Between John Taylor Dismukes Illustration & Design, Inc. and YOUR COMPANY
Summary
We will always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet your goals, but sometimes it’s best to have a few things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and what happens if stuff goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We have no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. We do want what’s best for the safety of both parties, now and in the future.
In short
YOUR COMPANY is hiring us (John Taylor Dismukes Illustration & Design, Inc.) to create an original illustration or design for you, titled "YOUR PROJECT TITLE", that meets the objectives outlined in your Creative Brief (attached as Exhibit A), for the estimated total price of $X,XXX as detailed in our previous correspondence. Of course it’s a little more complicated, but we’ll get to that.
What do both parties agree to do?
As our customer, you have the power and ability to enter into this contract on behalf of your company or organization. You agree to provide us with everything that we’ll need to complete the project – including text, images and other information – as and when we need it and in the format we ask for. You agree to review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways and you’ll also be bound by any dates that we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract (Exhibit B).
We have the experience and ability to perform the work you need from us and we will proceed with your project in a professional and timely manner. Along the way we will endeavor to meet all the deadlines set but we can’t be responsible for a missed deadline if you have been late in supplying materials, or have not approved or signed off on work in a timely manner at any stage. We also agree to maintain the confidentiality of any information that you give us.
Getting down to the nitty gritty
Illustration & Design
We will create a series initial sketches of your illustration or design for your consideration, as required by your Creative Brief. Once you have approved an initial sketch, we will proceed with the production of final artwork. This contract includes one main design for each item listed in your Creative Brief, plus the opportunity for you to make up to two rounds of revisions. If you’re not happy with the designs at this stage, you will pay us in full for all of the work that we have produced until that point and you may either cancel this contract or continue to commission us to make further design revisions at the daily rate set out in our original estimate.
Size, Resolution and Format
Art created at a very large size or high resolution typically requires more time and computer power to complete than smaller images. We will create all work to the size and resolution you specify in your Creative Brief. We’re not responsible for image degridation or pixelization if you reproduce the art at a size larger than your Creative Brief Specifies.
We will provide your finished art to you in the size(s) and format(s) requested in your Creative Brief. If you require additional sizes or formats, we will produce them for you at the daily rate set out in our original estimate.
Proofing
You will have the opportunity to review our work several times during the course of your project. Although we’re very careful to carry out your instructions to the letter, we’re only human, and errors may occur along the way. You agree to thoroughly inspect the work we do for you before accepting the final product. We’re not responsible for any errors or omissions after you have accepted the finished art. In addition, we’re not responsible for errors in any of the source materials or copy that you provide to us unless we specified it in the original estimate. We’ll be happy to help though, and in addition to the estimate we will charge you at $XXX per hour for proofing copy or content.
Source Materials
You will supply us with any necessary photographs, graphics, typefaces, copy or other source materials. If your project requires us to buy stock photographs, graphics or typefaces, we will do so on your behalf and list these purchases as separate line items on your invoice. Any time we spend searching for appropriate photographs, graphics, or typefaces will be charged at $XXX per hour, unless otherwise specified in your original contract.
Changes and revisions
We know from plenty of experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you to your first idea about how your illustration or design should look. We don’t want to limit either your options or your opportunities to change your mind.
The estimate/quotation prices at the beginning of this document are based on the number of days that we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything that you have told us you want to achieve. If you do want to change your mind about any aspect of your project, experiment with other ideas, or even start completely from scratch, that won’t be a problem. You will be charged the daily rate set out in the estimate we gave you. Along the way we might ask you to put requests in writing so we can keep track of changes.
Legal stuff
Because this is a collaborative process, we can’t guarantee that our work will always be error-free, and so we can’t be liable to you or any third party for damages, including lost profits or other incidental, consequential or special damages arising out of the use of the illustration or design we create for you, even if you have advised us of the possibilities of such damages.
If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Phew.
Copyrights
You guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide us for inclusion in this project are either owned by you, or that you have permission to use them.
When we receive your final payment, copyright is automatically assigned as follows:
- You own the illustrations, graphics and other visual elements that we create for you for this project. We’ll give you a copy of all files and you should store them really safely as we are not required to keep them or provide any native source files we used to make them.
- You also own text content, photographs and other data you provided, unless someone else owns them. We own any markup, CSS and other code and we license it to you for use on only this project.
- We love to show off our work and share what we have learned with other people, so we reserve the right to display your completed project as part of our portfolio and to write about the project on web sites, in magazine articles and in books about illustration or design.
Payments
We are sure you understand how important it is as a business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the attached payment schedule.
But where’s all the horrible small print?
Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.
Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of United States and California courts. Oh and don’t forget those men with big dogs.
The dotted line
John Taylor Dismukes Illustration & Design
Signed by and on behalf of YOUR COMPANY
Date:
Everyone should sign above and keep a copy for their own records.