So.. I so SO didn't want to get involved in this mess, as I generally try very hard to stay away from any sort of drama and the two people involved in this particular one are both people that I know and like. However, I feel that since my own reputation as a graphic/blog designer has been compromised, my hands are tied. As much as I don't want to.. I feel that I have to. These kind of things are sticky and a bad reputation can hurt a rookie designer plenty.
So here it goes.
This morning I have received an email from Rachel from Fiktshun, who I'm sure many (if not all) of you know and love. She sounded angry, heartbroken and desperate for answer, and the general gist of the email was that someone stole some of her custom designed graphics and used it on a blog that just happened to be designed by me.
I won't go into details, nor will I try to recap the whole story for you here - that would take forever. You can read all about it here:
http://www.fiktshuns-ramblings.com/2013/01/when-staying-silent-isnt-answer.html?spref=tw
We exchanged some emails and I assured Rachel that I had nothing to do with the image theft or the hotlinked images, or stolen blockquotes.
The design I did for Lady Reader's Bookstuff was a friendly freebie consisting of: the header, the background, the social media icons, blog button, a couple of banners for her blog tours, the favicon and post and sidebar header images. I had nothing to do with the images she later added and that were "lifted" off of Rachel's website.
I didn't even want to get any deeper into this issue, but as Rachel pointed out, her first thought was: her designer did it (since it appeared that Amy didn't have sufficient html skills to incorporate the blockquote herself), and her unfortunate designer at that time was no one else but me. Having my own reputation on the line, I decided to email Amy and ask her about the situation. She said she didn't intentionally steal any images and that she'll make sure to remove the graphics in questions immediately. Well, if you read Rachel's post (linked above), you know how that went. Rachel then decided to go public with the whole matter, which left me no choice but to follow suit.
I do not want my name or my reputation as a blog designer to be tarnished by this unfortunate turn of events, and so I feel that I have to make a statement here. Let's make this clear: I was not in any way involved in this situation. I did not steal or help steal any images. And I did not help install any blockquotes featuring images that were hotlinked on Rachel's site (or any other site for that matter).
It hurts me to have my name dragged into this mess, as all I was trying to do was help out a friend by designing a free web layout and graphics. Well, consider it lesson learned.
I'm sorry that Rachel was faced with this situation, especially since she is one of the people I asked to co-host the 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge with me. A person I admire and respect, both as a blogger and a human being.
I do not stand for plagiarism. In any way or form.
That's all I have to say on this subject. The rest is silence...
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Below are the images designed by me for Amy. These are the only parts that I had anything to do with.
