Freelance Contract template

The short version

This agreement is between [Your name], [Company number], of [Your address], a sole trader working as a brand designer, and [Client company], [Company number], of [Client address]. It is written in the first person because only two people are going to read it.

1. What I will make

2. What I need from you

3. The fee and when it is paid

3.1 The first payment holds the time. 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.

3.2 Late payment. 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.

4. Revisions

4.1 What counts as a round. One consolidated set of comments from [Client name], 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.

4.2 Beyond the two rounds. 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.

4.3 Changing direction. 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.

5. How the five weeks run

6. If the project stops

6.1 You stop it. 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.

6.2 It pauses. 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.

7. Who owns the work

7.1 Rights transfer on the last payment. 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.

7.2 Fonts and stock. 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.

7.3 What I keep. 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.

7.4 Showing the work. 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.

8. The small print

8.1 I am not an employee. I work for myself, set my own hours, use my own equipment and pay my own tax and retirement contributions. Nothing here creates employment or a partnership.

8.2 Changes to this agreement. Anything we change goes in writing, and an exchange of emails that we both confirm counts. The laws of [Jurisdiction] apply.

What is not in this price

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.