Protect Your Creative Work: Add a Generative AI Clause to Your Client Contracts

Published

October 19, 2026

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Designers Timothy Goodman and Jessica Hische have added generative AI clauses to their client contracts and encourage other creatives to do so too
Goodman and Hische share the content of their own generative AI clauses and why such measures are so important for artists right now

While the interference of AI in our lives and livelihoods has been creeping up on us for years, it certainly feels like 2026 is when it reached a fever pitch. AI is everywhere, touching virtually everyone and everything in some capacity, and, to be perfectly honest, it’s scary as hell.

Here at DIELINE, we have a vested interest in exploring how AI is impacting branding and packaging design spaces specifically, and have recently clocked how some big-time designers we admire are advocating for artists to add generative AI clauses to their contracts as a critical means of creative protection in these increasingly sinister times. Designer, illustrator, and muralist Timothy Goodman and lettering artist, illustrator, and type designer Jessica Hische are two such luminaries who have each spoken out about the need for artists to take these direct, preemptive measures against AI.

Charlotte Beach

Charlotte Beach is a New England expat with a cat named Joan Cusack. She’s a former professional soccer player turned writer, sign painter, and vintage clothing connoisseur now living in Los Angeles. She studied writing and visual arts at Brown University, and is currently finishing up the legendary Sign Graphics course at Los Angeles Trade Tech College. The daughter of two newspaper reporters, Charlotte has a penchant for retro handcrafts and snappy sentences.