Please help me

[JOESEPH]

Hi my name is Joeseph
I could really use your help guys
Ok so here is the story
I needed to extra cash to pay off some bills so I started making logos for people.
I never had a any problems with the first few people that asked me to make them a logo until a couple of weeks ago when a guy asked me to design him one. Everyone on that other forum trusted him so I told him I would charge him $45 bucks if he decided to buy my logo and I sent him the logo in an email. I put so much work into that logo and now he doesn't want to pay me . I have emailed him several times but he keeps ignoring me and I have the emails to prove it. The logo I made him was for a plumbing company so I would like to know if there is a way that I could prevent him from using it.

PS If you guys want to see the logo let me know and ill post a link to it.

Thanks for your time

[kanga]

Hi Joeseph.
Sorry to hear about you getting stiffed. I think the only way you could get your money would be to send the guy pictures of his kids going to school. Being a plumber though might mean that you could have to sleep with a knife under your pillow. Seriously logo design is about one of the worst areas to operate in. You can buy a so called custom logo on the web for 50 bucks. They are crap but they sell.

When doing freelance work you have to find a way to get the money before you deliver the goods.

[Elliott]

Should of put a dirty little comment on the logo at 10% opacity just in-case he does use it. If you see the site using it, screenshot it and go gerard butler on their ass with a spear of legal claims.

In the end if he doesn't like the product and doesn't use it I don't think there's much you can do, unless he DOES use the logo, then you can sparta kick him, but yeah you gotta get a freelance strategy going for this sort of stuff, hopefully you can learn from it for the future.

Sorry to hear, chin up.

[Benjyshwa]

I think you will have to let this one go and put it down as experience.

In the future as Elliott has mentioned put a watermark on the logo or work to show the client what the work looks like, then wait for payment before sending the final image.

It sucks to hear this happened to you but we only learn from our mistakes!

[JOESEPH]

Actually hes already using it on his poorly made site its (Precision Plumbing - Dallas Plumber)
Im not sure but cant I send my logo design to a post office with my info so that they know that i was the one that made it? I know that probably wont help me get any money I just dont want anyone else to claim it as their own work.

[Benjyshwa]

"Precision Plumbing- Service You can Trust!" what a joke.

I really don't know what you can do with the logo any more, its in his hands now and being something of relatively small value you should probably forget it.

You could however give bad reviews about his plumbing services and get a bit of revenge

[Talon]

Originally Posted by JOESEPH

Actually hes already using it on his poorly made site its (Precision Plumbing - Dallas Plumber)
Im not sure but cant I send my logo design to a post office with my info so that they know that i was the one that made it? I know that probably wont help me get any money I just dont want anyone else to claim it as their own work.

If they're actually using it as their logo, you've got copyright claims on the work. They're breaking copyright laws by using it without permission and you've got legal rights to sue them for stealing your work. Proving it in court gets a little wobbly without a contract and stuff, but... throw the phrases "copyright infringement" and "sue" around and see what they say then. At the least, they'll likely pull it from their site.

But yeah, in future - contracts are important.

[Polygoblin]

Originally Posted by JOESEPH

Im not sure but cant I send my logo design to a post office with my info so that they know that i was the one that made it?

Ahhh, the "poor man's copyright". An old art instructor of mine used to swear by it. People have been doing this for decades, and it still works like a charm Take a FINISHED design (or whatever you want copyrighted) then package it up, and mail it to yourself. For the price of postage, you will now have a government-certified copyright (as long as you don't open the package).

Hope this helps