Contracts can be awful, or they can be simple, reasonable, understandable, and intended to bring better clarity and focus to a project. This is the latter.
Designer: [DESIGNER'S NAME] aka “I” or “Me” Email: [DESIGNER'S EMAIL ADDRESS]
Client: [ORGANIZATION'S NAME] aka “You” or “Your” Represented by: [PERSON'S NAME - Remove this line if Client is a person] Email: [CLIENT'S EMAIL]
I will design a logo for You.
Timeline. It’ll probably take about a month. Could be as short as a week or two. Could be as long as three months. Logo design is a weird beast. Kind of like how long it takes to write a song. Sometimes it flies together, and other times… not so much.
How to make it go a bit faster. When I ask questions or ask for feedback, try to respond the same day or the next day. Be thorough with feedback. I’ll teach you what’s good feedback (“I think that this element really accomplishes our main goal...”) vs bad feedback (“Green is yucky”).
I’ve honed a logo design process over the years that produces great outcomes. Here’s an outline of the process:
Goals Discussion & History. Fill me in on what you’re trying to accomplish. I can help you put those goals into words. I want to know everything about the organization, how things work, inside jokes, quirks, etc. You never know when inspiration will strike.
Word Map. We’ll draw on those goals and pick two or three words to do a word map with. Free form, stream of consciousness. We’ll see where and how those words intersect and connect. You’ll discover things in a few minutes that you may not have struck upon otherwise.
Sketching. I’ll take the polished goal, my notes, and the word map we created, and start sketching on paper. I’ll likely explore a bunch of ideas. Usually I fill up three or four big pages with a ton of tiny logo sketches with lots of variation.
One Redo. If all of my sketches miss the mark in your opinion, We’ll have another meeting and go over the same processes again and see if we strike upon something new. Then, I’ll go back to sketching. If my second round of sketches still doesn’t produce something you want to move forwards with and you want me to try something else, I’ll have to charge the same amount as the deposit before doing a third round. This would be in addition to the final payment. I can’t be tied up in a neverending cycle of design. For the record, I almost always hit upon something in the first round, and have only had to do the second round a few times. I’ve never done a third round.
Feedback. When I strike upon something I think fits the goals, I’ll scan and send you the sketch. It won’t be polished. It’s a sketch. But if you agree that it fits the goals, I’ll move to the next step.
Clean-up. I’ll move the sketch into a vector format with Adobe Illustrator and clean it up into a more polished black and white logo. I’ll likely come up with several variations on the same theme. Or, maybe I’ll just give you the one that is the best if it’s obvious to me.
Colorize. After we have an awesome black and white logo, we’ll move on to making it in color. The idea here is that if your logo works great in black and white, it’ll work in color. Reversing that process can result in a muddy, awful logo when you have to print it in one color, like for a screen printed shirt.
Send Files. After we all agree on the final logo in color, I will send you the finished logo in an Adobe Illustrator file (.ai) and several PNG and JPEG files at different sizes.
Start: $[AMOUNT] is due before I start work. Honestly, I’ll probably start working before then, but I don’t have to.
Finish: At least another
Ownership. You will own all rights to the logo design. I will retain rights to show it off, such as put it my portfolio, talk about it, and write about it.
Backups. Make sure You backup the final files that I send over, because I am not required to keep a copy. I probably will, but don’t rely on it as Your sure thing.
Neither party will sue each other. If either party is really, really upset about something related to this design, we’ll get a mutual third party to help us sort shit out.
Termination. Either party can fire each other with 10 days notice. If I haven’t done anything yet, I’ll return your deposit. If you fire me after I start work, I’ll keep that deposit, and you’ll buy me a bottle of top shelf whiskey for me to drown my sorrows in when you deliver the bad news. If I quit the job, I’ll keep the deposit or not, depending on how far into the project I am, and hand off any files, notes, designs, and anything else related to the project so another designer can easily pick up the project.
Let's get started!
Each signatory represents that it has the full authority to enter into this Agreement and to bind her or his respective party to all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
Designer Signature & Date
Client Signature & Date