Today’s cartoon was inspired by some conversations I have been seeing more and more from cartoonists and graphic designers bemoaning the practice of companies who crowdsource graphic work. The process of crowdsourcing is where a company invites anyone and everyone to submit graphic/cartoon work but only choose one or a limited number of people to win. And even then there may or not be a monetary prize. Personally I don’t have a problem with the contests except when (and it is becoming all too frequent) when the contest rules state that any submissions become the property of the sponsoring company. BS!!!
However, some of my same friends who will be irate over crowdsourcing don’t seem to have any issues with illegally downloading music, tv shows, or movies. It becomes a larger group when you include some others that I follow on social media. Some complain when someone posts something they found/made without attribution to the original poster. I am in full agreement with that complaint provided that you aren’t yourself in the practice of stealing content from someone else.
Know your meme is a great site to find out the history behind certain memes that suddenly become popular on social media.
Those of you who are artists/designers, what are your thoughts on crowdsourcing design work?