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Heard this one before? "What can I do... My client took my ideas and had someone in-house do the work!"

#77 Rant, Rave, Vent __ Chances are you'll sooner or later be required to hand over a number of design concepts that you've created for your client’s review. These "ideas" are your intellectual property. While the client evaluates your ideas however, they are at risk. One of the frequent comments online is how to protect yourself from rip-off. __ Today, the web makes rip-off is so much easier than ever before. If you do nothing else, protect your intellectual property by printing a notice at the bottom of each page of concepts, ideas, comps and proposals: "These ideas, words, designs and concepts are the intellectual property of [your name] and are protected by state and federal law. They remain the exclusive property of [your name] until contractual transference, and may not be used in any form without our written permission." __ Build yourself a template to include this statement in each document. Perhaps make it a "watermark" notice. Seven-point type is sufficient to get the message across. You may even want to consider printing a separate label which is sure to draw attention. I know. This sounds a little far fetched... like it's going to protect you. We all know if a client is going to rip you off, they will. Yet a statement like this will at least make the client think a little harder about using your property without paying for it. __ It will also give a bit more perceived value for your intellectual property, as well as being darn good evidence in a court of law, if it should ever come to that. __ Watch for the opening of the “Rant,Vent,Rave” page in The Design & Publishing Center, where we’ll be inviting YOU to tell your stories to the rest of the world!And remember...

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"You know that webpage sucks when... you’ve already seen the art someplace else." PS: look what we found...

“Great minds think along similar lines.” We ran across the samples (at left and below) and just had to say “Hmmmmm.” Golf anyone? We saw the opening announcement in one of those online “announce” lists about new web sites, so went to take a look. Hmmmmmm. Nice Garamond italic ampersand -- although a bit squeezed. Which goes to prove: “Great minds think along similar lines.”