The files you should get when a design project ends.

One logo file will not cover every background, space and medium. A usable identity handover includes each version you are likely to need:

• Full colour, in RGB for screens and CMYK for print
• Single colour black
• Single colour white, for reversed use on dark backgrounds
• Horizontal and stacked layouts, where both exist
• The icon or mark on its own
• Clear space and minimum size guidance

Each version should come as a vector master and as exports. If a layout or mark was never designed, there is no file for it. The handover note should say so, so you are not left wondering.

Colours need exact values for each medium: HEX and RGB for screens, CMYK for print, and Pantone references where a spot colour matters, such as signage or merchandise that has to match.

The designer should name every typeface used and tell you where to license it. Font files are usually licensed to the designer and cannot be passed on, so expect names and links; you will not always get the files themselves.

On any identity project, ask for a short guidelines document. Even two pages covering the logo versions, clear space, colours and type helps stop the work drifting as other people start to use it.

In the UK, copyright in a commissioned design stays with the designer unless the agreement assigns it to you. Check the terms before the project starts, and ask for an assignment of the final artwork if you need full ownership.

Stock images, illustrations and fonts used in the work carry their own licences, and those may not transfer to you.

We supply editable source files and print-ready exports for finished work as standard, and we confirm the licensing position for any third-party assets in the handover.

A folder of files is only useful if you know which one to open. A good handover note is a single page that covers:

• which file to use where
• the colour values for screen and print
• the typefaces and where to license them
• the print specifications used
• who to contact about changes

It is the mirror image of the brief. The brief is what you send at the start; the handover note is what comes back at the end.

Printed work needs print-ready PDFs: bleed, crop marks, the correct colour profile for the printer, and fonts outlined or embedded so nothing substitutes on press.

Ask for the packaged source files too. A packaged file gathers the layout, linked images and font references in one folder, which is what you need for a reprint or a small change next year.

Campaigns also need sized digital versions for social posts, stories and screens, so nobody has to crop the poster to fit.