A “website designed by…” link is like a Louis Vuitton monogram
A “website designed by…” link is like a Louis Vuitton monogram. It’s your brand. Let your clients wear it on their websites as proudly they would with a designer handbag.
Is this always true? What makes this practice highly recommended or downright tacky?
It depends. It always does.
Your brand should never hurt your creations, it should enhance them
I bumped into this post: You Will Never See “Designed by Atrick Design”. I totally respect everything he wrote there. And I am not going to say I am completely against it. In fact, I have avoided placing links, logos, and attribution for things I’ve done in the past. But some things struck me.
In Pat Dryburgh’s post, he points this out:
I will never let a “designed by” link do my marketing. I wouldn’t want to take that away from my clients.
A link does not have to be your only way of marketing. You can always do it at the same time you’re promoting yourself in the real world.
But what does that link take away from your clients? Why does does this awful perception exist? If you’re a good designer, (1) you will find a way to place your link so that it fits nicely into the design; and (2) visitors will consider it either convenient or eye candy.
As a web designer, you should practice what you preach
Convenient, because why waste time contacting the owner of the website to ask who designed it if the answer is just a click away?
If you do choose to do it the hard way, nobody’s stopping you. Don’t make that choice for the visitor. Isn’t designing an interface about making it easier for the user to do what he wants?
Clients are a great source for new work, but so are websites. As a web designer you’re supposed to promote that belief. Why not practice it as well?
A “website designed by…” link is like a Louis Vuitton monogram
Eye candy, because it all boils down to the psychology of branding. In fashion, the logos, emblems, patterns, and other symbols that represent designer brands are proudly displayed on the product because that is what the consumer desires. More so than the features of the product itself. The consumer desires the aura of sophistication and quality that the brand carries as its reputation.
How did Louis Vuitton gain such status? More than eye candy, his products were a success. I’m not going to tell you how to create successful web designs here, but we all know that if a product is successful, people who go out and buy it don’t mind having the mark of the brand on display!
Focus on making your work a success, and people won’t mind having your name stamped on it. It’s as simple as that.
Brand vs. Brand
Or is it?
I said our perception needs to change because it seems difficult to bring the phenomenon with luxury brands to the Web. Is it because web designers will never achieve the rockstardom of fashion designers? What about architects? Graphic designers? Are web designers really so different?
When does it become appropriate for a designer to leave his own mark? When designing for products that do not belong to someone else, it would be like trespassing, or a struggle between the true designer of the product and the company that outsourced the designing of that product. You wouldn’t expect a secondary logo in addition to Apple’s on the iPod. In this case, it does not matter whether you can find a way to tastefully incorporate your own logo for eye candy or convenience; you’d be potentially competing with the product itself.
Time to Choose
I’ve raised several different arguments here, but it’s up to you what to believe in. Pat does not believe linking back is a valid enough reason, but for web designers also who provide SEO services might think otherwise. Some of you could agree that web designers are a lot like fashion designers or graphic designers, but the web crowd may never in a million years see why.
If your client goes out of his way to ask you to put your name on it, ask yourself what’s stopping you from doing so.
Take into account your opinion, and other people’s opinions, and then decide.
Related reading:
Thank you, for this post, man
By Web Design Company on June 3, 2008 8:28 am
[...] an interesting post up at wisdump.com that was written in response to my post from last week. Check it out and join in the discussion! [...]
By Atrick Design » The Personal Portfolio of Pat Dryburgh » Rebuttal To My “Designed By Link” Post on June 3, 2008 2:27 pm
I agree with you .. it depends ..
If logotype can be placed to be completely in design I see only one reason not to place it:
customer is against it ..
thank you ..
By software_developer on June 3, 2008 3:06 pm
Just dropping by to say hello
By syed on June 3, 2008 4:23 pm
One thing neither you nor Pat raised is “ownership.” By putting your name on something, you’re not-so-tacitly saying “I did this work, I am proud of it, I want to be associated with it.” I think we’ve all done things where we’ve left our names off for just this reason.
That said, your point about the logo makes me think I should spend some time redesigning mine.
By James Socol on June 5, 2008 1:46 pm
[...] rebuttal, Sophia Lucero at wisdump.com claims your “designed by” link should be like a Louis Vuitton logo: “Your brand should [...]
By Do You “Designed By”? | Coffee on the Keyboard on June 5, 2008 3:05 pm
You should never use this link marketing technique. It’s not felt as ethical in SEO industry and I fully support that stance. It’s using your client property to market yourself. Not ethical, definitely.
By dusoft on June 7, 2008 12:16 pm
James, thanks for your input. I may have overlooked this, although I would say branding is intertwined with ownership. Branding is all about the reputation of the owner of that brand, and when he brands a product, he’s putting his name on the line.
I guess that could be the bottom line: “If your client goes out of his way to ask you to put your name on it, ask yourself what’s stopping you from doing so.” Could it be that you’re not confident enough of your own brand to put it there?
dusoft, that is why I brought up the Brand vs. Brand argument. However, I also think it’s not so much as link ethics as it is attribution. Although I’m grateful an SEO guy brought up his standpoint here. :)
By Sophia Lucero on June 7, 2008 9:03 pm
I have to say that I agree with Pat’s point of view.
[...] Convenient, because why waste time contacting the owner of the website to ask who designed it if the answer is just a click away?[...]
I believe that taking the time to contact the owner will act as a natural filter, and so you have more chances to end up with a serious client, one who thinks that inquiring is not a waste of his/her time and who is really interested in your work.
I would say more, but my hangover disagrees.
Good post though!
By Codrin on June 16, 2008 1:00 pm
dusoft, I completely agree that this is inherently unethical. If a client knows that this logo placement is a part of the contractual obligation and agrees to it, how can this be unethical? Heck, if I had a project I was working with Happy Cog, I’d WANT, perhaps BEG for them to put their moniker on it specifically because it HELPS me in the marketplace. “Hey, did you see that web app? They were designed by Happy Cog, so they must be good!”
Have we really gotten to the point on the Web where SEO drives our every business decision? God I hope not. Stephen King writes in this week’s Entertainment Weekly about how the drive to televise baseball has had a radically negative impact on the game from the fan’s perspective. Perhaps the same thing is happening when honest cross-marketing is seen as negative SEO link baiting.
Ugh, SEO.
By Jake McKee on August 17, 2008 8:29 am