weekly budding designers tip

hello everyone ^^/

i know my blog has been silent, so to speak, for the last week or two, but i've been busy knitting and crocheting and ordering supplies and planning for the opening of my Etsy Shop. i was hoping to be up and running by Valentines day, but i grossely underestimated the amount of work and time it would take to get started. it's just been such an exciting prospect and so my plans have been growing more and more elaborate by the day it seems. i originally intended to open the shop with just a few hand knit totes, but now i'm planning on at least 3 or 4 different items. so I'll probably be opening up closer to the end of February/beginning of March, check back with my blog for a an exact Grand Opening date, plus possible giveaways and sales on merchandise ^-^

but all shop news aside, something was recently brought to my attention that gave me the idea adding a new weekly segment to my blog, the "weekly budding designers tip" or wbdt for short, so i'll move right along to the first evar weekly budding designers tip!!!!

if you follow my blog, you'll remember that in my last post i mentioned the Red Heart "save the planet, one project at a time" design contest.

however, in reality their logo should look a little something more like this:

i decided to post an announcement about this group in the budding designers group on Ravelry, and just a few days later someone posted this painfully complicated peice of legal jargon from the competition rules:

By submitting your entry, you irrevocably assign and transfer to the Sponsor any and all rights, title and interest in and to the submission, including without limitation all ideas, concepts, and copyrighted or copyrightable material embodied in or represented by the submission, and intellectual property rights including without limitation all rights of persons and owners of property appearing therein. You hereby waive any and all moral or similar rights you may have in and to the project design, the photograph, and every other element of your submission. The Sponsor Parties shall have the right, but not the obligation, to publish, use, edit, adapt, modify, and create derivative works from the project design and the photograph submitted in your entry in any way without territorial, time, use or other restrictions, and for any and all purposes, including but not limited to advertising and marketing, in any and all media now known or hereafter to become known worldwide without further compensation to you or any other person or entity.

what it boils down to is that any design you submit to the contest becomes property of the "sponsers" (in this case either Red Heart or JoAnn.) the most unsettling part is that this rule applies EVEN IF YOU DON'T WIN!!! most of the budding designers are outraged by this, although some of the more seasoned designers in the group say that it is aparently nothing new, and that companies have been doing this for a long time.

so whats the moral of the story? the budding designers tip of the week:

never submit a design without reading the guidelines and contest rules thoroughly!!!

those of us who are just starting out in this business are more likely to fall prey to these kinds of things. we're all looking for exposure, but even when the prizes seem fabulous, we can't let ourselves be blinded by that and not thoroughly investigate what we're getting ourselves into. this very stern, mom looking woman wagging her finger at you should get the point across nicely xD

but seriously folks, i'm rather disappointed with this turn of events. i was looking forward to submitting one of my designs but now it's definItely not worth it. oh well, i'll just have to re-knit all my designs using KnitPicks yarns now to submit to their Independant Designer program . i just realized that i never gave a linky to the KnitPicks submission rules page when i last spoke of this program, so for those of you who wanted it there it is. it makes me even more glad now that there are companies out there like KnitPicks who aren't trying to steal designs from us and are instead giving us a fair opportunity for exposure.

well it's now 2:30 am and i've got a busy day of laundry and knitting for the shop tomorrow, so it's time for me to get some sleep.

have a great weekend everyone :)

~Carla