WARNING TO MY ARTIST FRIENDS:
Don’t get sucked into something like this!
I feel I can talk about this now, but I recently “worked” as a Production Assistant Intern for a company (whom shall remain nameless until I can figure out what legal action I can take) who had us sign contracts saying we would do work for them and be compensated from the ticket sales for their events, which were essentially comic conventions on cruise ships. We were also going to get to travel, meet celebrities, etc. etc. etc. It all sounded so amazing.
But we kept working and working, and getting asked to do all sorts of things, and they kept pushing the sales dates back due to various “issues” and “wanting everything to be in order.” And we never got paid. We were constantly told, “This is just a part-time thing to start because the income won’t be there for a little while, so don’t quit your day job. We understand if you need to step back from this to work on other things to pay your bills every once in a while!”
Yet they terminated two of us, me and another girl.
They terminated her because she was “inexperienced,” though they told us all that we weren’t expected to be experts because we were interns and would be learning about event production as we go.
They terminated me immediately after I got hired full-time at my current job because I was the “weakest link,” even though I had done the most data collection for their email lists, had worked on several concept design pieces, logos, and title cards for their for-profit original programming. One of my logos is currently being used on their website.
I told them I expected payment for my services and artwork, and that they were not entitled to use my artwork without paying for it, and they replied that they didn’t take threats lightly and would no longer respond to my emails. They told me if I wanted to speak to them, I would have to go through their legal team. When I asked for their contact information, they refused to give it to me, saying that since I was no longer an employee I was not privy to that information, and they would only respond to my legal representative.
I have still not received payment for the artwork I made for them, let alone the 60+ hours of work and meetings I logged when I could have been job-searching or working at my part-time jobs or just plain making art for me that I could sell later.
Long story short, read the fine print before you sign onto anything. Don’t trust anyone asking for your art, because they are almost always guaranteed not to value it or you as much as you do.
Please please please don’t get taken advantage of.
Stay wary.
stormborns
dailybridgerton
snowghoul
gummygunk
