We were born as artisan printers, hand-printing drawings created by former colleagues and friends. Our first collection, as some of you may remember, was not exclusive—partly because the dominant practice in this industry is that illustrators retain ownership of their work and sell only a “non-exclusive reproduction right,” which typically lasts for a year.

Only later did we decide to design our collections ourselves—as well as hand-print them—and the few collaborations we have are with trusted people who sold us the exclusive rights to their work.

Therefore, at the current state of our artisan adventure, the collection presented here is exclusive to this site www.gnostictower.com, our two physical shops, and no one else.

However, since reality is more complex than theory, it is necessary to distinguish between “fully exclusive works” and “(semi-)exclusive works.” Statistically speaking, it is perfectly normal that the illustration tied to one of my most treasured memories — Il Grande Motondoso — has never been reproduced by any artist other than us (through the hand of the outstanding Ryan Ragnini); just as it is normal, again statistically speaking, that the illustration of La Ruota della Fortuna has already been drawn and reproduced in many variations by multiple artists.

Both are exclusive, but in different ways:

By ABSOLUTELY EXCLUSIVE WORKS we mean all those which, in addition to being created by us or by one of our collaborators, have not been and must never be copied by any other artist. Their specificity and uniqueness are such that similar works would be evident plagiarism.

By EXCLUSIVE WORKS we mean those that concern:

• Or subjects that have already been explored multiple times by various artists, where ours is a unique and distinctive interpretation of that trend. For example, Nina Wake Up! by YukiOnna includes a phrase that has been used many times before, even though Nina is Yuki’s cat.
• Or subjects already explored by the same artist, who has created more than one version of the same theme. For example, Bike Happy by Vektorkita exists in several variations by the artist’s own choice.

Regardless of this distinction, if you ever see a work shown here appearing identically on another website or in any physical location that is not ours, it is a case of plagiarism, and we kindly ask you to report it to us.