Useful Legal Documents For Designers (PDF/DOC)

Smashing Magazine

Useful Legal Documents For Designers

(PDF/DOC)
By Veronica Picciafuoco
Published on August 15th, 2012 in Freebies

with 26 Comments

Contracts are a source of anxiety and dismay in creative work, but they exist
for a good reason. A good contract ensures that you and your client have the
same expectations, and protects you in case things go south. Ideally, your
contract should be a combination of industry standards, legal protection
and personal preferences. To help you get started, heres a set of 10 basic
agreements for a variety of common business situations that creative
professionals face.
How much do you expect to be paid in advance? What happens if a payment is late? Who will own the
rights to the work, and when? Contracts can seem overwhelming, but dont need to be. Reading through
these documents is an opportunity to learn from experienced designers in a collaborative setting.
Furthermore, every document comes with usage statistics and
can be legally signed online for free (at
1
least if you are in the United States). All content on Docracy , the free repository of legal documents, is
open source and free to take (or even improve), so please feel free to share your own examples and
experience.

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Useful Legal Documents For Designers (PDF/DOC)

Smashing Magazine

Image credits: Joybot .

Heres the full set that you can customize online:

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1. AIGA Standard for Professional Design Services

Drafted by the premier design association in the US, this is probably the most
complete designer-friendly agreement out there (works best for big projects).
Multiple versions available, with different licensing options.
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2. Contract for Website Development & Identity Work, with Annotations

A modern Designer-Client Agreement, drafted by a New York lawyer. Its loosely
based off the AIGA form, but closes some loopholes and trims the fat. Informative
annotations are provided to guide you through the various clauses.
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3. AIGA/GAG Speiders Designer Contract

The contract that the designer/writer
Speider Schneider sends to his clients, as
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featured on Smashing Magazine . Its a hybrid of the AIGA and GAG (Graphic Artists
Guild) models, along with some common sense changes. Plus its optimized for
e-signing to help save some trees.
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4. Contract for Web Design

A plain language agreement for Web design
development projects, based heavily on
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the Andy Clarkes brilliant Contract Killer article on 24 Ways. The beauty of this
document is in the language: this is a non-legalese, plain English, straightforward
pact that two reasonable people sign.
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5. Shortform Design Contract

Jacob Myers, the author of this sample, is a lawyer/developer who works closely with
designers. In his words: The next time a client comes to you with a quick job, save
yourself time and aggravation by sending them a Short Design Contract to be signed
BEFORE you start working. The doc is basically an abbreviated contract confirming
the scope of the job, the schedule, fees to be paid and essential terms and

18-10-2015

Useful Legal Documents For Designers (PDF/DOC)

Smashing Magazine

conditions. Use this style of contract for quick jobs or where a full-blown contract
would make the client apprehensive.
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6. Work for Hire

A short and flexible work-for-hire agreement, where the contractor is an artist being
hired by a creative firm for a work of design. Remember that with this kind of
contract the IP rights are automatically assigned to the commissioning client.
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7. Consulting Agreement
If youre hiring a consultant, this is a great starting point: a model agreement by a
top US law firm. If you are the consultant, you might want to
mitigate some
of the
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provisions of this client-friendly document, like this version (see changes ).
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8. Shortform NDA
The contract that everybody signs, sooner or later: The Non-Disclosure Agreement.
This is a unilateral example, so if both parties are16 disclosing confidential information
to each other, make sure you use a Mutual NDA instead.
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9. Contract for Original Illustration Work

A simple, commissioned illustration agreement drafted by a lawyer based in Portland.
This contract is pro-artist, and a flat, non-refundable commission fee is charged. All
rights are non-exclusively licensed, but because most people want a unique piece
of art, the artist agrees not to resell or publish the work, except for portfolio use
(such as posting on DeviantArt, Dribbble, etc.).
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10. Simple IP Assignment

Work is done, money is in the bank, but you forgot to give the IP rights to the client?
Fix the issue with this simple IP assignment. Also useful when you hired someone but
forgot to have the rights assigned in the original contract. Get this signed to tie up
any loose ends.
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You can also download the full set in PDF/DOC , with one single file (.zip).
Dont forget that the legal stuff is important, and so please treat these documents as a starting point. A
good lawyer can help you review these examples and tailor them to your particular project and local laws.
Standard documents are useful and educational, but are never a substitute for legal advice. Docracy,
Smashing Magazine and the original authors of these documents disclaim any liability connected to the
use of these material without a licensed attorney.
(vp) (jc)

FOOTNOTES
1 http://www.docracy.com
2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/62559061@N06/6309780505/

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Useful Legal Documents For Designers (PDF/DOC)

Smashing Magazine

3 http://www.flickr.com/photos/62559061@N06/6309780505/
4 https://www.docracy.com/2811/standard-master-agreement-for-design-services
5 https://www.docracy.com/5598/website-identity-design-contract
6 https://www.docracy.com/3152/designer-sample-contract
7 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/07/how-to-spot-a-sketchy-client-plus-acontract-template/
8 https://www.docracy.com/3884/contract-of-works-for-web-design
9 http://24ways.org/2008/contract-killer
10 https://www.docracy.com/5152/short-form-design-contract
11 https://www.docracy.com/4834/work-for-hire-agreement
12 https://www.docracy.com/367/consulting-agreement-for-hourly-work
13 https://www.docracy.com/4670/thought-merchants-consulting-agreement-for-hourlywork
14 https://www.docracy.com/doc/diff?originalId=1047&revisedId=11246
15 https://www.docracy.com/27/generic-shortform-nda
16 https://www.docracy.com/50/mutual-nondisclosure-agreement
17 https://www.docracy.com/5843/commissioned-illustration-offer-short-easy
18 https://www.docracy.com/6480/short-ip-assignment-agreement-for-internet-startup
19 http://provide.smashingmagazine.com/legal-documents-for-web-designers.zip

Veronica Picciafuoco
Veronica is the Director of Content for Docracy.com, a home for free, open
source legal documents, socially curated by the communities that use them. She
has a legal background and works closely with tech startups and freelance
designers in Brooklyn, NY.

With a commitment to quality content for the design community. Founded by Vitaly Friedman and Sven
Lennartz. 2006-2012. Made in Germany. http://www.smashingmagazine.com

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Useful Legal Documents For Designers (PDF/DOC)

Smashing Magazine

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