From a long time I had been planning to draft a contract for one off comissions - work which is not monthly and is paid for in a lump sum.
I had thought about writing one myself, consulted a lawyer, but nothing came out of it.
Finally I saw this beautiful contract Andy Clarke had written up for his web design projects. He breaks it up into points and explains it completely on his blog.
I also took some clauses from this talk at Creative Mornings - called F*CK YOU, PAY ME - A brilliant session on how creative professionals will spend hours talking about the different shades of magenta but won't sign a contract when taking a comission.
Funny thing is, its such an unusual contract that it gets you all kind of interesting responses. But it is a very solid contract.
Some of the clauses in the contract -
1. No race between two horses - If I am hired for a particular project, no one else will be hired for the same work.
2. You should have the authority to comission this work on behalf of your company, and If you lose your job, my payments are secure.
3. You can't just end the project whenever you wish. You will pay for whichever phase the project was in. Including a kill fees.
4. If someone goes apeshit over something I make for you. They can't drag me to court. Its between you and the monkeyman.
5. You will provide inputs, source material and payments on time. You delay. I delay.
6. You pay me an advance, and pay me for any samples I try out (something to do before the contract, many people just ask you to try out samples for free and then use them and never commission the project, charging for samples is sort of a check)
Here's my version, feel free to use all or any part of it. You can copy the text from here or download it from Scribd.
I had thought about writing one myself, consulted a lawyer, but nothing came out of it.
Finally I saw this beautiful contract Andy Clarke had written up for his web design projects. He breaks it up into points and explains it completely on his blog.
I also took some clauses from this talk at Creative Mornings - called F*CK YOU, PAY ME - A brilliant session on how creative professionals will spend hours talking about the different shades of magenta but won't sign a contract when taking a comission.
Funny thing is, its such an unusual contract that it gets you all kind of interesting responses. But it is a very solid contract.
Some of the clauses in the contract -
1. No race between two horses - If I am hired for a particular project, no one else will be hired for the same work.
2. You should have the authority to comission this work on behalf of your company, and If you lose your job, my payments are secure.
3. You can't just end the project whenever you wish. You will pay for whichever phase the project was in. Including a kill fees.
4. If someone goes apeshit over something I make for you. They can't drag me to court. Its between you and the monkeyman.
5. You will provide inputs, source material and payments on time. You delay. I delay.
6. You pay me an advance, and pay me for any samples I try out (something to do before the contract, many people just ask you to try out samples for free and then use them and never commission the project, charging for samples is sort of a check)
Here's my version, feel free to use all or any part of it. You can copy the text from here or download it from Scribd.
2 comments:
Dear Sir,
Have you had this contract vetted by a practicing advocate in the Indian Law system? Would you be willing to fix the language in this contract (in terms of grammar and format) and also be will you be willing to share this (in PDF form) with other comics artists? Would you be willing to fuel the fire of this revolution with the kindling of your labours?!?!
Kindly do the needful,
Aaapka abhaari, sada krantikari,
Adhiraj Singh
I shall my lovely fellow. I am bloated with happiness, you know, like a buffalo!
- Aaapka Sumit
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