# Business model; how to pay your designers



## getagrip10 (Aug 20, 2010)

Hi guys,

Is there an industry standard for how to pay your designers? I've started working with two designers who will take my basic ideas and translate them into designs. I'm not sure whether to


Pay them per design used, then I own the designs
Pay them a percentage of sales and make them like business partners
Something else?!
What does everyone else do? My plans involve producing a basic range, and more expensive range, and some limited editions one in a while. The designers are currently freelancers.

Any advice appreciated as ever

Thanks

G


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## imindless (Jul 13, 2010)

Well you can do several things with them... 

Something like kingstrike.com... where you can buy artwork from a designer flat out for a set price and then you or the company owns the artwork to mass produce or whatever you want to do with it. 

You could get the designs, kind of on a commission, and say.. Okay, your designs are good but lets test them. If they sell well, then you get X% of sales, capped off at X amount of this point.

Or you could do... I will give you X amount of money right now (low amount in hopes the the design sells), and then a % of each shirt that sells that has that designs on it till X amount of money is reached.

The second and the third options save you a little money in the short run. 

2nd being you just go off percentage of sales and the designer gets a % off of each shirt till you have a cap on the amount of money he will get in total. 

3rd being you give him a quarter or half of the money you intend to pay him and then if the t-shirts sell, you give him a % of each t-shirt till you reach your cap point and then the design is yours in full and you dont owe him anything else on sales.


If you 2nd or 3rd option I would recommend that you write up a well written and documented contract between you or your business and the sole designer of the artwork. Make everything extremely clear, what your going to pay him for the artwork in total, what % he gets off of each shirt or off of total sales of the shirt (if you are only going to do it for X amount of days/months, and he gets paid after that date is over).

I hope that gives you a better understanding or some other options to consider.

Using the site I gave you can buy artwork flat out and use to your full extent without any legal actions taken against you. There are plenty of sites out there like that I am sure but to see prices of stuff you can use it for an example on that site.


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## getagrip10 (Aug 20, 2010)

Mindless- thanks for your super quick reply, most informative as ever!!

Will consider it all with due care before deciding.

Cheers 

G


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## tiredew (Mar 11, 2009)

If you really believe in a design and can buy it outright for a reasonable fee that is the ideal solution. But you need to know a reasonable expectation of how many you are going to sell in order to find a price that fits your model.


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## TshirtGuru (Jul 9, 2008)

G,

Most of the time, you don't get to choose the terms. The designer chooses how they want to get paid. Most designers prefer to get paid up front x amount of $ and not percentages of sales. For one, it is hard to prove how much sales you made on a shirt, and two, designers don't have faith that you will get that large. Even the biggest clothing companies don't pay their designers by percentages of sales. You just pay them x amount of agreed dollars and call it a day.


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