The Graphic Artists Guild is a
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
of
graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...
s,
illustrators
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complica ...
, and
photographers
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographers
As in other ...
and is organized into seven chapters around the United States. It is a member of the international organization
Icograda
The International Council of Design (ICoD; formerly known as ico-D, International Council of Communication Design or Icograda, which was formerly an initialism for International Council of Graphic Design Associations) is an international organisa ...
.
History
In the mid-1960s most automobile advertising contained illustrations, not photographs. Many of the illustrators who worked for the advertising agencies servicing the automobile industry were unhappy with their pay and working conditions. Many were members of the
Society of Illustrators
The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition.
History
Founding
The Society of Illustrators was founded on ...
, but they were told that the Society did not do advocacy work. So those artists banded together to form the Guild as a union of artists. On November 2, 1967, the Graphic Artists Guild charter, based on the
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
constitution, was signed in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, by 113 artists. After the Detroit chapter, and the first national office (eventually located in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
), were founded, artists organized chapters in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
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,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
;
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
; and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
In 1970, the Detroit chapter called a strike against
Campbell-Ewald
Campbell Ewald is an advertising and marketing communications agency headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Campbell Ewald is part of advertising company Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG).
History
In 1 ...
, the advertising agency that serviced
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
. Guild members struck for better wages and the right of Campbell-Ewald's freelance graphic artists to accept work from other clients. The strike failed when Campbell-Ewald hired
scabs to break the strike. With the failure of the strike the Detroit chapter declined and the Guild's headquarters was moved to New York.
Over the years, the Guild has merged with several other artists groups, including the
Illustrators Guild
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...
in 1976, the
Graphic Artists for Self-Preservation
Graphics () are visual perception, visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustration, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of dat ...
and the
Creative Designers Guild
Creative may refer to:
*Creativity, phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created
* "Creative" (song), a 2008 song by Leon Jackson
* Creative class, a proposed socioeconomic class
* Creative destruction, an economic term
* Creative dir ...
in 1978, the
Textile Designers Guild
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
in 1979, the
Cartoonist Guild
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...
in 1984, the
Coalition of Designers
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
in 1987, and the Society of Professional Graphic Artists in Seattle became the Guild’s Seattle chapter in 1993.
In December 2008, the Guild sued the Illustrators Partnership of America and five individuals for
libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
regarding what the Guild considered
defamatory
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
public comments in connection with the IPA's effort to form a separate illustrators rights-collecting society with 13 organizations, the
American Society of Illustrators Partnership. In 2011, Judge Debra James of the Supreme Court, Civil Branch,
New York County
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, dismissed this
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
1 million-dollar
tortious interference
Tortious interference, also known as intentional interference with contractual relations, in the common law of torts, occurs when one person intentionally damages someone else's contractual or business relationships with a third party, causing e ...
and defamation lawsuit. The Guild filed a motion to appeal.
UAW Affiliation
For most of its history, the Graphic Artists Guild has been an independent union, negotiating its first collective bargaining contract for artists at the
Children’s Television Workshop
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...
in 1986. In 1993 the Guild became the collective bargaining agent for the graphic artists employed at
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...
(PBS) primary member station,
WNET
WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...
. After years of negotiations with the
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders.
About 60 perc ...
,
Communications Workers of America
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors (also in Canada and Puerto Rico). The union has 27 loc ...
, and the
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...
(UAW), the Guild in 1999 voted to affiliate with the UAW, becoming Local 3030. Affecting the Guild's decision were the experiences of the
National Writers Union
National Writers Union (NWU), founded on 19 November 1981, is the trade union in the United States for freelance and contract writers: journalists, book and short fiction authors, business and technical writers, web content providers and poets. ...
, which had seen 50% membership growth under UAW auspices.
As Guild membership declined from 2,083 in 1999 to 1,832 in 2003, the Guild's affiliation with UAW became economically unfeasible. In 2004, a majority of the Guild members voted to disaffiliate at the end of the five-year agreement.
Advocacy
In the 1970s, Guild lobbying helped sway the
Copyright Royalty Tribunal to raise fees and improve reporting procedures regarding use of previously published art for
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
and its affiliate stations.
In 1979, the Guild began a long-term campaign to stop
work-for-hire
A work made for hire (work for hire or WFH), in copyright law in the United States, is a work that is subject to copyright and is created by employees as part of their job or some limited types of works for which all parties agree in writing to the ...
contracts, where the art buyer assumes control over a freelance artist's work. A 1989 Supreme Court decision, ''
Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid
''Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid'', 490 U.S. 730 (1989), is a US copyright law and labor law case of a United States Supreme Court case regarding ownership of copyright.
Facts
The Community for Creative Non-Violence, a homeless char ...
'', followed the Guild's position to rule that a company obtaining the services of a freelancer cannot compel a work-for-hire situation, or assume one is in place, unless both parties sign a written contract agreeing to such an arrangement.
In 1980, the Guild represented a group of textile designers, terminated by Print-a-Pattern for trying to form a union, in an unfair labor practices action before the
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...
.
In the early 1980s, artists' fair-practices law based on the Guild's model law were passed in California, New York, and Oregon. In response to Guild opposition, the IRS withdrew a proposed rule that would have disallowed a home studio deduction where the artist had a primary source of income at another location and from another type of work.
In 1985, the
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
chapter succeeded in passing the Arts Preservation Act in
, which states, "No person, except an artist who owns or possesses a work of fine art which the artist has created, shall intentionally commit, or authorize the intentional commission of any physical defacement, mutilation, alteration, or destruction of a work of fine art."
Under the
Tax Reform Act of 1986
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA) was passed by the 99th United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on October 22, 1986.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was the top domestic priority of President Reagan's second term. The a ...
, writers and artists were barred from deducting expenses except in the year in which they booked the income for those expenses. The Graphic Artists Guild and 44 other artists groups successfully lobbied to have that provision repealed in 1988.
In 2002 the Northern California Chapter lobbied the state's Board of Equalization on behalf of illustrator Heather Preston. This effort resulted in a ruling that virtually exempts sales tax on all on the artwork of graphic artists.
In April 2010, the Graphic Artists Guild filed suit against
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
to halt further development of the
Google Books Library Project
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
. The issue in the lawsuit is Google’s digitization of millions of books for the benefit of Google Books. The books in dispute include protected visual works, such as photographs, illustrations, and charts. Google had previous negotiated a settlement with text authors and other rights holders whose work was unlawfully digitized, but that agreement did not address the rights of visual artists.
In August 2019 the National Press Photographers Association and the American Society of Media Photographers filed an amicus brief in support of Jim Olive in University of Houston System vs. Jim Olive Photography, D/B/A Photolive, Inc. The brief was joined by the
North American Nature Photography Association
The North American Nature Photography Association or NANPA is an organization dedicated to photography of nature. The association's headquarters were originally in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and now are in Alma, Illinois. Established in 1994, the asso ...
, Graphic Artists Guild, American Photographic Artists, and
Professional Photographers of America
Professional Photographers of America (PPA) is a nonprofit trade association of professional photographers. As of August 2022, PPA has 34,000 members.
History
19th century
The association began in December 1868 as the National Photographic Ass ...
. "The case began when Texas photographer Jim Olive discovered that the University of Houston was using one of his aerial photographs for marketing purposes without permission. When Olive asked the University to pay for the use, they refused and told him they were shielded from suit because of sovereign immunity, which protects state government entities from many lawsuits." After a negative ruling from a Texas appellate court Olive hopes to continue his fight.
In 2019 the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
granted certiorari in ''
Allen v. Cooper
The Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA) is a United States copyright law that attempted to abrogate sovereign immunity of states for copyright infringement. The CRCA amended 17 USC 511(a):
Unconstitutionality
The CRCA has been struck ...
'', raising the question of whether Congress validly abrogated state sovereign immunity via the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act in providing remedies for authors of original expression whose federal copyrights are infringed by states. Thirteen amici including; the
United States Chamber of Commerce
The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is the largest lobbying group in the United States, representing over three million businesses and organizations. The group was founded in April 1912 out of local chambers of commerce at the urging ...
, the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
, the
Copyright Alliance
The Copyright Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(4) organization representing artistic creators across a broad range of copyright disciplines.
The Copyright Alliance's institutional members include more than sixty trade organizations, a ...
, the
Software and Information Industry Association
The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association dedicated to the entertainment, consumer and business software industries. Established in 1984 as the Software Publishers Association (SPA), the SIIA took its new na ...
, the Graphic Artists Guild and the
National Press Photographers Association
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is an American professional association made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field. Founded in 1946, the organization is based in at ...
, filed briefs in support of Allen. Those briefs proposed various doctrines under which the CRCA could validly abrogate sovereign immunity and variously re-asserted and supported the reasons why Congress examined and enacted CRCA, claiming that Congress was fair in finding that states had abused immunity and that an alternative remedy was needed. On November 5, 2019 the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Allen v. Cooper. A decision in the case is expected in the late spring of 2020.
Publishing
The Graphic Artists Guild published the first edition of its ''Pricing & Ethical Guidelines'' in 1973. ''Pricing & Ethical Guidelines'' began as a 20-page pamphlet and has grown into a 400-page book.
Up through the 1990s, the Guild also published the ''Directory of Illustration'' and a ''Corporate and Communication Design'' annual.
References
External links
Graphic Artists Guild
{{Authority control
Trade unions in the United States
Trade unions established in 1967
History of labor relations in the United States
Entertainment industry unions
Guilds in the United States