Ethics is an important concept no matter what we do. In the civilized world, ethics is in fact the cornerstone of most laws, governments, and institutions (or at least what we aim to influence these concepts). Even in the digital branding world, a sense of moral principles is essential to an agency’s legitimacy. Online sharing is quite common, however always with the condition of giving credit to those who influenced your work.

The theme of ethics came up this week after it was revealed to us that an impostor of a graphic designer, a self-proclaimed “Creative Workshop” site, has stolen a visual identity that we developed for TGLT Forum Residencias, a subdivision of an international enterprise with partners in the United Kingdom and Brazil. The internet is revolutionary because of the amount of information that is accessible, but that doesn’t mean accreditation isn’t necessary. Although we appreciate Graph Volcano’s obvious appreciation for our visual identity design for TGLT, to copy and paste it into their webpage and call it their own is simply unacceptable.

Thanks to Fabien at Graphic Exchange for informing us of this breach of virtual ethics.