A question on ethics, what can you include in a portfolio?

nellipope

nellipope

Member
Morning all,

I have an ethical question. I shall give you a brief back story.

I have been freelancing for 4 years, but due to my youngest child now starting school F/T, I'm looking to be salaried again, which means I need to rebuild a portfolio.

Here's my question, my client base is made up of 50% my clients, and 50% work a local branding agency send me. Can I use some of the work I have created for the clients through the branding agency?

I can confirm that it is all my work, however they did the legwork with regards to talking to the client about the brand, their USP etc?

What are your thoughts?
 
Hmmm?

You'll probably get some different answers here.

My thoughts are that if you did the work for the agency as a freelancer then you were not an employee so you were working B2B.
As I get it legally and ethically you should be fine as long as you didn't sign any NDA's.

The simple thing would be to ask them if you don't want to upset them in any way.
If you're using the portfolio for interviews then I guess they'd be non the wiser anyway.
 
tricky one

fine to take to an interview for sure, they'd never know, if your bunging in on a portfolio website, set it up as a "nofollow" and just send it as a direct link, again they'd never find out :)
 
You'll probably find that the agency owns the work, especially if you completed it in-house. You may have created it, but you were contracted to them. They'll have terms set up somewhere that likely states that you cannot reproduce this work. I have this problem all the time, create some great stuff that you can't show anyone because the end client doesn't want it public.

I'd ask permission from the agency to display the work in an online portfolio, alongside a disclaimer like "Created whilst working at X Company." They might say yes. If you're showing a portfolio just for interviews you can probably get away with showing the work privately so long as you're honest about what you did and you're not breaking an NDA.
 
Ethically it is not a problem at all, as it is all your work. Legally, it would all depend on the terms and conditions of the contract you signed with them. The easiest thing to do would be to simply check with them/ ask their permission. Unless NDA's are involved, I don't see why they wouldn't give you the go ahead.

Why can't I ever find an agency that sends me work??? They always want me to work on site... Why can't they just have me in for briefings/ meetings and let me get on with it in Timbuktu if I wish...?
 
@GCarlD said:
Why can't I ever find an agency that sends me work??? They always want me to work on site... Why can't they just have me in for briefings/ meetings and let me get on with it in Timbuktu if I wish...?
Click to expand...

I guess it's what you do really.
Apart from when we're painting designing murals (on site) I've only once had to work in-house in a studio setting.
Often I don't even speak to the client as it's usually done over e-mail.
 
scotty said:
I guess it's what you do really.
Apart from when we're painting designing murals (on site) I've only once had to work in-house in a studio setting.
Often I don't even speak to the client as it's usually done over e-mail.
Click to expand...

I cover a range of design disciplines, although I am now specialising in editorial design...
 
I hope you bill them for time/travel.

Maybe if you did and asked them if they'd prefer to pay you to sit in a car or a train or work on their project then they'd think again? ;)
 
Yeah but I don't want to come across rude. I can get a lot more work done working remotely and it allows me to work on other projects as well. That's one of many reasons I stopped working in-house as I always felt less productive and had more distractions.
 
Same.

When I worked in-house I always used to wonder why I wasted 10 hours a week travelling and the cost of travel to do what I could do at home.
I'm WAY more productive at home.
I find that working in a studio stifles creativity even though they're supposed to be a creative environments (which most aren't).

I think that most employers don't trust staff to work unmonitored and if you let one member of staff do it......

As a freelancer I just don't see the point.
Yes, a meeting or two but I don't see the point of sitting in an office to work and then the communication is usually via internal e-mail anyway even when in the same building.
 
@nellipope & @scotty Did you work for the agencies in-house for a period of time, prior to them allowing you to work for them on remote? i.e. Did you have to gain their trust so to speak to show that you are capable of working off site more efficiently? Or did you manage to agree to work remotely from the get go? If so, how? And where did you find these beautiful agencies?
 
i think you must be get permisson of all of your clients for what you want include into your portfolio. it is a better way to stay away from the unwanted difficulties.
 
@GCarlD said:
@nellipope & @scotty Did you work for the agencies in-house for a period of time, prior to them allowing you to work for them on remote? i.e. Did you have to gain their trust so to speak to show that you are capable of working off site more efficiently? Or did you manage to agree to work remotely from the get go? If so, how? And where did you find these beautiful agencies?
Click to expand...

No, not at all.

They found me online through various sites plus my own.
One motion graphics company I've worked for for about 6 years is only about 25 miles from me and I've never met them face to face. o_O

When I worked in-house I approached the management to talk about remote/flexible working when we first had kids and it was like talking to a wall.

I've never got on with "working for the man" as I'm not a natural employee.
A few years ago my wife returned to education so I took a 9-5 for the stability of a regular income.
It was horrible. :(
The boss was an arse hole and a bit of a control freak and worst of all, a screen toucher and mouse grabber. :mad:
I just don't get the culture where an employer thinks they own you in some way.

Good thing is that times are changing and companies and employers are starting to think differently.
I was speaking to a manager at a company recently about their staff members and they were saying "Oh yeah, Joe Bloggs who works on the web-site. We only see him every couple of weeks or so".

I think if you want to work remotely then the web is the place to look and promote yourself rather than traditional means.
I also think it's better to do this from the off rather than trying to do it later down the line.
 
@scotty It's as if we have paralell lives!! I was found by a local design agency, I currently only work from home due to kids / school runs / busy husband.

I used to work in an office environment and found it a useless exercise, I am way more productive with my own music, time and space and coffee.

But as a general response, I am freelance, no NDA's were signed, I invoiced for the hours on a project or a final amount (certainly with this agency) so no paperwork detailing my relationship with this company were signed or terms agreed to.
My website only contains work I have been commisssioned to work on directly, I usually ask my clients to sign (or agree) to T&C's which give me permission to use their work in a portfolio scenario.
I was only considering using the work gained through the agency on a private portfolio which could be requested by potential employers.

But wish me luck, I need to find a company which will employ me on a flexible working hours basis. Not sure they exist.
 
Sounds like it. :D

I have dogs, kids, busy wife, bloody house work and I live pretty rural in an area where there are few creative jobs.
Those jobs are out there.
It's just finding one that fits.

Funnily enough, a new company has set up from me almost down the road.
They're wanting someone who does pretty much what I do which is pretty rare for my area.

It's an in-house role but I'm tempted to apply just to sell my freelance services.

Back to your original topic.
I'm sure you'll be fine with using the work if it's just to show a potential employer.
Even if an agency did have a problem with this it's not like they'd ever find out.
What could they do if they did?
 
@Paul Murray thank you for your advice, was a little hasty in posting. There were no actual terms, but I have detailed in the portfolio which of the projects were commissioned through this agency, but I haven't named them. I have been hesitant in applying for work for this reason. This agency still use me, and I really enjoy working with them, I just need to earn a little more (don't we all). Thank you again, I may pull their work and just stick to my own, but it was great stuff!!!
 
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