Freelance agreement, brand identity

Freelance contract

A brand designer and a bakery owner agree five weeks of work in language they can both read. It covers everything a longer contract would, and it never once says party of the first part.

Create a document with OneCraft6 A4 pages, editable, then download as a PDF

The document, page by page

Every page as it renders and as it prints, with nothing summarised. Read the wording before you reuse it.

This agreement is between Odette Lang, ABN 71 388 512 664, of Northcote VIC 3070, a sole trader working as a brand designer, and Sunday Grain Bakery Pty Ltd, ABN 62 447 190 335, of 14 Beavers Road, Northcote VIC 3070. It is written in the first person because only two people are going to read it.

1
2
3
4
Work starts when the first payment clears. It is not refundable once I have turned other work away for those weeks, which happens the day it lands.
Invoices are due 7 days from issue. After 14 days I stop work and the dates move. I would rather ring you than invoke this, so ring me first if a payment is going to be late.
One consolidated set of comments from Rosa, returned within two business days of receiving the work. Two rounds are included, one after the concept is chosen and one on the final artwork.
Further changes are $95 an hour in half hour units, quoted before I start them. You will always see the estimate first and can say no.
Going back to the direction that was not chosen, after concept approval, is a new project rather than a revision. I will quote it, and it will be cheaper than the first one because the groundwork is done.
Everything invoiced to that point stands, and 40 percent of the remaining fee is payable, because the weeks were held for you and cannot be resold at short notice. You keep nothing you have not paid for.
A pause of more than three weeks means I take other work, and the project restarts on the next block of time I have free rather than where it left off.
When the final invoice is paid, the logo, palette, artwork and guide are yours outright, worldwide and without a time limit. Until then they are mine and cannot be used publicly, printed or registered.
Typeface and stock image licences are bought in your name at your cost. I cannot pass mine on, and a licence in the wrong name is the most common reason a brand has to be redrawn two years later.
Sketches, working files and the direction you did not choose stay with me, and I may reuse an unchosen direction elsewhere. You get flattened, print ready files plus the editable logo artwork.
I may put the finished project in my portfolio and on social media once the bags are on the shelf. If you would rather I did not, tell me before handover and I will not.
I work for myself, set my own hours, use my own equipment and pay my own tax and superannuation. Nothing here creates employment or a partnership.
Anything we change goes in writing, and an exchange of emails that we both confirm counts. The laws of Victoria apply.

If this all reads right, sign below and email a copy back. I will send the first invoice the same day and put the four weeks in the calendar. Questions before you sign are free and welcome.

:
:
:
:
:

Section by section

What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.

Cover
Project name, both parties and the start date, on a panel cover that suits a two person agreement rather than a corporate one.
The short version
Fee, start, handover and the revision count as four figures, so the person signing knows the shape before reading a clause.
The parties
A sole trader and a company with their ABNs, and an explicit note that the document is written in the first person on purpose.
What I will make
Five deliverables described in the detail a printer would need, from three logo lockups to a fourteen page brand guide.
What I need from you
One approver, a Saturday morning in the shop, the printer specification by week two, and decisions inside two business days.
The fee and when it is paid
Three payments tied to signing, concept approval and handover, with what each one buys stated beside it.
Revisions
What counts as a round, how many are included, the hourly rate beyond them, and why changing direction is a new project.
The five weeks
A timeline from the shop visit through the live presentation of two directions to the handover date.
If the project stops
The kill fee on cancellation and what a pause longer than three weeks does to the schedule.
Who owns the work
Rights on final payment, licences bought in the client's name, working files and unchosen directions retained, and portfolio rights.
What is not in this price
Printing, photography, a website and ongoing artwork, each with what it would cost instead of a bare exclusion.

What makes this document work

It is written in the first person

One designer and one owner, so every obligation is attached to a named human. A contract two people can actually read is a contract two people will actually follow.

The kill fee is priced and justified

Forty percent of the remaining fee if the client stops, with the reason on the page: the weeks were held and cannot be resold at short notice. The number is easier to accept when the logic is next to it.

It is precise about when the work changes hands

Rights pass on the final payment, not on delivery. Font and stock licences are bought in the client's name. The direction that was not chosen stays with the designer and can be used again.

Questions people ask

What should a freelance contract cover?

What is being made, what the client has to supply, the fee and when each part of it falls due, how many revisions are included, what happens if the project stops, and the moment the client owns the work.

What is a kill fee?

A payment for time that was reserved and then not used. A freelancer books weeks and turns other work away, so a cancellation costs real money even if little work has been done. Naming a percentage in advance avoids arguing about it later.

When does a client own the design?

Whenever the contract says, which here is on payment of the final invoice. Before that the client has no right to print, publish or register the work, which is what gives a freelancer leverage a chasing email does not.

How many revision rounds should be included?

Two is the common answer, but the count matters less than the definition. This contract defines a round as one consolidated set of comments from one named person, returned within two business days.

Build your own in about a minute

The button below opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own, generate, then edit anything you like.

Make my freelance contract

Other document examples

Remittance advice

One transfer covers five invoices, a credit note and a settlement discount, which is why the payment matches no invoice on the supplier's ledger. The advice exists so the supplier can apply it in the right order rather than oldest first.

Rate card

A studio publishes what each role costs by hour, by day and by booked week, then explains the arithmetic between them. A day is seven billable hours inside a seven and a half hour day, and a booked week is ten per cent off five of those.

Job offer letter

An offer of $98,000 plus $11,760 of superannuation, with the three checks it depends on and a clear instruction not to resign until they clear. The letter also names what is not in the offer, which is the part candidates most often assume.

Want the steps in the builder? Read Create a document with AI, then lay it out exactly how you want it. For everything this generator can do, see the document maker.