2009 RACV Driving School advertising poster

ews2008, Bill H Luke, Torn poster on linen, 116x96.5cm, Signed LR

2007 Melbourne Fringe poster by Studio Pip and Co

2006 Moonlight Cinema image detail illustrated by Darren Henderson and Studio Pip and Co

It is not often that the mirror is turned on the studio and our work appears to pop up in new and familiar spaces.

This poster campaign for RACV running in the streets of Melbourne has a touch of the Studio’s work for Melbourne Fringe in 2007 crossed with our Moonlight Cinema campaign. It leaves one to wonder what resources this communication group had to develop this presentation?

Bill H Luke’s collage work – ews2008 is another example, yet it seems to be more flattering to see works sampled and repurposed into an artwork.

The question to ask in this instance is when is an execution a blatant rip off, a happy accident, or a homage?

In advertising it seems to be the status quo to research a look and adapt that look to one’s campaign. Lazur’s Archive the advertising industry’s benchmark publication documents campaigns, with little commentary from around the world. Lazur’s is a resource readily found in many agency art departments and prominent tool assisting art directors with the getting the creative juices going, so to speak. It is amazing how often one will find a prominent campaign that looks very similar to a project from Brazil, Korea, France, or Wyoming.

At the moment we are working on a significant image making programme for the Australian Institute of Architecture and we would love to do something like Fabio Ongarto, 3 Deep Design, Chase & Galley, Jonathan Zawada, or John Melin – it would make the whole process more profitable. However the joy, or the thrill we get from any project is in the making. As the making is the most important outcome of the work, the studio’s development and the prize that rewards our client’s vision.

In terms of image making there is a rule that an image needs to be modified by at least 25% to be exempt of copyright laws – what ever that 25% means. However there is nothing that covers a look, a treatment, an approach as in the case of the RACV image and our approach to work.

All we can say in response to RACV’s latest campaign is that we go to a lot effort to develop work that has it own look. We spend a lot of time ensuring our work is in fact our work, and if we find the need to closely reference an artist, we either try and commission this artist or image maker, or convince the client to continue the design development until we come up with something that has it’s own look and feel.

It is a difficult for unique image makers to protect their work, apart from using the internet to publish work and make this effort and outcome public. This situation makes us appreciate clients that make an effort to seek out those of us that are dedicated making new work, by making their marketing budgets and vision for communicating their brands part of our ongoing process.

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