Official Statement

Yesterday GREENE concept in general and me in person got accused by a former contractor of “ripping off” her designs. The person set a 24 hour ultimatum and threatened to take the issue to the public if we do not take down the allegedly ripped off work. For reasons unknown she decided to take the issue to the public only 6 hours later (give or take due to timezone conversions and Daylight Saving time switch this night). As much as I would prefer to not comment this issue at all, the public defaming of the GREENE concept brand and the work of a contractor and friend requires an official answer.

Important: the allegations were for the advertising images only, and not – as some people already thought – for the furniture itself!

Timeline of events:

• In June I asked said person if she wants to become product photographer for GREENE concept
• On June 21 I received a commercial proposal from her, outlining the work she intends to do and a price for her services. This price was beyond the budget we had for GREENE concept, and I made a counter offer. This counter-offer resulted in her offering her services for free: “I would like to be the official photographer for Greene concept, at no charge to you guys. In exchange you have to tell everyone I made your pictures; how good my service is; how satisfied with my work and customer service you are (that is if you are really satisfied); and that you would highly recommend my services (if you really would).“
• Our official reply to this was: “I’m very pleased with you becoming the official photographer, however
  I would at least want to cover the upload charges AND want to grant you free picks from our items whenever you want some for your personal use. However please keep in mind that – even though it does not look like it right now – GC might generate substantial revenues in the future. Therefore I would suggest we revisit this agreement in – say – 6 months?“
• Her answer to this was: “Again, I can totally do this at no charge, and I agree formalities are not needed.“
• The advertising photographs were developed in close communication with me, with samples going back and forth. I received a lot of prototypes, and new prototypes were usually based on direct feedback and suggestions by me. A very good example is the product display for the Berlin sofa, where the designer initially only had one image in the center, but the second closeup and the person sitting on the sofa was a direct request by me, which I illustrated with my own doodle. In fact, the designer initially refused the idea of having a person sitting on the furniture at all.
• As per agreement we received full-mod textures in-world as well as PNG images via email. On several occasions the images needed to be altered by myself – all cases were acknowledged as being in my room for decision by the designer. In one case she even specifically asked me to do some changes as she had no time to do them.
• In August, the commercial agreement got rediscussed, and a price for the photographs was agreed upon. The first payment of 1130 L$ was made on August 18.
• On September 10 the designer resigned without explanation. Her resignation consists only of 7 words: “Please find another photographer for Greene Concept.“. My counter question if any payments or issues were still open never got answered.
• On October 2 we announced Trinity Dechou as new product photographer. During the preceeding weeks we were without a photographer and could not bring the Halloween products to market due to lack of decent product photos. As the Halloween preparations were in full swing since mid September we missed out on two weeks of potential sales due to that fact.
• Already on October 1 the first images using Trinity’s design work got published on the blog and on Flickr – also to a group said person is founder/administrator of.
• The task given to Trinity was to “bring the product images to the next level”. As the existing designs were made as requested, guided contractual work and were developed in close cooperation with me, no problems were expected to base the new design on the existing one. However a few new requests were made, the two major ones being to show more details of the intricate fabric textures and to show the products in a home/office environment.
• On October 25 I received an email from the former designer, accusing GREENE concept and myself to have “ripped off” her designs. The email contained a threat and an ultimatum: “You have 24 hours counting from right now 11:30 am SLT to remove those pictures from your store, if you don’t I will publish a copy on Flickr and Plurk and let people judge whether they are rip off or not.“
• Upon reciept I contacted Trinity and tried to contact Ivanova. The former designer is well aware of timezone difficulties, and also knows that Ivanova is almost never available during the weekend. We came to the conclusion that her allegations had no basis, and since Trinity got inherently accused, we decided that it was best that she asks ‘from designer to designer’ which parts she felt had been “ripped”. Trinity sent an email saying “As the newly appointed GREENE concept designer I would like to know where you feel the images have been ‘ripped off’. ALL images were reshot by myself, evident in the different angles in Berlin shots and the times on the clocks. The only continuity I see in your designs and my designs are the logo (designed by Ike) and the products (owned by GC). I now ask for your professional explanation as to how my designs are stolen from yours.” This email was sent about 2 hours after the initial email.
• About 4 hours later and in fact closely after I went to bed (as said person is aware of) she decided to disregard her own 24 hour ultimatum and went public with her allegation on Plurk and Flickr, quickly getting a lot of sympathetic comments. She also claimed “I sent an email to Peter asking to have the pictures removed and the only response I received was an e-mail from Trinity. The message I received was that I was wrong, and that Peter was not going to answer to me.” which does not reflect the facts. Neither did Trinity or myself say I would not reply, nor did Trinity’s reply say she was wrong by default.

I deeply regret that this issue became so emotional. I am sorry the designer feels she got “ripped off”, however I am convinced her claims do not stand up to inspection. It is only natural that even a virtual company gives the branding aspect a big significance. As we have ordered and very closely influenced the design of the former photographer, as we have also paid for it, partly modified it ourselves, we see ourselves as the owner of the work. It is only natural that a design evolution gets based on existing foundations. We also think that Trinity’s new design exceeds the initial design in all aspects. This is not to say the initial design was bad – it is just natural to develop the concept further. On the other hand a photographer who stops to work for a company can not assume that this company will relaunch itself with a completely new visual concept after that.

I am deeply convinced that we did not “rip her off”, and the unprofessional manner in which she has handled this issue makes me sad. I would have preferred a personal discussion about this instead of public accusations. Unfortunately I was not given that chance.

Below please find a side by side comparison of her designs (left) and our new designs (right). I think this neutral comparison should bury all allegations.