Ownership
3 min read
What you should own when your site launches
Tobias Kline
Partner, Technical Director
Short answer
On launch day you should hold the domain, the site account, the source files, the font and image licenses, and the training to edit the site yourself. Put each one in the contract.
The accounts
The domain should be registered to your company, and the site should live on an account you control, with a company email as the owner. A studio can be invited as a collaborator. It should not be the owner.
The files
Source files for everything made for you
Logos and identity in every format your team will need
Motion in ready exports, plus the project files
The licenses
Font and stock licenses vary by vendor: per seat, per site or by traffic. Ask for a list of what was used and whose name is on each license. A typeface you cannot legally keep using is a last-minute font swap waiting to happen.
The know-how
A site you cannot change is not really yours. Ask for a recorded walkthrough of how to edit pages and add content, and try it yourself before the final invoice.
Put it in the contract
Everything above is easy to agree on before work starts and awkward to ask for after. We list it in ours, under what you keep.
Keep reading
Cost
4 min read
What a brand and website actually cost
Our projects start at $50k and run 8 to 15 weeks. What that covers, what makes the number grow, and how to keep it from growing.
Timeline
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How long a website redesign really takes
Most of our projects take 8 to 15 weeks. Where the time goes, what slows it down, and how to agree on a launch date you can keep.