Falls Festival has pulled a line of its own merchandise after a designer discovered the festival was using her artwork without permission.
As ABC reports, Ellie King from Melbourne’s Rittleking designs was told by a friend that her drawings of smiling and frowning faces were being sold on merchandise at this year’s Falls Festival. She believes the resemblance between her work and the faces on Falls’ merchandise is uncanny.
“I didn’t know this was happening,” she says. “It’s such a blatant copy.”
In an Instagram post (below), Ms King says it’s “sad that a festival that is meant to be supporting local artists are ripping them off”.
Since the copies were spotted, Falls Festival has posted to Facebook calling the situation “an unintentional mishap”, and has removed the items from sale. “We love and support local artists,” the festival says.
A Falls Festival spokeswoman says 13 t-shirts featuring the design were sold at the Victorian leg of Falls at Mt Duneed Estate.
“As soon as we were made aware of this similarity we removed all stock from sale from all sites. We are now in contact with the artist directly,” the spokeswoman says.
Ms King, who began selling designs with her faces about four months ago, says the festival “did the right thing” by pulling the stock.
Negative comments regarding Falls Festival’s use of the design have reportedly been deleted from its Facebook page — a move which Ms King condemns.
“It’s kind of like, just admit guilt. Everyone makes mistakes, but if you’re going to make a big mistake, own it and sort it out,” she says.
While she was initially upset about Falls’ use of her work, Ms King says some good might come from it.
“At first I was really upset, but the amount of positive social media and people just getting behind me and sharing it, saying ‘this is so bad, how can they do that when Falls Festival market themselves as looking out for local talent?’,” she says.
“You definitely see the t-shirts around but I’m sure this will get the brand out in a good way… If something good comes out of it, it might encourage other artists to fight this kind of thing.”
Ms King is waiting to hear from Falls Festival organisers about whether she will be compensated for the sales it made featuring the design.
Catch Falls Festival’s Facebook statement alongside Ms King’s Instagram post, below.
Screenshot via Facebook / ABC
Header Image: ABC
