: How does licensing & pricing work for a design that a client will use on Tshirts (for sale) I created an illustrated design for a client for use on fliers and on their website- and I simply

@Berryessa866

I have been in the screenprinting / embroidery / graphic design industry for over 25 years. As far as I am concerned, this is how it works… The customer pays me for art work or for me to create any design for him. It makes absolutely zero difference what the design will be used for. The service is straightforward. Customer wants or needs a design, I create the design and I get paid. That same customer comes back to me and says “the original art you gave me was great and worked perfectly for my website but my T-shirt people tell me they need the artwork at this size and at this resolution…. Can you please make the changes for me to the artwork?” My response is always, “sure thing… what are the dimensions you need or whatever”

Changes and edits like this take only five or 10 minutes to do. Bottom line is the customer originally paid me for artwork. It's his design. Not mine. Really it's none of my business what he intends to do with it. My suggestion would be: bite the bullet and take one on the chin. You will quickly find if you start asking for percentages or making things difficult, you will wind up losing your customer. If the edits to the artwork are minor, charge nothing. Make yourself look like the good guy. However if it's significant and will take a half an hour or an hour or more.. Charge your hourly rate. Feel free to do whatever you want, but I do know what I'm talking about.

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@Becky351

If you expect that they are only going to sell a few (or even a few hundred) products then I would recommend charging them a reasonable flat fee for the work that they need you to do. You could include in this a stipulation that there is a maximum number of products that they can use the design on before paying again. This is the model used by some stock photography providers.

If you think that they will sell thousands of products (or more) over a prolonged period, then you should try to negotiate a royalty per sale, but this becomes more complicated because you have to check (or trust) the sales numbers.

In cases where a royalty seems like the best course, there is a balance to be found between upfront fee and royalties. A large advance (aka upfront cost / guaranteed minimum) will generally mean a smaller royalty while a low (or zero) advance will usually mean a larger royalty percentage. Both options will require a contract and maybe a lawyer so I would only recommend that course if you are confident that the financial rewards will make it worthwhile.

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