Testimonials.

[Mary Sparrow]

Someone recently stumbled across my website and emailed to ask if I had any testimonials to read.

As I looked around at other websites on SOG, I noticed that many people do include those. If I were to use some quotes from clients, would I have to get their permission to do so? Or, if it has been emailed to me, or for that matter even something posted about work here, is that considered to be out there for the taking so long as you give credit to the person that said it?

Do YOU use them in your promotional material?

[Cynthia Daniel]

I always ask permission before quoting someone. For example, in some promo material, I quote John Sanden - something he said about my site. I asked permission. When I include something complimentary an artist has said in my newsletter, I ask first.

The way I see it, that communication is from that person to me and is, therefore, privilged. To go public with it, I wouldn't feel right without getting permission first.

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Mary, I have some testimonials on my site which arose from other artists on a painters' forum seeing my work on the web. I included their words but no attribution beyond noting that these were reactions from artists. I'm not sure if that's a problem; it didn't seem to be to me or to the people whose words I used and to whom I mentioned that I did this.

[Mary Reilly]

Mary, I use testimonials in my portfolio and my portrait brochures. I pull quotes from thank you notes and emails that I've received from clients and I put their Initials and their city and state next to the quote. By using their initials instead of their names, I feel more comfortable quoting them and I don't feel obligated to get permission.

Mary

[Cynthia Daniel]

Not using the name or only using initials certainly seems safer than quoting with the name - but I really don't know the legalities of it. But, of course, sometimes it's important to use the name, such as in my case with John Sanden.

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Cynthia, I agree with you. If I had a testimonial from someone like Nelson Shanks I'd sure want to use it, and of course I'd get permission. In my case the point was that the comments were from other artists, none of whom has a name that the general public would relate to. The fact that they were artists seemed enough information to share, and I didn't feel I was abusing privacy or intellectual property rights because the comments were fairly generic.

I have seen some artists include a testimonial next to a portrait commissioned by the grateful patron. In that situation too, of course you'd need permission.

[Steven Sweeney]

Here are two excellent presentations on securing and using testimonials. In reading the first, an article entitled

[Cynthia Daniel]

I have seen some artists include a testimonial next to a portrait commissioned by the grateful patron. In that situation too, of course you'd need permission.

Yes, definitely.