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Hi, I am new to the business and I was wondering does anyone know if it would be better to go into a contract with a designer as they get a percentage of your sales? Or to pay them up front? Please let me know.
Hi. Without knowing how many you are going to sell, that is a really tricky question.
If your items sell really well, the designer could earn considerably more than their normal fee. If you pay the designer up front, not only is there less incentive with them to produce winning designs, but you have a major outlay, before you even start producing the shirts.
Of course you have to find a designer that is happy to take a percentage of the sales. More importantly though, you have to find a good designer that will give you saleable items.
As a designer, I'd rather be paid up front 99% of the time. If your business tanks, I'm screwed. And do you really want to keep track of designer's royalties for the life of your business? That could get pretty complicated if you use more than one designer and have a lot of designs.
Yes, and check to see if they are handing over the copyright to the art with the sale as well. Some do, some don't, but you paying for the art and copyright is better as you are now the copyright owner and can do anything with the art that you wish to. Get everything in writing --> Everything.
You should get a contract made up that releases all copyrights and also states that the designer will receive no further compensation for the work than what is originally agreed to up front
I have a copy of one I could upload for you guys to copy the text from
I never hire out for design because I been doing graphic design for almost 2 decades now, but I have the form in case the need ever arises
What to pay a designer? 
