What should a UK graphic design contract include?

A UK graphic design contract should name the parties, the deliverables, how many revision rounds are included, the fee and deposit, whether the client gets an assignment or a licence, and what happens if they cancel or pay late. Sign it before first sketches. Start from our graphic design contract.

This page is England and Wales first. Copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is UK-wide. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Eight blocks do the work:

The 30% deposit and 25% kill fee are examples, not a statutory rate. They match the shape of our template. Write the numbers you actually use.

Contracts for graphic designers is the shorter audience page. What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement compares templates. How to write a contract is the general checklist. This page is the design-job version.

Do not email a Word file and hope v4_final is the one they signed. Both sides should edit and e-sign one shared draft.

Write a list of deliverables and a list of what is out of scope. Cap revisions at two consolidated rounds per deliverable. A round is one packed set of comments, not a drip of Slack notes. Extra rounds, or a new use of the brand, are a priced change, not a courtesy.

A working scope answers four things:

• What is in. Named items, formats, colour space, sizes. “A logo” is not a list. “Primary mark, stacked lockup, favicon, and a one-page usage PDF, in SVG and PNG” is a list.
• What is out. Packaging, motion, a website, photography, print-ready packaging dielines — unless they are on the in-list.
• What “done” looks like. Final exports the client can use, not an open Figma file they keep commenting on.
• Source files. Working files are not included unless the paper says so. Price them separately. Keep libraries as pre-existing materials.

A revision limit is not change control. Revisions polish the agreed deliverable. A change adds something that was never in the brief: a sixth application, a new audience, a packaging line. Mixing the two is how a “third round of amends” becomes a new product at no fee. See Client keeps adding extra work and change control.

If the client redlinesredlineA redline is a proposed edit on a draft contract — words added, struck out or rewritten — not a signed change.More in the glossary the limit down to “unlimited,” that is a price issue, not a courtesy. See Your client redlined your contract.

Example

Deliverables are the items in SchedulescheduleA schedule is an annex to the contract that holds the detail: fees, dates, deliverables, service levels. It is part of the agreement if the main body says so. An order-of-precedence line should say what happens if the schedule and the clauses collide. Swap a schedule only by the variation method the contract names.More in the glossary 1. Two rounds of consolidated feedback are included per Deliverable. A round is one written set of comments on the then-current proofs. Further rounds, or work outside Schedule 1, are quoted and agreed in writing before work starts. Source files and working files are not deliverables unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: they get the named files. Two packed rounds. Anything extra is priced first. The Figma file stays with you unless you sold it.

A website build is the right paper if the job is pages and breakpoints, not a brand. Repeat clients often sit under a services agreement plus a statement of work per job.

You own freelance graphic design until you assign it. CDPA 1988 s.11 makes the author the first owner. An assignment is not effective unless it is in writing, signed. Paying the invoice does not move title. Licence a campaign; assign a logo on full payment if they are buying ownership.

A logo, identity system, poster, pack shot or UI graphic is an artistic work. Section 4 includes a graphic work — a painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart or plan — irrespective of artistic quality. Section 11(1) then says the author is the first owner. The employee exception in s.11(2) applies to employees, not to a designer on a contract for services.

GOV.UK on ownership of copyright works is blunt about commissions: the first legal owner is the person who created the work, not the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing. If the contract is silent, courts may find a limited implied licence for the purpose of the commission. That is not ownership.

CDPA 1988 s.90(3) is the assignment rule. An IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary has to be in writing, signed by you or someone signing on your behalf. A licence is permission to use the work. It is not a transfer of ownership. See IP licence vs assignmentIP licence vs assignmentAn IP assignment transfers ownership of copyright or other intellectual property. A licence is permission to use it; the author still owns it. In England and Wales there is no work-made-for-hire first-owner rule for freelancers: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s.11. An assignment must be in writing and signed: s.90. Say which you mean, and when it happens.More in the glossary.

A US “work for hirework for hireWork for hire is a phrase, common on US-style papers, meaning the client is treated as the author and owner of the work from the start.More in the glossary” heading does not do that work in England and Wales. See work for hire. Write assignment or licence in English words.

Keep three piles:

• Finals — the named deliverables. Assigned or licensed on full payment.
• Working files — source files. Not included unless priced.
• Libraries — type, textures, your earlier work. Licensed for this job, not assigned.

Example

On receipt of full payment the Designer assigns to the Client the copyright in the final Deliverables. Until then the Client has no licence to copy, publish, communicate or adapt them except as the Designer agrees in writing. Pre-existing materials and working files stay with the Designer and are licensed only as part of the Deliverables.

In Plain English: they own the finals once they have paid. They may not use unpaid work. Your libraries and the working files stay yours.

Write that in the intellectual property assignment clause. If they publish unpaid work, see Client using your work without paying.

Moral rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary sit beside copyright. You have the right to be identified as author, which must be asserted, and the right not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. Those rights cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by you. An IP assignment that is silent on moral rights leaves them with you.

CDPA 1988 s.77 is the right to be identified as author of an artistic work, including when it is published commercially or a visual image of it is communicated to the public. Section 77(1) says the right is not infringed unless it has been asserted in accordance with s.78 — on the assignment, or by an instrument in writing signed by you.

Section 80 is the integrity right: not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment, meaning a distortion or mutilation that is prejudicial to honour or reputation. Recolouring a mark into a joke, cropping a poster so the credit disappears, or adding a slogan across a face can raise that right.

They are not assignable. Section 94 says so in one sentence. Section 87 lets you waivewaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary them by an instrument in writing signed by the person giving up the right. A waiver can be specific or general, conditional or unconditional. The moral rights page is the longer note. Photographers face the same split; see Does a photographer have to hand over RAW files.

Write four sentences, not one American “work for hire” heading:

• assignment or licence of the finals, on payment
• assertion of the credit, if you want a byline
• the waiver you are actually giving, limited to the uses they bought
• portfolio use, if you want to show the work

A brand that needs to recolour the mark on a mug is a reason for a limited waiver. It is not a reason to waive integrity for every future parody. Waive as far as the job needs, and no further.

There is no default UK right to keep a deposit or charge a kill fee. Both sides have to agree the sums. A deposit is money before work starts. A kill fee is due if they cancel. For a business client the charge must not be a penalty. For a consumer, a 14-day cancellation right can apply.

A deposit of 30–50% on signature, with work paused until it lands, is the usual freelance shape. Our template uses 30%. Write the number you will actually wait for. A kill fee sits next to it: work done plus a named share of the remaining fee if they cancel for convenience. See cancellation and kill fee.

Who the client is then splits the page:

• A business client. An agreed cancellation charge that is really a sum on breach must not be a penalty. Cavendish Square Holding v Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67 asks whether a secondary obligation imposes a detriment out of all proportion to a legitimate interest in performance. Tie the figure to time held, costs committed and other work turned down. A flat 100% from the day they sign, with no link to those interests, is the shape that looks like punishment.
• A consumer. Distance and off-premises contracts carry a 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Cancellation terms are also tested for fairness under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. A “non-refundable deposit, no cooling-off” line does not remove a right those Regulations give.

The longer split, with the sliding-scale example, is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?. This page is the design-job version of the same money lines.

Example

The Client will pay a Deposit of 30% of the Fee on signature. The Designer will not start until the Deposit is received. If the Client cancels for convenience after work has started, the Client shall pay for work done to date and a cancellation fee of 25% of the remaining Fee. The Deposit is credited to that sum. Intellectual property in work not fully paid for stays with the Designer.

In Plain English: 30% lands before you start. If they call it off once you are working, they pay for what is done plus a quarter of what is left. They do not own unpaid work.

Those percentages are examples, not a statutory rate. For a consumer client the same shape still has to be fair, and cannot remove a 14-day right the 2013 Regulations give.

Write a short due date, a right to pause if an invoice is overdue, and that no licence or assignment bites until payment in full. For a UK business client, statutory interest on late commercial payment is 8% above Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed recovery sum. We do not print the current base rate.

Payment terms should name:

• when invoices go out — on signature, on a milestonemilestoneA milestone is a defined point in a project, often tied to a deliverable and a payment.More in the glossary, on delivery
• how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary beats an open-ended “when procurement next runs”
• a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue
• that copyright, or any licence to use the work, passes only on full payment

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 sets statutory interest. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest. The 1998 Act does not apply to a consumer client.

A contract rate, if you name one, is the rate you point to instead of the statutory rate. A late feelate feeA late fee is an extra charge, or interest, added when an invoice is not paid by the due date.More in the glossary is that contract rate. Do not invent a figure that has no link to the statute or to the paper.

Example

Each undisputed invoice is due within 14 days of its date. The Designer may pause work while any undisputed invoice is more than 7 days overdue. Copyright and any licence to use the Deliverables pass to the Client only on payment in full. Until then the Client has no right to copy, publish, communicate or adapt the Deliverables.

In Plain English: they have two weeks to pay. After a week late, work stops. They do not own it, and they may not use it, until they have paid.

The chase sequence — written demand, letter before action, money claim — is Client won't pay a freelance invoice. Net 30, net 14, on receipt is the due-date page.

Only if the contract says so. An assignment of the finals does not, by itself, give you a right to put the work on your site. Write a licence back: named channels, whether you may name the client, and whether confidential work stays off the portfolio until they launch.

A working portfolio clause answers four things:

• Where. Your website, social, printed showreel, award entries.
• What. The finals, not unpublished options or the rejected route.
• When. After launch, or after a named embargo.
• Credit. Whether you name the client, and whether they name you. That sits next to the moral rights assertion.

If the job is confidential — an unlaunched brand, a product still in stealth — write that the licence starts on their public launch, or on written consent. Silence is how a case study goes live the week before their announcement.

Example

The Designer may reproduce the final Deliverables in the Designer’s portfolio and on the Designer’s website and social channels, and may name the Client as the commissioner, after the Client has first used the Deliverables in public, or earlier with the Client’s written consent. This licence does not extend to unpublished options, working files or confidential informationconfidentialityConfidentiality is a promise to keep shared information private and to use it only for the agreed purpose.More in the glossary.

In Plain English: once they have used it in public, you may show the finals and name them. You may not show the routes they killed, or leak the launch.

If they refuse any portfolio use, that is a price issue. Some brand work stays off the site. Get that in the paper before you start, not in a later brand-guidelines PDF.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared graphic design contract, so the scope, the IP line and the kill fee are the version you both signed. Describe the job in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from the graphic design contract. Repeat work can hang a statement of work under a services agreement, or sit on a freelancer agreement. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the revision limitrevision limitA revision limit says how many rounds of changes are included in the fee before extra work is quoted.More in the glossary, the IP assignment or licence, the deposit and the kill fee are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, then paid plans from £15 a month — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the design job in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before first sketches.

Contracts for graphic designers is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.