The Swedish part of the Sacred Birman Society wanted something creative in their magazine, so I have the following suggestions:
1. You design an origami model of their cat-logo and take some pictures of the work in progress. You can see the logo here
2. You design a simple Sacred Birman Cat and publish the diagram in their magazine. (Google Sacred Birman Cat if you don't know what they look like).
Anyone up for the challenge?
Regards,
Anine (origamist & Sacred Birman Cat breeder)
So you're asking us for a very specific commission for immediate publication, but you aren't willing to pay for it?
Guys, please don't send this person anything. I'm tired of people expecting origami designers to work for free, and the best thing we can do about it is to simply stop giving our work away to everyone who asks.
Yes, this is called a commission. That's the one where you ask someone to design something for you, and you pay them.
Now, if you are genuinely interested in designing such a cat, and are merely using this request as a springboard for an idea, go ahead and design a cat. Take pictures. Send a photo to the magazine if you wish. But do not give them diagrams for free. That is a ridiculous request that is degrading to origami artists, and one that should not be entertained.
That is a really cool logo, but not a really cool request.
I'm just someone whose hobby happens to be origami
I don't expect to be paid for every piece of paper I fold - I like to give away the things I make to make people smile. So long as they don't come to expect or demand it.
I don't see that this request is exploitational - kids TV shows often have competitions that require you to draw pictures make models or similar for the scant reward of a tawdry bauble - a DVD or similar - somewhat inversely proportional to the effort that went in to it's production.
The context of when you should be paid for your efforts has, I feel, been misplaced here.
If you would like the idea of your craft being displayed to an audience, even a small one not normally associated with origami then what is the harm?
There is no compunction, they have not threatened the origami 'community' in any way, or compelled members to action. They have simply made a request to a fans forum.
They won't think any the worse of 'us' if we don't send anything.
They have not contacted people known to generate their livelihood solely from origami and begged, asked, scrounged, guilt-tripped or otherwise aggressively tried to get something of commercial value from them. Yes, they may have, but we are not to know that from this post.
If you are an "origami artist", and of course in my humble opinion the quality of the work of ahudson & origamimasterjared would place them both in that category, and are trying to make a living from the very hard work of your high-end designs, then of course you should be paid for it on a commercial basis.
But this request is not like those used by many major corporations these days (Pepsi, Doritos, Nestle to name a few) that ask people to make adverts and post them online. The content of which is then used freely by the multi-nationals as user-generated content, at almoswt no expense, and certainly not the same expense as enagging an advertising agency to do the work as would be normal. The profit making corporation exploiting the general public to maximise financial gain by circumventing the usual & costly commercial channels.
They are in fact a charity.
Small specialist magazines the world over, for I hardly think that the "Swedish part of the Sacred Birman Society" can have tens of thousands of members, including many origami magazines ask for reader contributions both directly and in the form of ideas for what might be 'cool' to include. I have just devised a quiz for a local community magazine, though I don't subscribe, and never read it, simply because someone asked me if I would, and they know that it is something that I do in my spare time.
I was free to refuse. But I didn't have to be rude about it, and I wouldn't have felt that I could have spoken with such apparent certainty for all the people in the world who happen to like compiling quizes either way.
I think the reaction here is seriously out of proportion. I conceed that, were I an "origami artist' who gets 500 genuinely exploitative, leechlike requests a year then i too would probably be irate about the general state of affairs in origami where my hard work was expected to be freely divulged on demand to everyone; even more that the use of my time was expected to be solely dedicated to furthering the pleasures foibles of others without ever any reward, or even recompense.
But I'm not, I'm just little old me, happily folding crappy little models of my own - and good models from books that I've paid for.
All of the above is written with great effort to remain without prejudice, and the utmost respect to Andrew & Jared who have done so much through Origami weekly and their tireless teaching at conventions and sharing of their works through various outlets (for free)
If I can make a good Sacred Birman Cat then I will.
origamimasterjared wrote:Yes, this is called a commission. That's the one where you ask someone to design something for you, and you pay them.
Now, if you are genuinely interested in designing such a cat, and are merely using this request as a springboard for an idea, go ahead and design a cat. Take pictures. Send a photo to the magazine if you wish. But do not give them diagrams for free. That is a ridiculous request that is degrading to origami artists, and one that should not be entertained.
Yeah, even if i were to have designed this cat, i wouldn't have bothered making diagrams... and yeah, the logo looks quite cool.
i'll still challenge myself though...
CaiMcKtlin wrote:I don't see that this request is exploitational - kids TV shows often have competitions that require you to draw pictures make models or similar for the scant reward of a tawdry bauble - a DVD or similar - somewhat inversely proportional to the effort that went in to it's production.
The context of when you should be paid for your efforts has, I feel, been misplaced here.
If they had said "we are a charity, and are wondering if anybody would be interested in donating an origami design and diagram" then I would not have been as unhappy. Instead they said "we want something creative for our magazine, you design something for us". It wasn't even a request.
