.

    “ARTEIS is not for everyone. If it takes you 8 hours to do 2 logo compositions, it might not be in your best interest to participate.”

    Yeah - like real designers acting in the best interest of their clients. Is it any wonder than designers working for Arteis/Logo Works take short cuts?

    Logo Works also claims that their designers are the “best in the world”. Must be tough to get hired? Not exactly. Here are the qualifications needed to become one of the ‘best (logo designers) in the world” (from the Arteis site)

    “We will ask for two samples of your work, to verify a minimum standard of professionalism. Past agency experience is often helpful to our designers who work in the ARTEIS community, but it is not required to join.”

    Two samples of work establishes professionalism? Previous experience NOT required? Hmmmm - not exactly a vigorous hiring routine - especially since we’re talking about what Logo Works advertises on their site as the ‘best in the world’. But, of course, these designers don’t even work FOR Logo Works. Logo Works is only a broker for untested, unkown, designers. Again, from their site -

    “We have a profile form on our site that you must complete before doing work as a FREELANCER on ARTEIS. There is some personal information that we will verify before you can get started. This process usually takes 1-2 business days. ”

    All sounds very shady and hardly condusive to creating great, and apparently more importantly, original, logo design for small and medium businesses.

13. 13 Cat
    Posted on August 21st, 2005 at 2:42 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
    

    chris,

    this is fabulous!

    Now i’ll need a copy of it on MY blog - lol! [but tomorrow as i’ve already been up WAY too late]

    cat

14. 14 LogoMotives
    Posted on August 22nd, 2005 at 9:54 am. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
    

    Excellent letter! I suspect that the WSJ will be contacting you to follow-up. I wrote to Ms. Bounds, the writer of the article, last week and she contacted me over the weekend. You should also send the letter to the editors of Entrepreneur Magazine - the co-sponsors of the LogoWorks “Ugly Logo Contest” at Entrepreneur.com - J.

15. 15 Cat
    Posted on August 27th, 2005 at 12:10 pm. About 'An open letter to the Wall Street Journal'.
    

    chris,

    it’s now been near on a working week.

    does anyone know what’s been happening with all the logos?

    meaning, WHAT are the owners/designers of the original logos doing about it?

    i’ve heard bits and pieces, but nothing concrete

    cat

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