How a Publishing Business Hired a Lawyer to Review a Graphic Design Agreement in California

It is highly recommended, but it is not necessary (ie required by law) to have a written agreement in most circumstances. But, as in with any handshake agreement- it will hard to figure out if there's a misunderstanding or something goes wrong. You end up in court, having people give testimony about what was and what wasn't the deal, and you're asking the judge/jury to go through your emails to try to get an understanding. Not to mention, an agreement can force things like mediation and arbitration to makes things easy. Also, without a writing you can both be wrong about your understanding of what the deal was, nobody being at blame. Litigating is never simple or easy or fast. Unless it's in small claims. Making it easy on yourself or your future lawyer can help you avoid a lot of future headache.

I always recommend a signed agreement that covers the basics of "Q-TIPS"- this is for educational purposes only, by the way. The 1. Quantity 1 logo- plus, I would add the number of revisions under the agreement, because creative work often needs tweaks and you will be unprofitable when there are hours involved in 6 revisions when you only said 2. Time of Performance- 2 weeks? a month? 6 months? when will the project be done? When will payment be due? 3. Identity of the parties (pretty self-explanatory)4. Price (not your estimate, a contracted price) and 5. Subject matter. Not "logo" but an actual description with the colors, fonts, ideas. Finally, I would encourage project management software, like Trello, or Monday, or Asana, or whatever to track the phases of the project and the critical places the client must sign off on the design or document carefully the requests for revision. In a creative space, like graphic design, the final like or dislike can be subjective. You were hired to create a brand and an identity into a logo- and you didn't get paid. Based on the agreement, this is potentially small claims to enforce a verbal agreement.