Design Business and Ethics

AIGA has published a series outlining the critical ethical and professional issues encountered by designers and their clients, entitled the AIGA Design Business and Ethics series.

Download the full 2009 AIGA Design Business and Ethics (PDF, 2.5 MB).

Now in its third edition and sponsored by Arctic Paper, this publication examines the key concerns a designer faces in maintaining a successful practice and speaks directly to the protection of individual rights. Authored by industry leaders from across the country, each chapter offers clear and concise information, as well as practical and specific directions for approaching design issues.

This latest edition has been consolidated into a single book—a new format that responds to members’ recommendations to minimize the resources used in the publication, both in consideration of the environment and current economic challenges—and will be mailed to new AIGA members in August 2009.

The updated series is also available here as PDFs, separated by chapter. We encourage you to download and reformat the information as part of your regular proposals to clients (giving proper attribution to AIGA).

New topics in the AIGA Design Business and Ethics series will be published periodically to build a basic library for designers and their clients. The intent of this series is to develop content that is useful to designers, as well as being a resource to educate clients on standard practices and legal requirements faced by design firms.

• Client’s guide to design (1.1 MB)
• Use of fonts (1.1 MB)
• Use of illustrations (1 MB)
• Use of software (1 MB)
• Sales tax (1.1 MB)
• Guide to copyright (1 MB)
• Use of photography (1 MB)

In addition, the AIGA Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services (PDF, 1.2 MB) was also updated in 2009. This agreement takes a modular approach to meet the needs of the diverse design community.