Who owns "YOUR" stuff?

When it comes to branding and design, you would think that working with start-ups would be more intense because they are "clueless"; however, it turns out that working with clients who already “HAVE" branding elements and a web presence is quite an adventure: they are "owned" by their former designer, whoever and WHEREVER he may be.

What is your stuff and how do you know you own it?

Logo - Do you have an EPS, PSD, JPEG in various resolutions, GIF and PDF version on file or disk?

Domain Name - Go to and check to see who shows as the registrant, administrative and technical contacts. Do you have access to the control panel? (URL, Username and Password).

Website - Do you have your FTP details? Was hosting purchased under your name? Do you know when and how to renew your hosting service?

Web Files - Did you get a disk of all files on your website? Yes, even the raw files (Photoshop images of your buttons and staged backgrounds) for any necessary duplication. When you read a web design contract, make sure YOU own the rights to your images. After all, this is what you are paying for.

Stock Images - Some entrepreneurs start out with a business card, which evolves to the trifold and then hopefully into the web. It's sad to find out that everything needs to be started from scratch because the designer failed to give a copy of the images and now they're out of business, relocated, or are charging you $300.00, when you already paid for the images the first time around. The same things goes for the web; if stock photography is purchased, it should be included in the fee and the designer must provide the original, high resolution file so it work for print, when needed.

Image Hosting - If you had someone design your blog or social media layout (such as MySpace, Facebook Landing Page, etc.), the probability of needing image hosting are pretty high. Do you know where all of your images are hosted? Do you have access? There are many free image hosting services that will generate the desired code. Photobucket created great hype with the MySpace revolution; Picasa, Flickr, ImageShack, TinyPic. Where are your pictures?

Font - An usually overlooked and seemingly insignificant element, but it can make all the difference. Just ask . The font should be included on the disk with everything else that is produced (both print and web).

The list goes on! Make sure you figure out who owns your stuff and claim back your ownership. If you own all of it, job well done and stay aware to avoid the pain. The rule of thumb is to have everything ready for someone else to take over where your previous designer left off. (This means you get a new disk with each update, too). It's your business, take charge!