Copyright Laws

Since I've started this blog I have been thinking about legal issues, such as how to protect my ideas and images from theft. I want to share my work, and ideas, but I am afraid I will be putting myself at risk. At the same time I want to make sure that I use other people's words

and images properly. 

Since I am a bit shady on copyright laws I decided to do some research. Looking on Google, I came across one of Lorelle VanFossen's articles on WordPress. She has a great article titled,  "What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content". VanFossen discusses how to discover if your content is being used improperly and how to deal with this situation. There is also more information on keeping a blog in her book "Blogging Tips".

Further searching brought up two interesting articles, "Copyright Information For Artists", and "To Watermark or Not To Watermark"on emptyeasel.com which provides more specific information in regards to posting artwork online.

Finally, Brad Templeton has two articles that give a bit more of an explanation as to what copyrights are, and how they work. In "A Brief Intro to Copyright" Templeton informs, "Under the Berne Copyright Convention... every creative work is copyrighted the moment it is fixed in tangible form." Templeton explains even more in his article, "10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained", which is very helpful since I'm not sure I could handle a more involved explanation. 

After reading all of these articles, I am SO glad I simply jumped into blogging. I would be too frozen in fear to have ever started this project! There is so much more to blogging than I even realized, but I also think that it is alright to learn about these things as I go along. Hopefully this blog will see an evolution in content, design, and coherence as I continue to grow and evolve.  I am so grateful to Marissa Haedike for giving me the nudge/encouragement I needed.

Type Can Be Fun!

I just completed a typography class at UCLA Extension with Andrew Kutchera. Our final assignment was to choose some text from a poem or song and then design 3 different posters using only type and no image. This was the first assignment of the entire class that we were to explore hand lettering. I was perfectly happy to ignore my computer and play with letterforms. I looked at a lot of other designer's work and surrounded myself with tracing paper and sketches. I also cutout tons of letters with an xacto knife, which is what I ended up using for one of my final pieces.

This was a great assignment and I really got into it. The point of the assignment was to really explore letterforms and play with different ways of presenting them.

Looking back at some journal entries, I realize that I was already thinking about type in a more playful way. Type seems more alive to me, now that I realize that letters can be creative and fun.

These were used in Italian window displays in 1925. This image can be found in Steven Heller and Louise Fili's book "Italian Art Deco". If you appreciate art deco or design, I highly recommend this book. It even has images of old perfume bottle labels!

If you enjoyed this post check out my list of typography websites. I will continue to add to this list as I come across additional interesting sites.

Just Do It!

Earlier this week I was listening to Marisa's podcast, Creative Thursday. As a young artist trying to earn a living doing what I love, Marisa's podcasts really resonate with me. In one podcast she discusses perfection and how we are always waiting for things to be perfect. This gets me to thinking about the things I am waiting for (this blog for example) and I realize that I could be waiting forever.

Keeping a blog is especially scary for me because I am not totally confident in my writing skills, I have a terrible time spelling words correctly, and I often write things that later make me wince. But that is part of what made me want to start a blog, the desire to improve my writing skills. Why am I waiting for it to be perfect?!

After listening to Marisa's podcast on perfection I look back at all the times I have been frozen, waiting for things to be perfect. I am starting to realize that I will be more productive if I shift my focus from perfection, to exploration. I am starting to realize that success is in risk, not perfection. That being said, I would like to share one of my imperfect paintings.