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Image 1 of 1
Practical, insider-led guidance on how to manage commissions clearly, professionally and without undermining your own work. This guide covers timelines, meetings, specifications, contracts, editioning, invoice terms and the practical structures that help commissions run properly from the start.
Who is it for?
For artists who are taking on commissions and want clearer structures around money, paperwork, timelines and client communication. Especially useful for artists who are confident in making the work, but less confident in managing the professional framework around it.
Full product description
Commissions can be exciting, flattering and financially important, but they are often the most demanding part of an artist’s practice. Alongside making the work itself, you may also be managing meetings, expectations, technical questions, time pressure, delivery logistics and the delicate business of being watched while you work.
This Insider Guide focuses on the practical side of commissions: how to protect your time, set realistic timings, record what has been agreed, invoice clearly, think about editioning, and avoid the common structural mistakes that lead to misunderstandings later. It is written for artists who want straightforward, experience-led guidance from inside the art world, without jargon or false promises.
What’s inside?
• Guidance on tracking time, meetings, travel and administration around commissions.
• Advice on realistic timings, buffers, delays and how to avoid underestimating the work.
• Suggested wording for deposit and final commission invoices.
• Guidance on editioning commissioned works and protecting the long-term reputation of the work.
• Advice on contracts, staged payments and making sure your costs are covered.
• Guidance on writing a clear commission specification and avoiding misunderstandings.
• Notes on committees, technical drawings and design-stage protection.
• Advice on when to bring in outside support if a commission begins to strain.
Why this matters?
A commission can go wrong long before the artwork does. Often the real problem is not the work itself, but the way time, payment, communication and expectations have been handled around it. This guide is designed to help you put those structures in place early, so the professional side of the commission supports the artistic side rather than destabilising it.
Practical, insider-led guidance on how to manage commissions clearly, professionally and without undermining your own work. This guide covers timelines, meetings, specifications, contracts, editioning, invoice terms and the practical structures that help commissions run properly from the start.
Who is it for?
For artists who are taking on commissions and want clearer structures around money, paperwork, timelines and client communication. Especially useful for artists who are confident in making the work, but less confident in managing the professional framework around it.
Full product description
Commissions can be exciting, flattering and financially important, but they are often the most demanding part of an artist’s practice. Alongside making the work itself, you may also be managing meetings, expectations, technical questions, time pressure, delivery logistics and the delicate business of being watched while you work.
This Insider Guide focuses on the practical side of commissions: how to protect your time, set realistic timings, record what has been agreed, invoice clearly, think about editioning, and avoid the common structural mistakes that lead to misunderstandings later. It is written for artists who want straightforward, experience-led guidance from inside the art world, without jargon or false promises.
What’s inside?
• Guidance on tracking time, meetings, travel and administration around commissions.
• Advice on realistic timings, buffers, delays and how to avoid underestimating the work.
• Suggested wording for deposit and final commission invoices.
• Guidance on editioning commissioned works and protecting the long-term reputation of the work.
• Advice on contracts, staged payments and making sure your costs are covered.
• Guidance on writing a clear commission specification and avoiding misunderstandings.
• Notes on committees, technical drawings and design-stage protection.
• Advice on when to bring in outside support if a commission begins to strain.
Why this matters?
A commission can go wrong long before the artwork does. Often the real problem is not the work itself, but the way time, payment, communication and expectations have been handled around it. This guide is designed to help you put those structures in place early, so the professional side of the commission supports the artistic side rather than destabilising it.