Designer Accuses Ad Agency of Steeling Oldboy Poster Designs

Designer Juan Luis Garcia has written a letterto director Spike Lee, claiming that the commercial poster for Lee's film ' OldBoy'was stolen from his own designs without permission or payment.

"Iknow you’ll understand my story of an artist trying to make a dignifiedliving," Garcia wrote in theletter, adding ""It’sdifficult and sometimes seems impossible because everyone wants you to work forfree or for 'exposure.' " Garcia explained that he has worked on anumber of designs for Oldboy posters at the request of an ad agency. who made avery low offer after his work was selected. "Imake the same amount of money in a single day as a photo assistant as what theyoffered, and I had worked on these almost exclusively for two months," hewrote.

Garcia revealed that although he didn't signany contracts with the agency or even getting paid for the design pitches, thedesigns and concepts he made for the agency were used. He said that when he warnedthem of complaining, they threatened to take legal action against him.

Whatprompted the open letter, he continued, was the fact that his images thenappeared on Lee's own social media feeds. "Ijust couldn’t believe it. I perceive you as an advocate of the arts and artistsand have a sinking feeling that you are as much of a victim in this as I am."Garcia commented on his letter in an interview with THR that he has beenreceiving great support from fellow designers, and that a lot of readers askedhim to name the agency, but he didn't because he knew that Spike Lee knowsexactly who he is referring to. He preferred to send the message directly toLee for him to help him instead of taking legal action.

Oldboy is a remake of the Korean film of the same name, which was produced in 2003. Chan Wook Park earned several internationalawards for directing the original film, including the Grand Jury Prize fromCannes in 2004. Oldboy has been released on the 27th of this month.