What is a Graphic Design Contract?
A Graphic Design Contract is your MOST important legal document. If you only have one contract in your graphic design business, this is it!
A Graphic Design Contract sets out the legal agreement between a freelancer graphic designer and their clients.
It covers all of the important terms of your client engagement, including services, payment terms, cancellation policy and intellectual property rights. It also includes important legal clauses for liability, dispute resolution and termination.
Your Graphic Design Contract should be tailored to each specific client. A well written agreement will not only provide you with legal protection, it will also help manage your client’s expectations.
Who can use this Graphic Design Contract template?
- Graphic designers
- Freelancers
Do I need a contract?
Yes, absolutely! A contract protects both you and your clients.
You should always have a contract signed before you start a new graphic design job for a client.
Putting things in writing protects both parties and gives certainty.
Contracts are about more than wrapping your clients up in red tape and telling them what they can’t do. Think of your contract as relationship insurance: it does all the hard, boring work of keeping the relationship on rails, so you can focus on the fun part – the actual designing.
What does this Graphic Design Contract template include?
Our Graphic Design Contract template covers everything you need:
- Services – description of your services
- Client Responsibilities – what you need the client to do
- Changes to Scope – how you deal with change requests and out of scope work
- Fees – what you charge for your work
- Expenses – any extra charges for costs like image purchases, fonts, printing etc
- Payment Terms – very important, how you will get paid! Includes deposit and overdue amounts
- Intellectual Property – this covers intellectual property rights for the works you create
- Client’s Warranty and Indemnity -important legal clause
- Confidentiality – both parties agree to keep confidential information private
- Limitation of Liability – to protect you against claims for losses and damages
- Termination – this explains how either party can terminate the agreement
- Dispute Resolution – process to deal with any problems that may arise
- General – standard contract clauses such as Assignment, Severance, Entire Agreement, Waiver and Governing Law
Other names for a Graphic Design Contract
- Graphic Design Agreement
- Freelance Graphic Design Agreement
- Freelance Graphic Design Contract
- Design Terms and Conditions
- Service Agreement
Who owns the legal rights to the content?
The graphic designer retains all intellectual property rights to the work they create for the client until full payment is received. Once payment is received, you provide an exclusive licence to the client to use the intellectual property for the purposes set out in the quote. We have worded this to provide extra protection for the graphic designer’s rights.
If you want to change this so you assign Intellectual Property Rights over to the client once they have completed payment, it’s up to you.
How many revisions does the contract include?
Our Graphic Design Contract template allows you to select the number of concepts you will provide to clients for review and selection (e.g. for a logo). You can also choose the number of revisions you will include for original draft work.
Any deliverables or revisions above and beyond these inclusions are outside scope so you can charge additional fees (subject to agreement with the client).
Do I get to choose my own deposit amount and payment terms?
Yes, you do!
You can specify a deposit amount as a dollar figure or a percentage of the total estimated fees.
You can also choose your own payment terms to help speed up payments from clients (e.g. 7 days).
Why should I invest in a quality Graphic Design Contract template?
You’ve spent countless hours dedicated to learning how to attract the right clients.
Your heavy financial investments in your own personal growth are slowly but surely paying off.
You’re not going to let all that go to waste with a crappy contract, are you?
The booking process is the most fragile part of the selling process. Don’t let your future clients slip away with a shady contract, pieced together like Frankenstein.
With our rock-solid contract template, your clients will know you take your business seriously. You’ll stand out from your competition, but best of all, your clients will trust you right from the start.
Is this Graphic Design Contract template legally binding?
Absolutely!
All of our templates have been drafted by qualified Australian lawyers who hold an Australian legal practicing certificate.
We are affiliated with a commercial law firm based in Sydney.
I have an Apple Mac – can I still use this template?
Yes, but we recommend you have Microsoft Word installed on your Mac.
Our documents contain smart fields which use a Microsoft Word feature called content controls. They help to save time in updating the template, but may not display correctly in Pages or Google Docs.
If you need a version of your template without the content controls, this is available for immediate download once you complete your purchase (you can download both versions).
