A post on Facebook went viral , garnering 7.1k shares since Tuesday (30th August), regarding a designer who exposed her client for stealing her designs during the upcoming exhibition, the International Sustainable Energy Summit (ISES). The designer—the founder of Dxclusive Sdn Bhd—revealed that the client had taken the designer’s work without permission and asked another company to replicate it.
According to the post, the design team agreed to a tender for the company, Cenergi SEA Berhad at the end of July. As the client was uncertain of the budget and their preferred concept, the team shared their ideas to help expedite the process. Due to time constraints, the team had to work two nights in a row to finish the proposal in time for the discussion.
“After (the) meeting, they loved our design very much, so procurement came for negotiation, (however) due to the tremendous price squeeze, we were not able to take the job. So, we thought maybe next time, it is ok, (it’s) not like we will always win a tender,” she elaborated. What happened next, however, sparked the designer’s rage. The client took their design and had another company re-create it down to the last detail.
“When we compared the designs, the similarities were a 95% match, because the dimensions, colours, (and) even poster mapping is the same as ours,” she wrote. The designer decided to attend the event and was surprised to learn that the client had followed through on their design with only minor changes.
Seeing as there were no Malaysian laws to protect creative designer’s work, the designer had turned to social media as a last resort. “I feel so sorry for my team who worked so hard to create the outstanding design hoping that will help the clients standout in the exhibition but end up being robbed of their hard work. Cenergi and Brainstormconcept shame on you two!”.
Creative designers should be wary of their work because it is not uncommon for large brands to exploit smaller businesses. Fortunately, the COO of Cenergi has apologised and will compensate for their mistakes, according to the designer’s comment on her post.
Neetashini Kanendran contributed to this article
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