Scotweb's new online Tartan Designer is now live!

[fluter]

Thanks, Nick and team. That's very nice!

[Morris at Heathfield]

Thanks for making this tool available! I've been looking forward to its release ever since I heard about it.

I have a few questions, though, regarding the terms & conditions. First, who weaves the custom tartans? Is it "glena", or some other weaver/mill? Or is Scotweb establishing itself as a tartan weaver in its own right?

Secondly, the part about waiving legal rights until one commissions production of the tartan is giving me pause. What constitutes commission of production? Is it enough to permit others to start ordering products in the tartan, or does the designer have to personally make a purchase? And what are the implications of waiving one's legal rights? I hope I'm not interpreting this correctly, but it sounds like some unscrupulous person could poach your design if you don't immediately order it into production.

Other than that (:mrgreen, I have no complaints. I'm not terribly fond of exclusive licenses, but I think it's eminently reasonable that anyone making use of Scotweb's tartan designer (and potentially racking up Scotweb points) should give something back to Scotweb.

[Nick Fiddes]

I have a few questions, though, regarding the terms & conditions. First, who weaves the custom tartans? Is it "glena", or some other weaver/mill? Or is Scotweb establishing itself as a tartan weaver in its own right?

You can call it the latter. We produce special weave fabrics at a number of local mills ranging from large modern operations to smaller and indeed single-loom individual weavers who work mostly for us. Where we weave a particular order will depend on various factors such as fabric, volume, and schedules. It would be impossibly complex to describe all this to the customer, who has plenty of potentially confusing issues to cope with already! All are top quality, and we've put a lot of work into ensuring consisistent standards. So all our special weaves are simply branded Glen Affric. (And by the way, other weavers also supply fabrics under their own brand that are in reality outsourced.)

Secondly, the part about waiving legal rights until one commissions production of the tartan is giving me pause. What constitutes commission of production? Is it enough to permit others to start ordering products in the tartan, or does the designer have to personally make a purchase? And what are the implications of waiving one's legal rights? I hope I'm not interpreting this correctly, but it sounds like some unscrupulous person could poach your design if you don't immediately order it into production.

We've put a lot of thought into how to do this, fairly and realistically. We want to protect everyone's interests, including our own. And this means protecting everyone from potential abuse, as well as protecting designers' legitimate interests.

Anyone who played in the first live version of this facility will know we initially intended to prevent duplication of any design. But it became clear this would be a recipe for huge headaches. So we've moved instead to regarding the facility, including the public gallery, as a playground, with rights being established only upon weaving. This reflects the legal status quo and the Scottish Tartans Authority position, and so seems to make most sense overall.

If you're considering having a design produced and recorded, and don't want to take the (probably very minimal) risk of someone else commissioning it before you do, there's a simple solution. Don't publish it in the Gallery. This option is deselected by default, so you'd have actively to choose to share it publicly. This is what we suggest in the Information Centre (whose relevant sections will soon be linked all around the facilty).

As for our exclusivity otherwise, this is always negotiable. But we've put what is for us a massive investment into this, which we're certainly hoping for some payback on, quite apart from it being a personal labour of love (which is actually where the idea started - just reckoning it could be done much better than existed elsewhere). And we're not forcing anyone to use it of course. Our pricing is highly competitive, and we reckon that allowing for the professional design fees most people wanting their own tartan design have hitherto had to pay, and the higher minimum weaving lengths they've often met, our offer should be a much better deal in most cases.