It’s Not Hard For A Billion-Dollar Company To Credit An Artist From Time To Time

Yesterday the official social media account of the Avatar series posted some concept art by creature designer Zachary Berger, which was then shared by the main Disney account, putting the image in front of potentially hundreds of thousands of people. 

That's extremely common–big companies use art to hype and sell their stuff all the time–but what made this stand out was the fact that Berger was directly credited. That almost never happens!

Think about it: whenever you see a piece of production art featured in a social media post or a press release or a game announcement at a big televised showcase, all you ever see is the art. You never know who made it, whether it was created by an individual or a small team (or even a studio). 

This isn't an accident! The companies who own these games never bother to credit the artist, because the art isn't seen as art. It's a brick, a piece of company property, which is why even years after a project is finished--or thrown in the bin before it can even reach that point--artists working in video games aren't allowed to share things they've created. 

In this rare exception to the rule, Berger tells us the crediting was likely down to the fact that many of his bosses on the project come from an art background, like Supervising Art Director Aashrita Kamath and Production Designers Dylan Cole and Ben Procter. "I have been working in the entertainment/film industry for around a decade and a half, and this has NEVER happened to me", Berger says. "It is an incredible reminder that we work with an amazing group of people who genuinely care about their team."

So this is cool! And if Avatar and Disney can do it, then anyone can do it, including big games publishers and marketing companies. More of this please!