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Customer permission to post job pics online?

gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Do you request a customer's permission to post images of your work online? (Your website, social media, etc) I never have and figure unless they specifically request confidentiality then I'm clear to market my work publicly.

Anyone run into issues of a customer seeing images of their sign/property in your gallery and complaining?
 
B

Bengt Backhaus

New Member
I always ask for permission just to be sure.
Noone ever said no, and most of them like that little extra exposure. (we have mostly small businesses as clients).

I cover number plates on cars, remove people and such in the pictures.
 
Pauly

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
IMO this is how it works. As we deal with a lot of trades we know what we can and cannot post.

IF your customer asked you to do the full job. I.e create the artwork, print it, install it. Then yeah, you should be allowed to post it as you did the whole job.

If you're printing someone elses job. then no, it's not your work. You're just printing it so you shouldn't post it.

Installers imo same thing.
If you're just installing someone elses work, then no you shouldn't post it. You can potentially ask but you didn't make it, just installed it.

We ask our customers if we can post and share the final result for large projects. sometimes they say yes, some say no.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
If I do the whole job, I don't ask permission. That stuff goes on my website IF I'm proud of the job

If it's an install for a national, I might use it. If it's an install for a local sign company that subbed me, I would never share that.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
I post pretty much every job.

If I did not do the art, I say something like this, "Gnubler brought us this print-ready artwork. We printed and laminated using high performance vinyl then installed."

If it's a crappy logo then..."Gnubler brought us her logo and we worked together to create the graphics for her van. High performance vinyl and laminate then installed."

I won't take credit for good or bad art. Customers like hearing about themselves in your posts and how great they are as designers, so you might as well tell everyone.

I know he's not on here anymore but I follow PatriotWorks on FB, he does a really nice job of posting and including the customer interaction within the posts. It inspires me to do the same.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Do as you wish, but it really doesn't work that way. You had permission to create, fabricate and install their job. You don't have permission to advertise their stuff as you see fit.
In every invoice, we have a line item which specifically asks written permission to see their signs, trucks, banners..... whatever in any of our advertising programs. Doing this for a long time, because early on, I had someone call me and ask me to take their signs out of our scrapbook. They did not want people seeing them as advertising for anyone or thing. It happened to be a funeral home, but they had their reasons. We looked into it and when using someone else's work, you need written permission to advertise it anywhere. Otherwise, disney, HD, john deere and many others wouldn't be looking for this stuff. Ever wonder why photographs in magazines hafta have who originally did the work or signed off on it ??
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Interesting points. I look at a lot of sign company websites and their image galleries, generally there's no byline or information about the project.

Stacey - are you talking about posting on FB? I was thinking about that Mexican restaurant sign you just did and how much local interest it spawned. I wasn't referring specifically to artwork/graphic design, but rather the production and/or installation of signage, whether I designed it or not. I've been toying with setting up a FB page and wondering if it was ok to post images of past jobs, maybe with a little plug for their business, or if I should ask the customer first.
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
If the sign is in public, you don't have to ask permission to take a picture of it and post it on your site. Now you might have an ethical, moral or business reason to still want to ask permission but legally, taking a picture in public and posting to your site is well within your rights.
 
Billct2

Billct2

Active Member
My clients will usually want their sign to be in the portfolio. I can see where some cases they might not, but that's usually when it's inside a facility.
What I get annoyed by are the companies that post photos that are obviously not theirs. Worked in a shop once where a sign salesman wanted to
rep the company and brought is his portfolio of projects, back when people carried photos around. He had one of our signs in his portfolio!
Boss ripped it out and sent the guy packing.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Without getting into it.....google this little guy and you'll see it's not as cut & dried as you think. It's a short article, but what most of what y'all are referring to is pictures off the internet, not specifically pictures of someone's property.

Again, we do it all the time, but we DO get their permission because legally, you are bound to it. Do many follow the law ?? Evidently...... not.

Privacy, Publicity and Copyright: The Risks of Using Candid Photography in Your Business​

 
bob

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
If you're touting your design or layout skills, unless you specifically signed over the rights to that design to some entity, you own it. If you're pushing your fabrication and/or installation skills, if it's out in public then it's public, as previously noted. So unless it's an inside job that you didn't design, post whatever gets you off.
 
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Gino said:
Without getting into it.....google this little guy and you'll see it's not as cut & dried as you think. It's a short article, but what most of what y'all are referring to is pictures off the internet, not specifically pictures of someone's property.

Again, we do it all the time, but we DO get their permission because legally, you are bound to it. Do many follow the law ?? Evidently...... not.

Privacy, Publicity and Copyright: The Risks of Using Candid Photography in Your Business​

Click to expand...
Google what little guy?
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Yes - I post them on my page. For the nicer jobs and new businesses I typically tell them ahead, I don't really ask but nobody has said no to me yet. The other random jobs I just post and again, nobody has said anything. Adding a line item like Gino said - this is something I'm going to do, good idea.

An important note about that page we are talking about: You can only start a page if it is linked to a personal account. If your account gets banned, your business page is also gone. You MUST take precautions and invite another administrator to your business page!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They even tell you to do this, so listen to them. My sister liked a comment on some page and she got banned FOR LIFE - she LOST her business page that was 17 years old!!!! Let me tell you, there is NOTHING you can do about it, NOTHING. And if any of think you think are really smart and can just get another page...GOOD LUCK. You have to buy one on the black market and take it over slowly over time. And, your house and phone and computer has a WIFI IP and - they are watching you. If they notice a new account on those IP addresses after one gets banned, they will ban the new one and often they will ban the entire household. If you dispute the ban you have to upload a video of your face. If you manage to get a new IP address thing and a burner phone just for this page and you start adding the same friends you had before, it draws a red flag - BANNED AGAIN. My sister never went through all these above hassles - not worth the trouble for her.

After this happened, I added my son as an adminstrator to my page. At least if I get banned for posting naked photos of myself when I'm drunk then my son can take the page over and I won't lose everything I've built up. There are people whose entire business of 10,000+ customers ran solely on that and they got a lifetime ban. Business was destroyed.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Solventinkjet said:
If the sign is in public, you don't have to ask permission to take a picture of it and post it on your site. Now you might have an ethical, moral or business reason to still want to ask permission but legally, taking a picture in public and posting to your site is well within your rights.
Click to expand...
Yes, agreed. I've never asked permission on any signage images posted on my website and nobody has ever complained. To go back now and ask permission seems like a time waster.

I do consider a customer's right to privacy, and maybe them not wanting the world to know who made or installed their signage for whatever reason. Has anyone encountered a situation like that?
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Stacey K said:
An important note about that page we are talking about: You can only start a page if it is linked to a personal account. If your account gets banned, your business page is also gone. You MUST take precautions and invite another administrator to your business page!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They even tell you to do this, so listen to them. My sister liked a comment on some page and she got banned FOR LIFE - she LOST her business page that was 17 years old!!!! Let me tell you, there is NOTHING you can do about it, NOTHING. And if any of think you think are really smart and can just get another page...GOOD LUCK. You have to buy one on the black market and take it over slowly over time. And, your house and phone and computer has a WIFI IP and - they are watching you. If they notice a new account on those IP addresses after one gets banned, they will ban the new one and often they will ban the entire household. If you dispute the ban you have to upload a video of your face. If you manage to get a new IP address thing and a burner phone just for this page and you start adding the same friends you had before, it draws a red flag - BANNED AGAIN. My sister never went through all these above hassles - not worth the trouble for her.

After this happened, I added my son as an adminstrator to my page. At least if I get banned for posting naked photos of myself when I'm drunk then my son can take the page over and I won't lose everything I've built up. There are people whose entire business of 10,000+ customers ran solely on that and they got a lifetime ban. Business was destroyed.
Click to expand...

Welp, you just reminded me of why I never bothered with FB. Sounds like even more of a cesspool of muck than ever before...yuck. I don't have a personal account and have no interest in it other than for the business...but all that? I'm thinking no now.

I recently watched a Youtube video from a woodworking channel who lost half his business due to Instagram shutting down his account for no reason, just some generic "violation of our terms" notice. You can't reach a human to discuss it, there's nothing you can do, it's just gone. You get what you pay for, I guess.
 
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