When you hire a designer to build you a logo, design your soon-to-be-bestselling book or design and code your website, it’s hard to know what you’ll end up with, in the tangible sense, at the end of your project. You’re going to (hopefully) get a great design, but what will you actually, physically get? As a general rule of thumb, a designer owns the intellectual and licensing rights to the artwork they’re producing for you until you pay their bill in full.* That means that they don’t have to turn anything over to you, really, until they’ve been paid for the work they’ve done. Once you’ve paid them and they’ve turned the work over to you, it’s yours.** So what will they turn over to you?
I can’t answer that question for all designers, everywhere, but here’s what I give my clients:
Logos
- A working version of the artwork (either an .ai file or an .eps file, both of which can be opened in Illustrator)
- A low resolution version of the artwork for web use (either a .png file or a .jpg)
- If I haven’t already given them an .eps, I’ll give them an .eps that is suitable for print use
- Print and web versions in black and white, as well as colour versions if applicable
Books
- A high res, print-ready PDF with cropmarks, imposed, if necessary (this is the same file I send to the printer) of the text block of the book
- A high res, print -ready PDF of the cover (also gets sent to the printer)
- Packaged folders of both the cover and text block, including the working InDesign file, all of the prepressed images that went into the book, the fonts*** used in the book and any reprint instructions from me
Websites
- A PDF list of all of the usernames and passwords to access the files that make up the website
- A .psd file for Photoshop of the design of the site, if the client wants it
Of course, the best thing to do for both designers and clients is to agree on what you’ll get from BEFORE you start working together. When in doubt, ask! Not every designer will give you what I’ve listed here, so it’s better to check beforehand if you think you’ll need the files at a later date (and trust me, you will). Designers can move, go out of business, have their computers crash or lose their hard drives. It’s better for everyone if there are copies of your stuff in more than one place.
So other designers, is this what you give to your clients too? I’m curious to know!
* Please consult your own lawyer and/or your own judgement. I’m not responsible for you on that one.
** It’s yours with restrictions. You can use the artwork in a way that you and the designer agree to. No turning the logo from a nice green to a garish hot pink if that’s not how it was intended to be used.
*** Technically, the fonts included here can only be used for the book you asked your designer to create. Font designers need to eat too, and that’s why most designers pay to license the fonts they want to use.
Kate Moore Hermes 