Freelancer agreement for a creative studio

Creative studios staff projects with freelancers who sit at the studio's desks, use the studio's software and work on the studio's clients, and the agreement has to reconcile the way studios work with the law on who owns the work and who the freelancer is. It has to assign the IP so that the studio can deliver it to the client, deal with credit and portfolio use, keep the clients the studio's, and reflect a self-employed engagement that a freelancer embedded in the studio for months may not have. I draft that agreement, for the studio or for the freelancer, for a fixed fee of £595, delivered in five working days. The agreement describes a self-employed engagement; HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool decides status case by case, and no drafting guarantees it.

Who this is for

Design, branding, animation, motion, illustration and production studios in England and Wales engaging freelance creatives on projects, and freelancers who work in studios and want the terms right.

What matters in a creative studio freelancer agreement

The framework and briefs

The agreement should be a framework under which the studio offers project briefs (client, role, deliverables, dates, days or fee) which the freelancer may accept or decline, each a separate engagement, and should set the studio's creative process the freelancer works within (creative direction, reviews, the client's approvals), the revisions included, and the freelancer's responsibility for meeting the brief's deadlines; a freelancer booked 'for the next three months' on whatever comes in has been booked into a job.

Intellectual property, moral rights and the client's rights

The freelancer owns the copyright in what they create under section 11 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 until assigned, and the studio's client contracts depend on the assignment: the agreement should assign all rights in the deliverables and working files to the studio on creation or on payment, in writing under section 90, waive moral rights under section 77 and following, license the freelancer's pre-existing materials, and require third-party assets (fonts, stock, music, plug-ins) to be identified and licensed in a way the studio can pass to the client; unused concepts should be dealt with expressly, because studios and freelancers both reuse them.

Credit, portfolio and awards

The agreement should say whether and how the freelancer is credited on the work, that the freelancer may show the work in their portfolio and on social media after the client's launch unless the studio or client objects, how the work is described (as the studio's project with the freelancer's role stated), and the position on awards entries, which usually name the studio and credit the team; disputes about credit are the commonest creative-industry dispute after payment, and the agreement should settle it in advance.

Working in the studio and the status question

A freelancer who works from the studio on its equipment and software, keeps its hours and is directed by its creative director for months has most of the marks of a worker under section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 whatever the agreement says, with rights under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the Working Time Regulations 1998; a freelancer who delivers a brief from their own studio, for several clients, with control over how the work is done and the right to decline the next brief is self-employed. The agreement reflects the second arrangement where it is the practice, and a freelancer invoicing through a company on a project for a medium or large end client brings the off-payroll regime (Chapter 10 of Part 2 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003) into play along the chain, with the studio deducting as fee-payer where the client's determination is inside.

Confidentiality, clients and non-solicitation

Pitches, rates, client plans and work that has not launched all pass through a studio freelancer's hands, so the agreement binds the freelancer to confidentiality that outlasts the engagement, forbids showing unreleased work before launch, and, for a reasonable period after the last brief, stops the freelancer taking direct work from the studio's clients they worked on, with a fee payable if it happens, while passing down any confidentiality terms the studio's own clients have imposed; a wider restriction on working for other studios would be unenforceable and would point to employment.

Fees, kill fees and ending

Day rates or project fees for each brief, overtime and weekend rates where the studio's deadlines demand them, monthly or on-delivery invoicing, payment that does not wait for the studio's client to pay, statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, approved expenses, a cancellation charge where a brief is pulled after work has begun, the studio's right to stop a brief on notice paying for work done and taking the rights in it, and a cap on liability at the brief's fees that section 11 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 will accept: the agreement covers each.

What it costs

Consultancy or contractor agreement, £595. Drafted for your business. Five working days.

Template set for repeat use, £895. One master agreement plus a short-form schedule you can reuse for every engagement. Five working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the consultancy and contractor agreements page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A clear, express assignment of intellectual property to your business
• Confidentiality provisions that protect your business information
• Restrictive covenants drafted at a scope a court will uphold
• Clear treatment of status, so the arrangement is not accidentally something else
• Payment, deliverables and termination provisions that match how you work
• A reusable structure, so the next engagement costs you nothing

What is not included

• Employment status determinations and off-payroll working assessments, which need your accountant
• Tax advice
• Disputes with a contractor you have already engaged
• Immigration and right to work compliance

Questions I am often asked

Our freelancers work in the studio nine to six for months at a time. Are they self-employed?

Probably not in substance: that pattern points to worker status whatever the agreement says. The agreement reflects freelancers who deliver briefs with real independence; for embedded freelancers the honest answer may be a fixed-term employment contract.

Who gets the credit on the work?

What the agreement says, settled in advance: the work is the studio's project, the freelancer's role is stated, and portfolio use is permitted after launch unless the client objects.

A freelancer reused a concept we rejected for another client. Can they?

If the agreement assigns only the delivered work and leaves unused concepts with the freelancer, yes. If the studio wants the rejected concepts too, the agreement can assign them on payment, and it should say which.

Related guidance and services

• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Contractor agreement for a designer
• Freelancer agreement for a marketing agency

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.