Thank you so much for commenting – especially such positive comments.

Glad to see that you’ve been vindicated, but also relieved to hear that Paperchase hadn’t been deliberately buying knocked off art.

(I don’t know that the artist even sees what she’s done as plagiarising – she says she simply copied a pose, but that’s another story.)

Paperchase has learned a lesson about taking on-line reputation seriously, but I now see them as being between a rock and a hard place.

They’ve bought artwork in good faith and been offered reassurances about what they bought – reassurances that they relayed to you. They are also victims in this tale.Their responses now are limited.

The natural thing would be for them to stop using indie designers in favour of an in-house team where they could be certain of the provenance of their art. That would be a real shame.

You have a lot of power in your hands now to make something good come of this.. Paperchase were hamfisted in their responses but I would hate to see them destroyed by this. In general, they seem very supportive of good design.

If the whole range is removed and destroyed, who benefits?

Many people who had never heard of you have been exposed to your artwork. Many have chosen to buy it. So you have already had some benefit from this (although I don’t imagine that being in the spotlight was all fun) and I imagine that the exposure to your artwork will have a continued afterglow.

Why not become something of a hero of the hour and offer Paperchase a solution that benefits everyone?

Why not ask that 10 or 20% of all takings on this range go to one of the funds that supports artists whose work has been ripped off? You can always ask that a tag is added to the range with something referring to Hidden Eloise and clarifying the situation.

Or ask them to create a range whose profits go to Twestival (http://twestival.com) in March in order to pay something back to the on-line community.

Your reputation hangs in your response to this as well. People will be asking whether your motivation is money (Should it have been my design in the shop, not hers? Shouldn’t they be paying me lots of money, not her) or seeing the right thing done (artists being rewarded for their efforts, and good design supported).

I hope that doesn’t sound harsh. It’s simply meant to point out potential realities.

On Paperchase’s part I would like to see them implement a range of other measures that could improve their transparency, but that’s a story for another time.

I do hope that you will choose to make a stand for good, genuine design and help Paperchase to find a response that benefits the wider artistic and on-line community.

It would be a shame to see an organisation that for the most part appears to be very supportive of designers brought down by a mistake.

For your information, the designer of Gathernomoss, Kitty Mason has admitted copying my character and there is an update in my blog : HiddenEloise.com
or directly to her apology here:
http://hidenseek.typepad.com/come_out_come_out/2010/02/the-designer-apologises.html

Many thanks again and all the best!

Bear hugs,

Hidden Eloise xx

Paperchase’s response has been poor. To say that the people asking “what have you done here and why?” are “cock-eyed” is patronising and offensive. Their initial statement (which has now grown and will probably do so again) came across as snotty and defensive.

Their brand is the one being questioned, it is Paperchase who should take ownership of the issue, investigate sensibly and thoroughly then publish the full facts. Trying to pass the blame onto someone else – a design agency – is very poor form.

Paperchase claim to have purchased the image “in good faith”. There is little about their response thus far that has been good.