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My art partners tend to copy and paste my write ups. I don’t think much of it. If they did not actually work on the work, then you should 100% reach out to them.
The writer probably sees your version as the “official” version and doesn’t want to stray from that for fear of getting the wrong details out there (or some version of this.) Any time I feel offended about this sort of thing I try to assume they have good intentions 🤷🏻♂️
Mentor
My partner stole all my write ups. I swiped all his cover images. We didn’t ask eachother for permission because it doesn’t make a difference and it doesn’t change the work
CD1, he was agreeing with you.
Mentor
Reach out to her. Calling her out publicly will invite scrutiny you may not want. See if she’ll take it down without incident first.
Sorry I need to revise my answer... the only offense is that you didn’t share your layouts with your teammates. Half the team doesn’t have any design skills or web design skills. Let’s be a little generous to people who put time into the work.
Lol, why would you resort to calling her out publicly? I’m actually giggling about this. Cancel culture has seriously corroded our brains.
I would say if it’s work that they did not have a hand in creating, talk to them personally. If they did have a hand in it and are using your layout maybe just take that as a compliment.
Does it take away from your portfolio or lessen your value? If the answer is no, then let it go. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
It does not. You’re right. I guess I should just let it go.
Don’t call people out publicly by default anyway.
Who cares if they copied your portfolio layout? It’s not your ad work is it?
If it’s something different and special, you could have a convo with her.
I wouldn’t worry about the layout thing too much, but you should message them about stealing your write ups without asking and say you spent a lot of time on your site and would appreciate if you asked them next time before taking. You can even ask them to take down the write ups you made if they don’t respond well. I’m sure they will feel really bad they stole your work/writing when you call them out. Way too many people do this and it needs to be stopped. People should be asking if they are taking or copying anything you do/make.
I never had the courage to call out a former friend who ripped off my work. Later on my creative director was pulling our layouts and writeups from projects he “creative directed” but was all our work. Honestly, in the end I knew that my prospects wouldn’t be hurt by their fraud, and I opted not to burn the bridges. Not sure if it was the right choice, but I’d rather have more people indebted to me than fewer.
Reaching out out to someone and kindly confronting them isnt burning bridges? If anything they already burned the bridge by taking the work.
To this day, another AD I worked with has a word-for-word duplicate of my bio but with his name and specific clients substituted. I’ve never said anything ‘cause I don’t care enough. It’d weird but whatever.
Similarly, people I’ve worked with have copied layouts from my site to theirs and that’s also fine.
Bottom line, if you’re creating a showpiece, maybe let others who worked on it (especially a partner or other writers) have it proactively. I find just giving them a copy removes the awkwardness, makes you look generous and provides a united front to the way the work is portrayed.
I also include basic credits on my projects. Makes it feel more real but also removes some of the opaque nature of advertising.
And bring needlessly confrontational can backfire, cause bad blood and give you as bad a reputation as someone who actually does steal work.
Be nice.
Not to mention you probably worked with this team for months trying to push it out the door and book worthy. You all deserve the best possible showing of the work and if yours is great then share it round.
Subject Expert
🙌
Did they work on the projects with you?
Then I wouldn’t worry about it. They probably just really liked how you presented your work and described the project.
If they stole work, then that’s a different can of worms.
I copied my art partner’s write ups and screenshoted his layout on our gold Cannes winning project. I am a copywriter but I just liked his version better. He just texted me and demanded a beer & reunion, then made fun of me for not being able to write something nicer than his, for yrs. We are close friends now (don’t work tgt anymore).
I don’t know how close you were with the person & your style of handling things, I think it’s not a very big deal, but definitely worth a joke to acknowledge your time and effort on the write ups and layouts.
I mean - if she’s a writer she should describe the work on her site. Not use your descriptions. That’s just weird. Showing the work you guys did together is cool, but the descriptions should be of her role / approach.
It depends if it’s a straight rip. Share the glory, especially if they’re junior and actually contributed to the work.
I think it’s wrong to plagiarize the write up but don’t care if we truly put the same amount of work into it. I’ve had more senior creatives straight rip my work and they weren’t even there.
I’m not personally a fan of crediting others in my portfolio. I used to be but it’s pointless. It may help a junior out as it may serve as a reference. I’ve had more recruiters tell me not to over the past decade or so. I will however speak openly about the team during an interview while keeping the focus on myself. I coach others to do the same.
Is it really worth your energy? Even if it’s wrong.
Enthusiast
who cares? let it go
Call her? Inviting for a coffee, maybe.
A former partner copy and pasted my write ups. She also left me off of the credits (while crediting others). I asked her to change the write up slightly, at least. She got really mad and it backfired (got me black balled with her network and it cost me an opportunity). That was my experience. If I had to do it again, I would let sleeping dogs lie. It cost me more to confront her.
She is wrong. You should let it go. This kind of attitude doesn't go far and your work will prove your value no matter how much people copy you.