Services and consulting
Design services agreement
A services paper written around the way design work actually runs: a brief, concepts, rounds of revision, and a handover. Its distinctive sections are about the material rather than the hours — whether source files are delivered or only exports, who owns rejected concepts, what licence the designer keeps in fonts and stock they did not make, and whether the studio may show the work. Where a brand identity is being made, it usually also says who handles trademark searches, and that this is not an opinion on whether a mark is free to use.
- In the catalogue
- Services and consulting
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Design studios and independent designers taking on identity, product or campaign work.
- Companies commissioning a logo, a brand system, a site or an interface.
- Anyone paying for creative work that will be used in public under their own name.
What you are deciding
- The brief, and what a finished deliverable looks like
- How many concepts and how many rounds are included
- Whether source files are handed over or only final exports
- Who owns rejected or unused concepts
- Third-party fonts, images and stock, and who licenses them
- When ownership of the final work passes
- Whether the studio may publish the work, and when
- What happens if the project stops part way
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1The parties
- 2The brief and deliverables
- 3Concepts and revisions
- 4Fees and schedule
- 5Source files
- 6Third-party materials
- 7Ownership and transfer
- 8Portfolio and credit
- 9Termination
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
The names this kind of paper goes by. They are here because people search for them. They also filter the catalogue. They are not a wordlist the door matches. At the composer you describe the deal in your own words instead.
- design services agreement
- design contract
- branding agreement
- graphic design contract
- ux design agreement
- creative agreement
Questions people ask
- Are source files usually included?
- Not automatically. Papers of this kind say either way, and where source files are handed over they are often priced separately or released on final payment.
- Who owns concepts the client did not pick?
- Commonly the designer keeps them, and the client owns what was selected and paid for. Where a client wants everything, that is written down and usually priced.
- Does a design contract cover trademark clearance?
- Usually not. Agreements of this kind often say plainly that checking whether a name or mark is free to use is a separate exercise, and point the client at a specialist for it.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
You do not start from this page. Describe the deal in one sentence at the door. Read the draft back in plain language, in the order a contract is read.
Start it at the door →Related kinds