Lilly, Schmilly - design your own fabric

[Tulip86]

wow. just wow. that alpha phi design is so good!

[dukemama]

Oh WhiteDaisy, you just made my day - the Alpha Phi design ROCKS! Thank goodness for "boredom"!

[DubaiSis]

For the graphics that weren't borrowed directly from the sorority website, as far as I'm concerned they're public domain. I mean, it's not like we're making a fabric out of the text of our ritual or anything.

[Gusteau]

I'm not by any means a licensing expert, however, I do know that organizations' coats of arms, letters, logos, and other such marks are nearly always trademarked and protected. Members may claim fair use of them to a point, but if a profit is being made by any party they should become a greek licensed vendor (here:http://greeklicensing.com/).

I'm not sure if it would be enough for Spoonflower to become a greek licensed vendor, or if each individual seller would also have to conform to those guidelines.

[WhiteDaisy128]

Originally Posted by Gusteau

I'm not by any means a licensing expert, however, I do know that organizations' coats of arms, letters, logos, and other such marks are nearly always trademarked and protected. Members may claim fair use of them to a point, but if a profit is being made by any party they should become a greek licensed vendor (here:http://greeklicensing.com/).

I'm not sure if it would be enough for Spoonflower to become a greek licensed vendor, or if each individual seller would also have to conform to those guidelines.

Yes, this is the impression I had. I did have someone send me a message on SpoonFlower asking about the KD fabric (asking if I was going to open it up for the public to buy), so I did sent a message to their HQ...we'll see what they say.

I am not interested in selling them to make a profit. I'm just doing the design for fun and for a little mental stimulation as a stay-at-home-mum. I don't intend on making them available for sale unless there is a high demand and the HQs give their permission (I do not have the time/means to go through the licensing process - there is a royalty per product sold as well as a yearly fee)...so I'm guessing, sadly, they will always be a fun way to waste time, but not actually available for use.

[DubaiSis]

I still haven't heard from Alpha Xi. I'm not going to wait forever, but I'll be interested to know if/when you get any responses, WhiteDaisy. Whatever one says will probably be true of the rest.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Whatever one says will probably be true of the rest.

Not necessarily...our HQ has gone crazy about what they will allow on the heels of our new branding. In fact, I posted the Polyvore I made on my Facebook* and got an email from HQ saying I need to take it down because Polyvore was not an approved site for use of letters. Curiously, the link was right next to a blog post, and my blog has an ASA logo, and they said nothing about that. Honestly, though, I was at work and didn't take the time to figure out how to un-post. It fell off into the abyss of Older Posts and has not been heard from again, so whatever.


*I'm friends with several HQ people...they don't randomly go policing our Facebook accounts ala rabid PHC during rush.

[WhiteDaisy128]

Regardless of whether or not they can be sold, I'm having fun making them!

ADPi Love!

Close up:

[CougADPi]

Swoon!!! Love the ADPi design!

[violetpretty]

There's a site called colourlovers.com where you can create your own color palettes and patterns using those palettes. The patterns are premade, but you can manipulate which colors you want in which design. There's a lot of cute patterns. AND you can buy the fabric!!! No need to worry about licensing if you happen to want fabric with blue owls for example.

Psych: There are some wonderful colourlovers that make pattern templates, so you can make your own if can figure out how.

[DubaiSis]

And by the way, I never heard back from FHQ, so I'm assuming that's a green light. I'm going to be ordering a handful of samples. What I'll do with them, I have no clue. Any requests for the sorority designs I did that are not Alpha Xi?

[SWTXBelle]

I am guessing you would initially receive a cease and desist letter/e-mail if there were a problem. However, I am not a lawyer, although goodness knows we have plenty here on GC who may weigh in.

[WhiteDaisy128]

Aaaaand back to the top because I'm bored!

http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric_items/new?design_id=912065

Panhellenic Print!
Up close:


A yard:

[WhiteRose1912]

I think it's cute, except for KAT and TPhiA. It's not Tau, it's Theta!

[WhiteDaisy128]

Originally Posted by WhiteRose1912

I think it's cute, except for KAT and TPhiA. It's not Tau, it's Theta!

Oh no!! Races off to fix it! :-P Silly "symbols font!"