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Corporate identity

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  • 26-07-2007 11:49pm
    #1
    Dirk Gently
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,784 ✭✭✭


    Greetings,

    I've recently been asked to create a corporate identity for a company. At present they have no identifying material and they believe they are not getting contracts because they do not have a professional image.

    I've been asked to design a company logo, business cards, letter heads, complimentary slips and most importantly a series of brochures for various potential clients.

    I'm just wondering what way to charge for all this jazz and is it possible to copyright the identity or does it belong to the company once I hand over the material and have been paid for the initial production? The reason I ask about copyright is because I know the company very well and I know how close they've come to some big contracts only to be out done on presentation by someone else. I wouldn't mind a small cut of each deal made on the back of my work each time they used it, rather than a small one off fee at the start.


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    #2
    heggie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,879 ✭✭✭heggie


    the small cut thing is a very unusual way of doing things. Do up a contract for whatever route you go down, copyright will stay with you as creator unless you sign it over.


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    #3
    DadaKopf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,731 ✭✭✭DadaKopf


    If you make the work on your equipment, then it's your intellectual property. But without a contract, it's your word against theirs. It is therefore good practice to draw up a contract for the job, which they must sign. This ought to cover ownership, payment (payment schedule for each phase of the job; how much and what they get for that; x number of meetings, x rounds of changes etc.).

    In effect, you are licensing your work to your client. In exchange for a fee, they get to use it. If they require changes or further work, they must go to you and pay for you to release your logos etc. to them.

    Don't be shy about requesting this; it protects them as much as it protects you, and it's common business practice. And it's the law.

    A very important thing is that, when they agree to a price and payment for work done, if they turn around and say they don't like your designs (but go ahead and use them anyway, which is sometimes the case), you're still (a) entitled to pay for work done plus cancellation fee if you specify it, and (b) you still own the material, and you could sue them for plagiarising, if they did.


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