Artwork – How Long To Archive & Should You Charge To Supply

14th June, 2009 by Tracy-lee Adams

Hello everyone.

I was wondering what AGDA's comments were for artwork archiving and charges to clients.

For example:

You produce X amount of artwork for Client A over a period of 15 years.

With a change of management Client A decides they would like all of their artwork as they will now start producing items internally.

Do you:

A) Willing spend endless hours de-archiving (in your own time) and supplying DVDs of artwork without charge :-(

B) Charge for the endless hours EVEN THOUGH the client initially paid for the artwork and therefore owns the artwork rights - OR do they after a certain period of time passes?

C) Remind the client you only archive the previous year of files and have some knowledge you and your company will not be sued?

Any comments here would be welcome.

View comments

I have been asked for this service before. And it is just that: an 'added service'. I have charged an hourly rate for doing this plus the cost of DVD's, CD's or any other format they want and postage.

Along with the copies you should give printed information of what is contained.

Sometimes clients have NO IDEA what a job involves, like for instance, the use of several programs to create 1 artwork. But that is not something you should discuss, as that is your Intellectual Property 'the how to'. Which you will very possible will be asked.

Are you sure they want jobs done 15 years ago? if so, that might take you weeks to put together, however, it won't be useful as it could be outdated. But you should present a quote in writing, specifying what you will do for them (how far you'll go).

It is up to their budget to have you do this, but at least you are doing the right thing.
Posted by Maria-Teresa (Taty) Rivera de Hindes on 17th June 2009

Hi Tracy

You only ever go to option A if you're prepared to do this as a loss-leader activity and you believe you can leverage further paid work from doing so – which is unlikely given the scenario you've described.

Printers are required by law to retain customers' artwork & plates for a period of three years, and they're pretty punctual about clearing the storage overhead. If I asked my lawyer or accountant for records dating from 15 years ago, they'd laugh at me and point to the relevant clause in the contract.

So now my own terms and conditions state "Electronic data storage - digital artwork/scanned images; You will be responsible for costs of any necessary alterations, duplicating corrections or downloads of the above mentioned material. Unless notified within 12 months of the invoice date, we may dispose of any such material."

Invoices I issue state that the material has been archived FOC as part of the service, but the implication is that it's up to the client to request archive copies on a timely basis, not 15 years into the future.
Posted by Ben Archer on 17th June 2009

Thanks all helpful.
Posted by Tracy-lee Adams on 18th June 2009