Agencies build brands for clients everyday, but often overlook the careful construction of their own. Core, in St. Louis, is not one of those agencies. Core For Sale, an online store peddling Core-branded merchandise, is a unique way to build the agency brand, and showcase the design sensibility of its hyper-talented staff.
core is a 19-person creative studio based in saint louis, missouri that started in 1995 as a design-driven advertising firm, and quickly developed a reputation as one of the premier studios in the united states.
ten years on, core decided to launch its own brand and webstore called, simply, coreforsale.
Who owns the rights to the artwork? The employees or the employer?
Susan,
Good question. I don’t know.
I sometimes wonder the same thing about the Grand Mercury Award, where the winning agency gets $100 grand to play with. How much of that money filters down to the copywriter?
Actually, our people work on their fine art while they are at work. We budget and spend time on these projects the same as if they were client projects. Everyone gets involved. Usually, they cost us as much to produce as they make, so we’ve never really had an issue of rights, etc. I guess it could be a sticky issue, but we’d never infringe on anything an employee wanted to do, and most of them think that the environment we foster helps so much in getting their work published/seen, that they don’t have any issues. Lucky we all get along so well I guess.
Marc, Thanks for enlightening us. Your agency environment sounds as inspiring as some of the work Core has created. Funny how that works.