the_thea•1mo agoProlific Poster

Stop putting your signature on the bottom right of every piece

I see it over and over in this showcase group - artists cramming their name or logo into the bottom right corner like it's a photo credit. That spot gets cropped out constantly when people save or share your work. My buddy lost credit for a piece that went semi-viral because his sig got clipped off. Try tucking it into a shadow or a textured area instead, somewhere that blends but doesn't get cut. Has anyone else had a piece stolen this way because of bad placement?

4 comments

4 Comments

mark_carr71mo ago

Hold up, gotta disagree hard here. I put my sig in the bottom right for years and never had a piece stolen that way. If people are cropping your work they're gonna crop it no matter where you hide it, they'll just slap a filter on top if they really want it gone. I actually had a buddy who tried tucking his name into a shadowy corner and someone just reposted it with a cheap vignette filter that blacked out the whole edge, you couldn't even see his tag anymore. Bottom right is literally the standard watermark spot for photographers and illustrators because it's the last place people crop since it's the natural bottom of the image. Your move just makes it easier for thieves to claim they didn't see it when they repost.

robin6281mo ago

Does anyone else notice how signatures in the bottom right almost always look like an afterthought? @dakota415 I feel you on keeping it clean and bold, but I had a buddy who got his work shared on a meme page once and they just sliced the whole bottom inch off without thinking. Drove him nuts.

dakota4151mo agoTop Commenter

Man, I have to push back hard on this one. I've been selling prints and doing commissions for like 8 years now and my signature has always been in the bottom right corner. I think the real issue is people just need to center their signature better not move it somewhere weird. If you put your name into a shadow or a busy texture it gets lost and then people just crop it out anyway because they don't even see it. I had a piece go viral on Reddit last year and my sig stayed visible the whole time because I keep it clean and bold. Also the whole argument about cropping is overblown because most reputable sites and accounts will at least try not to slice off the bottom of an image. My buddy does huge landscape paintings and he stamps his name right there never had a problem. Bottom right is the standard for a reason it's just what people look for.

charles_mitchell1mo ago

Aw man, you actually made me rethink this. I used to be dead set on hiding my signature in some clever spot because I thought it looked more artistic, but after reading this I realize I've had pieces stolen where people just cropped around the whole busy background nonsense. Never thought about how a clean bold placement in the bottom right actually makes it HARDER to remove without messing up the whole image. Gonna try this on my next drop for sure.