Use of celebrity images in my designs

Squidy

New Member
Hello,

I work at a large printers and am I currently taking on design work too. I have been asked to design & print graphics for a client's offices that consist of images of celebrities along with quotes from them.

The client may also produce photos of the finished offices with the graphics on in an internal newsletter.

As I understand, from my client's point of view the celebrity images are being used in a NON-COMMERCIAL way, therefore 'editorial'.

Where do I stand on this? As I am using the images for prints that are then sold to my client?

If a release is needed for the images, would it be me who needs the release or my client?

If a release is NOT needed, am I restricted to using images from specific sources (e.g. iStock etc) or can I use any that I come across on the internet?

Just don't want to get in trouble, or more importantly get my client in trouble, by using images I shouldn't.

Your swift advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
 
Interesting! and glad you're asking not just going ahead with it.

I'm not sure on this but suspect the 'editorial' suggestion is very weak. What is the nature of the captions? I can only presume that in some way the images are to promote or endorse the company and are likely to be in an area of the company where visitors/clients may see them. ??

It may depend on the celebrity themselves. I produced a piece of artwork for Oxfam, that was presented to someone at an event ceremony of some kind by Coldplay front man - Chris Martin.

He in particular is very controlling of his image, and although someone at Oxfam did slip me a photo of him holding my artwork I was under very strict instructions it was for my own personal reference and an no point ever in the history of the planet was I to let anyone see it, certainly never let anyone know where I got it from and if I attempted to use it for my own promotion I would be subject to a very painful and slow death.... Or some similar serious consequences.


Every celeb will have a management agency might be worth a quick call to them and find out where you stand, if it's a no go you can go back to your client and explain the situation. I used to work on a pop music news and gossip website, it was a sister company to James Grant, who manage Ant + Dec, Phillip Scholfied... and I think they now have Simon Cowell, but not back then. It's a strange industry but you need to remember these people are human beings, their income is generated from them being who they are. Not paying them for their 'image' is like stealing from them.


Makes you out to be very efficient and good at your job, covers you and will likely lead to you getting paid extra to come up with an alternative plan for them, perhaps illustrations / pop art or similar style suggesting said celebrities without actually depicting them. Original artwork - your copyright no issue!

The other option is take a gamble, who's ever going to see them and say anything?
 
thanks eddy, the images will not be seen by the public, they are displayed on the walls of a meeting room (although clients' may visit from time to time). the captions are basically quotes from the celebrity (scottish comedians and a couple of their jokes that relate to the company's industry).
 
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