Stop putting your watermark right in the center of the image

I kept seeing people do this in galleries and on instagram. It ruins the whole composition. I learned this from a designer friend who does album covers. Put it in a corner or along the edge. People still can't crop it out easily and your art actually looks good. Anyone else notice this hurt their engagement until they moved it?

3 comments

3 Comments

leehall1mo ago

lmao right? It's like people think their name is the actual art piece and the image is just background noise. I swear half of them put the watermark dead center thinking it makes them look professional but it just screams "I don't trust anyone and my work is boring without my name plastered all over it." Honestly if your art is good enough you don't need to ruin the whole thing just to make sure nobody crops it. Put it in the corner or along the edge like a normal person and let your work actually breathe. The worst ones are the people who throw a giant transparent logo across the whole thing like they're watermarking a JPEG of their breakfast.

nancyg141mo ago

leehall @leehall you're totally right about the giant logo thing but here's the angle nobody talks about - some of those big watermarks are actually a legal trick. If someone crops it and reposts, the artist can show the original with the watermark in court to prove it was stolen, it's like a digital fingerprint that's harder to argue against than a little corner sig. Still looks awful though, ruins the whole vibe of the piece.

umar491mo ago

Actually that legal trick doesn't really hold up the way people think it does. Courts usually want to see metadata and original files with layers or raw camera data, not just a watermark that someone could have easily added later. Watermarks can be faked or placed on someone else's work, so judges don't treat them as solid proof of ownership.