Standards of Professional Practice

When employers pressure artists to work without contracts or legal protection, and to work unrealistic hours for inadequate overtime pay, the entire motion graphics industry suffers. Both sides lose when artists can’t trust their employers to pay a fair wage, and when studios receive subpar work from overburdened employees.

The Motion Design Association believes solving this problem requires instituting higher, regularized ethical standards for both its members and their employers. By speaking together with a collective voice, we can demand a new status quo with greater trust and better compensation for all.

We seek to establish a set of rules and standards for good business practice in the motion graphics industry. Explicit, transparent and codified expectations will reduce the exploitation of inexperienced artists while raising the quality of work from all graphics professionals.

To generate a fair working relationship, artists should demand the rights listed below, deliver on the standards their employers have the right to expect of them, and work with other artists to educate them on these widely accepted best business practices.

Artists have the right to:

• A clear contract or deal memo, outlining the scope of work and accepted terms (i.e., payment, duration of assignment, etc.)
• On-time payment (according to local labor laws or contract terms).
• Overtime compensation in the event of work necessary outside a standard 40-hr workweek, a reasonable amount of notice of the need for overtime work, and the option to turn down such requests without reprisals.
• Credit on all completed work in Press Releases and publication.
• The use of all completed work in self-promotional material.
• A clear creative brief, including all necessary information regarding the project.
• The ability to turn down work on moral grounds without reprisal.
• Join unions, professional associations, or other collective organizations without reprisal.

Employers have the right to expect that artists:

• Represent themselves accurately in their portfolio.
• Be professionally responsible.
• Act in their client’s best interest.
• Create work that represents the best of their ability.
• Produce realistic estimates of project times and cost.

Artists should NOT:

• Knowingly infringe on the copyright or intellectual property of other designers, artists or musicians.
• Accept spec work.
• Create work which is false, misleading, abusive, derogatory or substantively detrimental to society or the environment.

Artists may choose to:

• Assist organizations in their community by providing pro-bono or volunteer work.
• Participate in mentorship and educational opportunities for fledgling motion designers