Friday, October 16, 2015

Creative Fraud: Designer Code Of Ethics



Two and a 1/2 years ago, we sold the home that started this blog. The home that we renovated twice in the SEVEN years that we lived in it. We added a front porch and completely renovated a dilapidated screened in porch, turning it into a 8 window sun room full of light and stuffed it full of children.  Indeed I left some of the original renovations to the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, but with out a doubt the house was completely transformed. Every room was designed by me, window treatments, furnishings, accessories, art work, all by me and with help of some other very creative souls. At the time we hired Allen Brooks with ALB Architecture to work with us, we had to go through the Historic Committee and get a variance from the City of Charlotte. We then hired and worked with Concept Building on the construction of both porches.




When we sold our house, the women who we bought the house from in 2006, hunted down our real estate agents photographer and unethically purchased the photo's we used when we listed our house in June of 2013.  I found this out when my daughter was doing a project on Historic Dilworth Homes and we searched Pinterest and found my house with her design credit.


Seen Above are pictures of our bedroom, my children bedrooms and my office.

Since then, I have tried everything I can, including suing her, to make her stop. While what she is doing is unbelievably not illegal,  it is most definitely unethical. When designers and artists put there heart and soul into the creative process, it is a labor of love, every brush stroke and every individual accent makes it ours.


Seen above is the side and back yard entrances. Ironically, we were never able to do the back renovation. 

This morning, while searching for images of my old living room, I found yet another (she has taken the websites down) website that Dawn Mathews created for herself.

 Her newest website is http://www.dawnmathewsdesign.com/DawnMathewsDesign/Home.html

Please help stop this type of creative fraud by getting the word out, and by stopping her and other people from claiming design work that is not their own.