It happens more often than it should...clients ask me if I can copy an image they found on the internet and use it in their job. Uh, no. I can't. I wish I could. But I can't.
See, that art that you found, it was designed by someone like me who is trying to make an honest living drawing pictures for other people. I might be able to draw something similar, but different, and technically not be breaking any copyright laws, but it needs to be different enough that I can sleep at night. I can't steal other artists work. I just can't. Even if you copy it for me and email it over so I don't know where it came from, I can't. Not legally. Not morally.
But, here's what I CAN do. I can find the original file, probably on a clipart website, and BUY it for you and work that into your bill. I won't even charge for the time I spent looking for it! If it's art that isn't clipart but an actual piece of art, I can try to contact the artist and get permission to use it. Sometimes they say yes. Sometimes they even let you use it for free if you're lucky and you promise to give them credit.
Here's today's blog bonus: I'm going to share with you a some of my favorite websites to get photos and clipart and even fonts, absolutely FREE!
See, that art that you found, it was designed by someone like me who is trying to make an honest living drawing pictures for other people. I might be able to draw something similar, but different, and technically not be breaking any copyright laws, but it needs to be different enough that I can sleep at night. I can't steal other artists work. I just can't. Even if you copy it for me and email it over so I don't know where it came from, I can't. Not legally. Not morally.
But, here's what I CAN do. I can find the original file, probably on a clipart website, and BUY it for you and work that into your bill. I won't even charge for the time I spent looking for it! If it's art that isn't clipart but an actual piece of art, I can try to contact the artist and get permission to use it. Sometimes they say yes. Sometimes they even let you use it for free if you're lucky and you promise to give them credit.
Here's today's blog bonus: I'm going to share with you a some of my favorite websites to get photos and clipart and even fonts, absolutely FREE!
My personal favorite: morgueFile.com. This is a searchable website of photographs that have already been purchased and used for other designs and are now available to the public to use for free. They ask that you give credit whenever possible, and not to ever sell any of the images as your own. There are some fantastic images on morgueFile. I used this lovely image of frozen grapes on my holiday cards for Kelly Craig Design last year. I found it on morgueFile, contributed by user Qedem1611. (As an FYI, the term "morgue file" is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats.)
openclipart.org is a good one. They don't have the selection and variety that some of the bigger, fancier sites have, but it is 100% free. FREE! I typed in "dog" as an example, and it brought up nearly 600 pieces of clipart. Not bad for a free site! They also give you the option of downloading the art as EPS, PNG or WMF files.
wpclipart,com is a good one to use if you're helping your kids with a project for school. As of my typing this entry, they have 65,094 pieces of free clipart to choose from, and all of them are kid friendly. I believe it originally started as a site for school reports, but has grown to have art that has more professional uses.
dafont.com is my go to for unique fonts. You aren't going to necessarily find a standard font here, like Helvetica. Those ones you have to pay big money for. But dafont.com has thousands of very good fonts, all searchable by style (cartoon, groovy, curly, typewriter, retro, stencil, etc.) There are 3 categories, as far as "free-ness" goes: 100% free, donationware, and free for personal use. The 100% free are exactly that; free. Use it, love it, be happy that it's free. Donationware is where the designer is asking you to donate to him or her to download the font. The free for personal use fonts are free, unless you're going to use it commercially and make money off it. Did I mention there are THOUSANDS of fonts on this site? Nearly 30,000 of them.
Of course, there is MY personal favorite, the one where you use something new. Different. Totally unique! There are lots of great designers and artists out there who are more than happy to draw something just for you. (I might know one or two.)
Cheers - Kelly
openclipart.org is a good one. They don't have the selection and variety that some of the bigger, fancier sites have, but it is 100% free. FREE! I typed in "dog" as an example, and it brought up nearly 600 pieces of clipart. Not bad for a free site! They also give you the option of downloading the art as EPS, PNG or WMF files.
wpclipart,com is a good one to use if you're helping your kids with a project for school. As of my typing this entry, they have 65,094 pieces of free clipart to choose from, and all of them are kid friendly. I believe it originally started as a site for school reports, but has grown to have art that has more professional uses.
dafont.com is my go to for unique fonts. You aren't going to necessarily find a standard font here, like Helvetica. Those ones you have to pay big money for. But dafont.com has thousands of very good fonts, all searchable by style (cartoon, groovy, curly, typewriter, retro, stencil, etc.) There are 3 categories, as far as "free-ness" goes: 100% free, donationware, and free for personal use. The 100% free are exactly that; free. Use it, love it, be happy that it's free. Donationware is where the designer is asking you to donate to him or her to download the font. The free for personal use fonts are free, unless you're going to use it commercially and make money off it. Did I mention there are THOUSANDS of fonts on this site? Nearly 30,000 of them.
Of course, there is MY personal favorite, the one where you use something new. Different. Totally unique! There are lots of great designers and artists out there who are more than happy to draw something just for you. (I might know one or two.)
Cheers - Kelly
RSS Feed