While scrolling through your social feed one night, you happen to see a set of nails that catches your eye. “Those look familiar,” you think to yourself. “Oh wait, I did those!” you yell as you almost drop your phone. Anger washes over you as you realize that another nail artist stole your nail idea, while you wildly search the caption for a mention – any credit for the idea thrown your way, and find none. Inspired by Tagging nail art inspiration
What’s the correct procedure for crediting the nail artist who gave you inspiration? Should you give credit for using another artist’s work as a jumping off point for a set of nails you created? What can happen if you don’t acknowledge the source, and how can you find the original source if it isn’t watermarked? We explore the dos and don’ts of crediting the artist who gave you the spark of inspiration. Inspired by Tagging nail art inspiration
I’ve always thought that once you post a photo of your work online, it’s out there. There’s only a finite amount of things you can put onto a nail, and likely something that popped into your head has been done before, in some fashion. While you can’t control what happens to an image once you post it, you can take certain precautions to make sure it can be traced back to you. Watermarking your image, or branding it in some way ensures that interested clients and media outlets who may find it can also search for you. Inspired by Tagging nail art inspiration
That doesn’t, however, give nail artists carte blanche to copy an artist’s work and pass it off as their own creativity. There has to be a middle ground that gives credit to the artist and lets you revel in the likes and attention that comes from doing the work.
Don’t
- Pass the work off as your own if it isn’t. The nail community is pretty small, and we like and follow a lot of the same artists. If you post work that is very clearly a carbon copy of another artist’s work and don’t give them a shout out – the community knows, and it’s not a good look.
- Shrug when you work off of an image a client brings in from Pinterest and it isn’t tagged with the original artist. Make a minimal effort to find the image and original artist – if you plan to post the results on your own social channels. If you can’t find it, at least you made the effort.
- Fight online when an artist brings similarities to your attention. Even if it wasn’t intentional, sometimes designs can leech into the subconscious. It happens.
- Try to take credit for every design that is similar to yours, especially if it based in a nail art design classic (nautical, floral, etc.) Especially if you’ve reached a level of some notoriety in the industry, you can’t assume everyone is ripping you off out of spite – sometimes accidents happen.
Do
- Tag the original artist and write “inspired by ______” in the caption. It’s that easy, it takes three seconds, and it keeps everyone happy.
- Watermark your work with a legible logo or username so you can be found later and attributed for work you’ve created.
- Give a shout out to the artist who taught you how to do a technique through a tutorial or class. It’s very helpful for those who take the time to teach other techs to see how their technique gets used and reinterpreted.
- Gently correct those who you see posting without crediting. A little courtesy can go a long way towards fixing this problem in the first place. Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know.
What is your strategy for crediting your inspiration? How do you ensure your work is protected once you share it? How do you deal with an artist who bites your style without attribution?Inspired by Tagging nail art inspiration