After the furore that work-stealing bastards Paperchase caused recently (well, a design studio that Paperchase hired anyway), I thought I’d weigh in a little. A few days late, obviously. I don’t want to appear topical or anything.
The full story has already been covered by the people at BoingBoing (http://boingboing.net/2010/02/11/artist-chases-paperc.html) and probably every other reputable blog already, but essentially they used a design without permission. Then, they refused to acknowledge the artist when questioned about it. To put it bluntly, they were pricks about the whole thing. That was, until Twitter got hold of the story, and ran with it. Now, through the wonder of Twitter, they’ve been forced to issue a weak acknowledgement that’ll probably go absolutely nowhere. Because really, people being angry on Twitter is a bit like people being angry inside their own minds, or screaming into an empty void. Or telling Katie Price.
No one gives a shit.
Although I do agree that the artist in question was well within her rights to kick up a fuss. It’s a blatant, shameless copy of her work. They even made it look worse, by cluttering up the neat little drawing with all kinds of extraneous shit that didn’t need to be there. No one needs butterflies. No one.
To help avoid such a problem in the future, where genuine artists get shafted by a big faceless company (especially one with a sickly, faux-’we’re dead quirky look at our mad bags we’re MAD’ veneer), I’ve drawn some things that are absolutely fine to steal, rip-off or otherwise sodomise at their lesiure.
Really, folks. The below master-works are 100% free. I’m expecting to see them on tote-bags, album covers, rape alarms or the face of an elderly lady within a week.
They might not be the best quality, but fuck you, they’re free.
Larry The Lucky Loo-Roll
Use me on your bum! And be lucky all day long!
The Magic Square of Confused Misery
A really ugly bird, possibly with a disability.
Dinosaurus Rex
Captain Pirate
(Note, the above is bollocks and I will totally sue the living shit out of you if you use it anywhere. Because I can. I saved a man’s life in Nam, now he’s a big hotshot lawyer and he’ll come GUNNING FOR YOUR ASSES. Do you want your asses gunned? I thought not).
Also, because we, as a collective mass of Internet, are hilarious, can we start calling them Papercha$e? With a dollar sign where the ‘S’ should be. Like ‘Micro$oft. Because THAT sure didn’t get old the minute after the first PS3 fanboy spouted it on a games forum. No siree. lololol.
