Get in losers, we’re going for a trip down memory lane, via my current grad school classes. I’m feeling salty today, for reasons, so there might be some swears. (Here’s a photo tax.)

I’m an MLIS student (Library and Information Science), and this summer I’m taking a one-month seminar on copyright for cultural institutions, and a 10-week front-end web development survey. (Turns out doing them at the same time is not something I would advise; I’m struggling at the moment.)

Before the MLIS program, I spent a hot minute as a graphic designer. Before that I spent a few years in school (New York City College of Technology — CUNY FTW) studying graphic design and print production. I took a lot of shit for it, because despite the program being vocational in nature (the print production part), it’s… ahem… not useful.

OK, but here’s the thing: I learned how to research and write during my “useless” undergraduate degree (Classics). What that means right now: I don’t use AI LLMs because I don’t find them useful — too much copyright infringement (cheating) and making stuff up, or “hallucinating” (lying), that I would have to account for, and I’m sorry, but ain’t nobody got time for that. Everything is already too complicated to have to spend extra time dealing with AI slop. (This is not to say that there is no use for AI; I’m saying that for what I’m doing right now, it’s more distracting than helpful, so I just don’t use it… and I would appreciate it if Microsoft would stop reactivating CoPilot every time office updates.)

As for studying graphic design, guess who has a pretty reasonable foundation in copyright law, particularly with regard to fair use? That would be me. When you’re in art school, you copy masters on purpose. And you might use photos that don’t belong to you to mock up design assignments… and you learn pretty quickly that you’re not allowed to sell or distribute those works. While you might have a defensible fair use argument for creating that work in the context of an education setting, the copyright holders of the original works may very well be able to claim infringement if you publish or otherwise distribute their work without permission or licensing.

Drawing from a photo reference? Did you take the photo? The drawing is yours to do whatever you want with. If you didn’t, and your drawing is a faithful reproduction (has not been substantially altered), it’s not yours to sell or distribute. And guess what, friends? Posting something to the internet is a potential method for distribution.

[Related: do not ask me to remove a watermark from a low-resolution digital mockup so you can use it as the finished piece. I made it a low resolution digital mockup with a big ol’ watermark on it for a reason.]

Also:

• Darkroom photography –> photo editing in Photoshop or Affinity Photo
• Typography –> relative measurement units in CSS
• PPI vs DPI –> IYKYK
• Color theory –> related to everything, everywhere… it’s astonishing, really.

Moral of the story: study what you want to study, and make sure to develop some critical thinking skills along the way. Everything is related, and even if you don’t end up using that exact discipline for your work for the rest of your life, there’s a better than even chance that at least some of it will be useful.