Modern Dog takes on Disney, Target: and needs your help!
If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years. –Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Years ago I knew a head general counsel who worked for a legal department for a rather large corporation.
When it came to lawsuits, he explained to me that their approach was they ‘never settled’ and ‘would use all of our resources – millions of dollars at our disposal’ to fight any suit that came in. Whether they were right or wrong. “If they’re going to go up against us, that’s what they’re going to get.’
Years later I sat in on a ‘business ethics’ class where this ethic was explained in detail: ‘it is okay to destroy the competition. That’s good business ethics.’ And throw in that businesses today operate to ‘keep shareholders happy’ over everything else – we live in a very frightening world. One that squashes innovation and creativity in favor of ‘good competition.’
Good competition is fantastic – when the tables are ‘fair and balanced,’ a term – even today – that’s not used for what it actually means. There’s a lot we CAN be doing as a race – in terms of social, political and humanitarian causes – but we don’t. There’s a great scene in An Inconvenient Truth where Al Gore points to an illustration of a pot of gold. It’s our motivation. It’s what we live for. A pot of gold. A shiny pot of gold we can hide from others, shower with, rub on our bodies if it makes us feel better.
the battle
Right now there’s a David v. Goliath lawsuit going on. It seems simple open and shut: Large corporations profit from stolen artwork. So artists who created artwork get a lawyer and take on the corporations.
In this situation, the corporations are our darlings: The fantastically wonderful Disney and the ‘god I love what they do for design’ Target. And I spent an afternoon recently going thru the case files – which are posted at Friends of Modern Dog – and to me it seems it’s another bury the little guy response.
You’d think it would be Urban Outfitters doing this – it IS their modis operandi – but no. It appeares Disney and Target are poised to destroy Seattle’s very own Modern Dog.
Ashamed is not a word I use much. Though I think it applies here: BOTH Disney and Target should be ashamed. They are BOTH corporations that benefit from creative innovation. BOTH should be working WITH Modern Dog, not – as this lawsuit seems to be doing – putting them out of business . . .
Friends of Modern Dog website – donations are wholehartedly accepted, even a few bucks will help. Donate here.
bias
I will admit – I am a huge fan of Modern Dog. I can actually remember the first time I ran across their work – back in the early 1990s. I was flipping through a graphic design magazine and saw that there was this cool company in Seattle – tied to Seattle’s burgeoning music scene – that had not one, two or three BUT an entire tabletop covered with LOGOS. They are a creative juggernaut – one innovative piece after another. And in my view one of Seattle’s greatest design resources. I’ll even go so far as to say, they put Seattle on the map for me. I spent my honeymoon in 1995 in Seattle – not because of Modern Dog per se – but because I knew Seattle was cool.
the suit
So if one takes it apart: What it looks like is someone working for Disney thought it would be cool to lift images from Modern Dog’s 20 Years of Poster Art. They used it in a retail piece, a tee-shirt to promote an Ashley Tisdale film. Flip the images, no one will notice (see video up top). Well, someone did notice. And Modern Dog found itself defending their handdrawn illustrations of their own dogs.
What happened next was unexpected, the defendants fired back. Detailed legal jargon is the response. With a huge legal price tag. Modern Dog owners Robynne Raye and Michael Strassburger so far have sold their house to pay for things. Good press is on their side. Robert L. Peters has a great overview here. Though at this point, a settlement doesn’t seem to be in the picture.
the obvious solution
Years ago the Head General Counsel I knew also explained one more thing about business ethics to me: if someone fucks up, they should be responsible. Whoever did this – in whatever relationship to Disney and/or Target – is the plagarist. THEY caused this lawsuit to take place, THEY stole the work. Disney and Target – should do the right thing:
FIRE the plagarist, go after them for legal fees – and SETTLE with Modern Dog.
Disney and Target: It’s the RIGHT THING to do. Pretty sure you can afford this.
You guys are supposed to be doing the RIGHT THING. I remember a whole LOAD of Disney films thrown at me just about this very concept. Why is your legal department thinking otherwise? Especially after such a good PR month where you (Disney) now own STAR WARS because George Lucas thinks you guys are on the up and up. And he turned around and donated your money to education.
how to actually steal from modern dog
So I train graphic designers – on the fine art of inspiration over stealing. It’s a simple concept: using someone else’s artwork without permission is stealing. Getting inspired by others and bringing something new to the table: NOT stealing. Inspiration. In this case, Disney’s artist should have DRAWN THEIR OWN DAMN DOGS. It’s that simple.
Modern Dog inspired something I did recently: a simple logotype (above) for an animal shelter just south east of Seattle (opens January 2013). Since, for me, Seattle/Washington State is Modern Dog territory (a dog reference, of course) I decided to thumb thru Modern Dog’s wares to inspire me on how to approach the ‘dog/cat’ cartoon creature I came up with. Is it a direct copy from them? No. It’s my own thing. Simple, with a touch of empathy that I believe animal shelters need – beyond the ‘heart/paw’ thing most are doing. (And the type is modified Sutro, Jim Parkinson’s wonderful humanist slab serif.)
Dogs are cool. Modern Dog is cool. Be inspired by them. And help them – they need a few bucks. Donate here.
