Tuesday June 10 5:34 AM
A good start. Not enough cement. His lips are moving. There are skid marks in front of the skunk. No matter what font they choose, everything comes out in fine print. The AIGA put together the Standard Agreement for Graphic Design Services, a modular contract for design projects. I'm sometimes asked what the contract is for, or what's in it. Clients are always surprised when I explain that it's to protect them from their designer.

Very few people know that unless they're your employee, the design your designer creates belongs to them even after you've paid them for it. It's the way copyright law works, unless explicitly spelled out in a contract. The other things that the AIGA contract spells out are limitations of liability for copyright infringement (meaning if I use a copyrighted image without permission in your design, it's not your fault), the project's timeline and costs, and it establishes the confidentiality of your proprietary business information.

Also in the contract is a mechanism for change orders when the project exceeds its original scope. This is so you know exactly what you're paying for, and how much any changes will cost.

The contract really isn't all that scary, and is written in plain English. There's even a handy guide that goes through it step-by-step at the AIGA website. It's remarkably free of lawyer jokes.

I don't always use a contract, especially for small projects or established clients.

I guess that's how you can tell if I think your project is large, or whether you're an established client or not.

UPDATE: It's not 5:30 am anymore, and now that I'm reading this entry back I have to wonder if maybe my recent vacation has made me incredibly boring. I'll try to work a lot more and see if that helps improve the quality of my posts.