A question for freelance artist and graphic designers

I asked this in the gear thread, but this is probably a better place for it.

Is it rude of me to ask for all of the work files in regards to work done by a graphic designer that I have commissioned work from?

I got a guy helping me and he always sends me stuff in pdf. And I'd like to have all the files. And i'm paying him. Is it rude to just ask? I kind of need them for practical reasons. Like to make sure there are multiple back ups. Or making sure I have something i can convert to muliple formats depending on who I send things off to.

My experience is limited, but when doing design work the employer owns everything I do. I would assume that is the case for graphic design too. But I could be wrong.

EDIT: I just sent him an email, and he ignored my request for the files. And talked about everything but that request.


I don't think he understands that I need them to make slight alterations depending on how I print this stuff up. Or maybe he is hoping I will pay him every time I need a slight change =/

I don't know why that would even be a problem unless he's saving directly to .pdf.

He might get bitchy about it if the original files weren't part of the original agreement, dudes/ladies sometimes like to hide their file trickery to secure future employment. (Oh you need another in the same template? Pay me.)

He doesn't want you altering his precious work of art.

From what I understand from some Graphic design friends, (and maybe some one like Drew or Hero, or Finch, or the other folks who do GD work can correct some of it) your hiring them to give you a final product, you're not paying for their files. A few of them said that when folks they're doing work for ask for the files used to make it there's usually a fee that goes along side that. One dude said he'll charge like 75% of what the job original cost just for the files. So it's something you'll have to work out with the dude doing the stuff for you, but I wouldn't expect for you to get them for free, plan on paying the guy something.

I'm a communist pinko when it comes to things like that. If i already worked on it for you, then you can do whatever you want with whatever files i created. i am not particularly successful at making money

You can try just opening the pdfs in illustrator, see if you can edit them. The vectors should all be there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shin Johnpv

From what I understand from some Graphic design friends, (and maybe some one like Drew or Hero, or Finch, or the other folks who do GD work can correct some of it) your hiring them to give you a final product, you're not paying for their files.

---

Did they give a justification for feeling this way? I can't say I understand it.

other than in terms of greed, but I don't want to assume greed or malice


I'll describe my current delima. I have a design for front faceplate. The people making up the latex print (think car decals and stripes) charge per print, not by size. The graphic designer has given me the design one time on one sheet of 8x11. I could get 6 x the graphics on one sheet, and still pay the same amount for the print and the material IF I have a file with 6 of these faceplate design on one sheet. I don't want to pay someone to go in and put six of these completed drawings on one sheet. I figure even I could do such a thing in 20 minutes with google.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FirstBlood

You can try just opening the pdfs in illustrator, see if you can edit them. The vectors should all be there.

---

I'll try this.

Maybe he didn't answer my question because it seemed stupid to someone with a lot of experience with illustrator.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fe 26

Did they give a justification for feeling this way? I can't say I understand it.

other than in terms of greed, but I don't want to assume greed or malice

---

It's not malice or greed. 1. You're paying for a final product. You're not paying for their plans, or the materials or parts, you're paying for a final product. If you want it set up with 6 of them on one sheet then state that in the initial contract. 2. They're protecting themselves. I had a few friends express stories of handing over files with the people they gave it to claiming there would be more work in the future. Then they find out that those people just hired a shittier GDer who charged less and gave my friends files to them to work from. So by giving them that they just lost money and work. There's nothing greedy about that, as a freelancer you never know where the next job or paycheck is going to come from and losing one to some one else sucks ass. Specially when that person is just building off your work.

It's no different than if you were making and selling guitar amps. If I said to you, hey I like this amp you sold me, can you give me the schematics, and instructions on how to make it so that I can then get my friend to do it for 1/5th the price. That would be pretty shitty for you. It's the same with most anything else. I freelance for a place that does a couple famous character based commercials, and those companies just get the final rendered commercial. They don't get the character model, or the rigs, or the animation files, or the texture maps or any of that stuff.

That's just my take on it, being a freelancer for another art medium, and what graphic designer friends have told me.