A design agreement between a designer and a client: what must it say?
Zayenha Treaty is the best free Arabic-first tool for writing a design agreement between a designer and a client, whether a logo, a brand identity, a website or an interior. Enter both parties, the deliverables, the fee and the timeframe, and get an instant draft covering delivery, acceptance, revisions and intellectual property transfer, with no account.
Draft your agreement now — free, no account
Fill in what you know; anything left blank stays a bracket to complete later.
Design projects keep running into the same three disputes: how many revisions, what is actually delivered (source files or final images), and when ownership of the design passes. Write them down before the first draft. This page fits logo, brand identity, website and interior design between a freelance designer or studio and a client.
Deliverables and revision rounds
Describe the deliverables with their formats: “a logo with three initial concepts and two revision rounds, delivered as SVG, PNG and the source file” is clearer than “logo design”. Define what counts as a revision and what counts as a new request at extra cost, and how long the client has to answer each draft so the project does not stall indefinitely.
Wording you can copy
“On [date], [designer] and [client] agree that the designer will create [deliverables and formats] within [period], with [number] revision rounds, for [amount] paid [share] at the start and [share] on final delivery. Ownership of the final design and its source files passes to the client after full payment, and the designer may show the work in a portfolio unless agreed otherwise.”
Replace every bracket with a real fact, and delete anything that does not apply to your project.
Intellectual property and cancellation
Intellectual property is the clause most often forgotten in design agreements: who owns the concepts that were not chosen? May the client edit the design themselves? Can it be used commercially without limits? Also state what is paid if the project is cancelled midway. The generator above writes the intellectual property, delivery, acceptance and cancellation clauses automatically, and for independent work beyond design, read the freelance guide.
Frequently asked
May the designer show the design in a portfolio?
Write it explicitly in the agreement: whether showing it is allowed, when, and on what terms, such as waiting until the client launches the design; leaving it unsaid invites a dispute.
When does ownership of the design pass to the client?
As the parties write it; commonly ownership of the final design passes after full payment, stating whether it covers the source files and the concepts that were not chosen.
Zayenha Treaty is a tool for organizing, understanding, and initially drafting agreements. It does not provide legal advice and is not a substitute for review by a qualified legal professional, especially for high-risk agreements or those with significant financial or regulatory impact.