Freelance Creative Terms

Standard terms of business for photographers, videographers, designers and other creative freelancers – deposits, revisions, kill fees, licensing on full payment, portfolio rights and AI disclosure.

Editable Word document
18
10pages
Guidance notes included
aml consultancy solutions

Creative & agencies

Freelance Creative Terms

About this document

What it’s for

Your own terms of business as a creative freelancer. They sit behind every quote or proposal you send and set out how bookings work, what the fee covers, how many revisions are included, what happens if a client cancels, and – most importantly – that the client only gets to use your work once you have been paid in full.

When to use it

  • Photography, video, illustration, graphic, web, brand and motion design commissions
  • Business clients and, with clause 20 kept in, private (consumer) clients such as wedding or portrait clients
  • Alongside the Usage Rights and Licence Schedule in this pack, which records exactly how each client may use the work

What’s inside

The document is laid out in the sections below. Each one comes with a plain-English guidance note explaining what it does and what to change.

  1. About these terms
  2. Definitions
  3. The Services and the Brief
  4. Your responsibilities and Client Materials
  5. Quotes, fees and expenses
  6. Deposits, invoicing and payment
  7. Late payment
  8. Timetable and delays
  9. Revisions and changes
  10. Approval
  11. Postponement, cancellation and kill fee
  12. Ownership of copyright and the Licence
  13. Moral rights and credit
  14. Portfolio and promotion
  15. Use of AI tools
  16. Confidentiality and data protection
  17. Liability
  18. Ending the Contract
  19. Events beyond our control and illness
  20. Consumer clients
  21. General
  22. Disputes and governing law

Also included

  • Date-specific bookings (shoots, filming, events)
  • Design, editing and other project work (kill fee)
  • Acceptance

How to complete it

  • Add your business details in the box at the start and set your deposit, revision and kill fee figures
  • Fill in Schedule 1 (Project Summary) for each job, or copy it into your quote
  • Choose the licence option in clause 12 and attach a completed Usage Rights and Licence Schedule
  • Send these terms with every quote and ask the client to sign or confirm acceptance by email before you start

Key points to check

  • Copyright stays with you unless you sign a written assignment (section 90(3) Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988)
  • Check the status of the Commercial Payments Bill, which may change payment terms (see clause 7)
  • Keep the AI clause (clause 15) accurate to the tools you actually use

Our templates are professionally structured starting points for UK businesses, not legal advice. For anything complex, unusual or high-value, have your final version checked by a solicitor.

Included in the pack

Creative & agencies

£20

for every document in this category

Editable Microsoft Word files

Guidance notes in every document

Written for UK businesses

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