This is part three in a series on the importance of owning your own stuff. Read part two on “Who Owns Social Media Accounts for a Business.”
Who Owns Creative Files Created by an Agency?
Much in the same way business coaches will tell you to start planning for the day you sell your business on the day you start your business, you should always enter new business partnerships planning for the day that they will end.
No matter how beautiful the portfolio nor how awesome the recommendations, always enter that new graphic design or marketing agency relationship with a clear understanding of who owns creative files during and after the relationship ends.
Typically, how you will handle ownership and transmission of creative assets and native files is spelled out in your agency agreement, but that isn’t always the case.
Your creative professional agency or independent contractor is equipped with a whole series of tools that you will never have or need. However, they are creating branded visuals for you that you should assert ownership over, so you’ll want access to the files during and after the project.
Getting the Right Stuff
Working With a Marketing Agency or Graphic Design Partner
Because of the software requirement to create, edit and view many graphic design files, transfer of the final product can be a bit tricky. Anyone can and should provide all logo files as EPS or AI vector files, all photography as a JPG, all video as an MP4 (preferred) and any collateral as a PDF. In most cases, those deliverables are a plug-and-play methodology that you can take to any neighborhood printer or your next agency and repurpose.
Because the work created likely used a myriad of applications, their source files may be in other file formats like AI (for Adobe Illustrator), INDD, SVG, DWG/DXF (CAD), PSD (Photoshop). If you’re not operating a design shop, it’s likely you won’t be able to read many of these files even if they are shared with you. You also may not be able to use them unless packed properly (with fonts and images included).
Where’s My Stuff
Intellectual Property vs. Keeping Clients Happy
Navigating the intellectual property rights of a creator vs. the legal rights of owning the work that you paid for is a slippery slope and one you should climb with your creative partner early to make sure you’re on the same page for any future work. You want to understand what they are able and willing to share with you and what you really want and need, within reason. Part of that collaboration should include how and where files will be stored and transferred because unlike the .DOC and .XLS files you share with coworkers every day, design files tend to be HUGE and require their own data transmission storage policy and space.
In an era where there is an increasing use of SaaS-based collaborative tools for design (like Canva), you may find that your creative agency is willing to design and share the files within that environment. Once again, you’ll want to own the account and then provide them with access, not the other way around. That way all of the creative assets remain yours after the fact.
The goal isn’t to create distrust between you and your creative partner. Great agency relationships are built on transparency and collaboration, but people change jobs and business needs shift over time. By establishing ownership expectations early, you’ll avoid unnecessary headaches if the relationship does eventually change.
After all, agencies may come and go, but your brand and the assets that support it should stay with your business.
This blog is courtesy of Jennifer Koon, MMC Founder and Principal Consultant.