Client Taking Credit for My Work

jagallagher

Hi,

I've just been put in a situation that's making me feel pretty pissed off. Just wondering if others think I have a right to be, or if I'm making something out of nothing (I'm pretty sure I'm not!).

Basically, I took on a job for the design and development of a website. In one of the initial meetings, the client showed me another site that he liked, and he wanted me to do something with the same feel, but without making a replica.

As well as this, he gave me a list of pages/features that he wanted on the site - nothing groundbreaking, just standard features (gallery, shopping cart, etc.).

I went away, came back with my design, he approved it, I went ahead with development.

Now that the job is complete, he's suggested that I add a "created by" credit on the site, which is all well and good, but he wants "designed by" him, and "developed by" me.

Has anyone else ever been in this situation? Any suggestions as to the best way to approach this?

Cheers in advance!

Seth Brundle

Have they paid you yet?
If not then maybe suck it up!

jagallagher

Yeah, I've been paid.
It's more the principle of the thing than the money.

seanybiker

I suppose he did help out with the desing, what about deisnged by xxxx and your name?.

jagallagher

He didn't really help out. Had he produced some drawings that he'd created himself, then fair enough, but I don't really think pointing at an existing website and saying "I like that one - do something similar" counts as "designing".

who is this

Don't forget that as a work for hire, although he owns the copyright, the moral rights cannot be reassigned (in the case the relevant one is attribution).

So you have a legal right to be credited for what you did regardless of what he wants (or at the very least, not to have your work credited to someone else) but you'll have to work out with him exactly what that was.

jagallagher

If it ends up becoming a legal thing, I'll probably just leave it.
Maybe I'll just ask him straight out what work he feels he's contributed that entitles him to a credit and see where it goes...

Irish_Elect_Eng

"He who pays the piper calls the tune"

If you want repeat business I would not get precious about this little detail.

It is not as if he is cutting you out completely and if he has been paid to design the site it is reasonable that he would want his name/company name in the credits. In fact there is no requirement what so ever for him to give any credit to you at all.

AnCatDubh

Have you spoken to the client about the wording. From what you've posted, I'm guessing that the client wants some form of recognition of the notion that it was their idea (which as far as I can make out it was). If you explain to them that you're a little uncomfortable with the term "design", because technically it is you that has created the design but also suggest an alternative - again from what little I can tell about the situation I'd wonder if a compromise of "concept by <client name>, designed and developed by jagallagher". People will be reasonable if there is space to be reasonable. There may simply be a lack of understanding of what 'design' actually refers to. You may both consider it as two entirely different things.

jagallagher

Cheers, AnCatDubh.
Maybe this is the case - I hadn't really looked at it like that.
I'll suggest that it's reworded like that, and see how he takes it.

Placebo

after a completed project and payment, i wouldnt care if they smeared actual dog **** over the site. What will really tickle your fancy in the future is when these people will start to question and alter your designs [at development stage]

Blikes

Interesting...
Let us know how it goes jagallagher please

Trojan

While I am sometimes disappointed with what happens sites after we've completed them, (and hate to see a site go offline - happened to one of our best designed sites when they switched business model), it's a bit like a teenager going off to college - you wish them the best, you give them as much support as possible, but at the end of the day they make the decisions.

In the OP's case, I wouldn't get too ruffled about it, though I probably wouldn't put it in the portfolio

jagallagher

As AnCatDubh suggested, it turned out to be a complete misunderstanding over what the word 'design' covered. He was totally fine with being credited with the concept.

AnCatDubh

jagallagher wrote: »

As AnCatDubh suggested, it turned out to be a complete misunderstanding over what the word 'design' covered. He was totally fine with being credited with the concept.

\o/

#win