When calculating the cost of a commission I was always taught that this is not how illustrations works however. The illustrator retains the rights to the artwork and is simply licensing it to the client.
Factors include:
Usage- A product for a wine bottle will be charged less than for a Television add.
Geography- The licence will be based on the number of countries is will be used in. A worldwide license will cost more than one only shown in the UK.
Time limits- You sing the license for the work for a limited time. The longer the time frame the larger the fee. If they come back and want to use it again in the future, they have to sign a new contract and pay a new fee.
Exclusivity- Are you allowed to sell prints of your artwork on your online shop? This is a large revenue steam for illustrators and if you are not allowed this then the fee should be higher.
Number of copies- The larger the print run the more varied the fee, this one again is something in the contract.
Additional rites- such as being able to request alterations, add text over the top from a graphics designer, to use it on their website as well as their book cover and other promotion.
Work for Hire-
I’ll quote this directly from the bellow website.
“Speaking of all-rights buyouts, we should also talk about Work for Hire. Some clients will try to commission you under a Work for Hire agreement. What this means is that they will own all the rights to the work, including the copyright and maybe even your original art in some circumstances. Your name may not even be associated with the image. In a Work for Hire agreement, your fee should be considerably higher to account for these things.”
http://businessofillustration.com/pricing-your-illustration-work/
Such contracts are to be avoided in the Illustration industry and are considered to be bad form if they are the default. Wizards of the Coast for example has gotten a lot of complaints due to adopting this policy. For some companies it is reasonable for a Work For Hire arrangement to exist. For example if I did the Illustration for a large shopping companies brand logo. I would expect that to be the case. But I would also expect to charge a substantially larger fee. This might change a £3,000 fee into easily a £5,000 fee.
I’ll give you another quote from an Association of illustrators interview with the Handsome Frank agency.
“Another concern, which again I think is mainly a US thing, is engaging an illustrator on very general ‘Work for hire’ contracts. (Work for Hire is an American legal term which means that the client is the legally recognised creator of the commissioned work and owns all rights in the work (effectively a copyright assignment). Work for Hire is not recognised under British law, however if the phrase appears in a British contract alongside wording stating that the rights in the commission will be assigned to the client as a copyright assignment, then unless challenged, the commission becomes a copyright assignment. Often a Moral Rights waiver is added alongside copyright assignments so the artist does not have to be credited and the work can be adapted without them being able to say that it negatively affects their reputation.)
Such contracts are not really designed or suitable for working an artist, they’re typically designed to be used when hiring freelance admin or IT professionals. So it’s important to flag with the client when you’re sent a generic contract which isn’t appropriate for the services you’re offering. Nine times out of ten it’s just an oversight and a bespoke contract is sent in it’s place.”
https://theaoi.com/2018/07/19/handsome-frank-agency-talk-illustration-pricing-and-licensing/
Though I agree that default contract might be fine for someone who is doing proof reading or something else, it is set up poorly for illustrators. You might “guarantee” me that it is different, but everything every professional illustrators has taught me says that this is not the case.
Again from the same interview.
“Why is licensing a commissioned image so important?
Retaining the rights to an image is incredibly important for an illustrator, because over time it opens a potentially huge secondary revenue stream for them. By retaining the rights, and building up a library of images that are commercially available once existing licenses expire, you have a way of monetising your previous work without having to create new images.
Licensing tends to come about one of two ways, either a client will see an existing image which is perfect for their requirements. They fall in love with it and if it’s available to license then the illustrator can agree a fee and grant a license with out having to do any additional work. The second scenario we see, is when a client wants to commission an artist but they’re too busy or unavailable to work to the clients deadlines. In this case we would look back through the artists folio of work and suggest some images which might work instead.
The great thing about licensing are that it allows you earn more income without having to create new work – but also the longer you work in the industry the bigger your back catalogue of images becomes. A bigger back catalogue obviously increases your chances of having an appropriate image for a client’s requirements.”
I jsut get the idea that the people at Upwork don't know much about the illustration industry. And it puts me off using the site to find any illustration work. It will be fine for concpet art jobs as those are Work For Hire, but having to teach cliants that the default UpWork contract is wrong and why they need to pay more is jsut ahrd work.
