While freelancing, a designer must protect themselves from being abused by clients. Some clients seem to think the word “freelance” means “free”. It is up to us as designers to help steer this trend in the other direction. If we want to be taken serious as designers and freelancers, we must earn that respect. On of the best ways to do so, is simply presenting the client with a contract, terms and conditions or some form of legal documentation before any work is begun.
Recently, I had a request from a client to use a photo/illustration I had created years ago. This is not the first request I had received for this particular piece of work. However, something clicked in my head, all of a sudden I realized that I needed some form of legal documentation to protect my rights, the photo and the client. After a little bit of research, pulling from different resources I created my own license agreement. One that would give me protection, while still leaving room for the client to use the requested photo as they wished. The form I was looking for and later ended up creating was a Rights Managed License Agreement.
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