How to get your logo files off the bloke who made them

Somebody made your logo in 2021. You paid the invoice, he emailed you a JPEG, and that JPEG has been doing every job since. Now the sign shop wants artwork you don’t have.

Getting the originals back is usually possible. It’s a sequence, and step one goes wrong if you ask for “the logo files” and got sent the same JPEG again.

One thing this post isn’t about: your website, hosting, domain and Google logins. That’s a separate handover with its own list, and it’s covered in what you should be handed on launch day. This is the artwork only.

The 6 things to ask for by name

Ask for these specifically. A general request gets a general answer.

1. The editable working file. The one it was drawn in: .ai, .svg, .eps, .cdr, .afdesign. This is the actual asset. Everything else can be regenerated from it and it can be regenerated from nothing.
2. Vector exports. SVG, EPS, and a PDF with the type converted to outlines. This is the set every sign shop and shirt printer asks for.
3. PNG with a transparent background, at least 2000px wide. For anything on a screen that isn’t sitting on white.
4. One-colour versions. Solid black and solid white. Half the jobs your logo will ever do are one colour, and a full-colour mark can’t be flattened into one by a supplier without him guessing.
5. The font names, and what licence they’re under. Two names in an email. Without them, nobody can ever set your business name in matching type again, and you may be relying on a font you have no right to use.
6. The colour values. Hex at minimum, CMYK if he has it. The other 2 values you’ll need are physical and he won’t have them, which is a separate job.

The email, word for word

Short, specific, and with a date in it. Copy this.

Hi [name], I’m getting new signage and shirts done and the suppliers need the original artwork for the logo you did for us.

Can you please send: the editable working file, vector versions (SVG, EPS and a PDF with the type outlined), a transparent PNG at 2000px or larger, solid black and solid white versions, the names of the fonts used, and the colour values.

If there’s a fee for the source files, tell me what it is and I’ll pay it. If it’s easier to send a link, please use one that doesn’t expire.

Would you be able to get that to me by [a date about a week out]? Thanks.

Three things are doing work in there. Naming the files stops him sending a JPEG. Offering to pay removes an easy reason to go quiet. And the date gives you a point at which to move on without it becoming an argument.

If nothing comes back, send this 5 days later and nothing else:

Hi [name], following up on the below. If you can’t get to it, just say so and I’ll sort it another way, no hard feelings. Otherwise could you send the working file and a vector by [date]? Thanks.

That one is easier to answer, because it gives him an easy way out.

He might be within his rights to say no

Worth knowing before you get annoyed. In Australia, copyright in a commissioned logo generally stays with the person who drew it unless it’s been assigned to you in writing. Paying the invoice normally buys you the right to use the mark. It doesn’t automatically make you the owner of it.

We’re not lawyers and this isn’t advice. The practical version is: he may genuinely be entitled to hold the source files, a flat fee to release them is a legitimate ask rather than a shakedown, and the fix on any future job is one line in writing before you pay. Get copyright assigned, in writing, at the start. It costs nothing at that point and it’s the whole argument later.

When he’s stopped answering: 6 places to look

In order of how likely each one is to actually produce a file.

1. Ask the suppliers who already used your artwork. This is the best move on the list. Your signwriter, the shirt mob, whoever printed your cards, the fabricator who did a site board. Sign shops routinely keep customer artwork on file for years. Ask plainly: “Can you send me whatever artwork file you’ve got on record for us, as-is, in whatever format it’s in?” Ask them to tell you whether it’s what they were sent or something they traced, because that changes what it’s worth.
2. Go back to where the job was bought. If it came off a freelance marketplace, the delivered files usually sit in the completed order permanently. Sign in with the email address you used at the time and open the order history.
3. Search your own inbox properly. Not the word “logo”. Search his email address, then filter to messages with attachments. Then search “wetransfer”, “dropbox” and “drive.google”. Transfer links expire, but Drive and Dropbox links shared years ago often still open.
4. Pull it off your own website. Right-click the logo on your own site and save the image. If what saves has a .svg extension, that’s a genuine vector and it’s often the real one. If it saves as .png or .webp it isn’t, but keep it, because it’s probably the cleanest raster copy you own. On WordPress, check the media library for the original upload as well.
5. Change the channel. Email, then a text, then a call at a different time of day, then a message to the business page on Facebook or Instagram. People who ignore email answer a page message.
6. Old devices and other people’s templates. The original email may still be on a phone in a drawer or an old laptop. Whoever does your invoicing may have a copy sitting inside the invoice template.

One more if the logo was made in Canva: the design lives in the account it was made in, so ask him to share the design to your account rather than to export anything. He can also transfer ownership of it. Be aware that SVG export sits behind Canva’s paid tier (as at September 2026), so a free account can only hand you a PNG or a PDF.

Checking what came back

Do this the day the files land, in about 10 minutes.

• Count it against your list. Six items were asked for. Anything missing gets one reply today, while the thread is still warm.
• Confirm the vectors are actually vectors. A JPEG renamed .eps is common enough to expect. The 2 tests that settle it take 30 seconds each.
• Test the transparent PNG on black. Drop it onto a dark background: paste it into a slide with a black fill, or set it as your phone wallpaper. A white rectangle around the mark means it isn’t transparent.
• Find the white version. It will look like an empty file on a white background, which is correct. Use the same black background to confirm it’s really there.
• Open the working file and read the warning. A “missing fonts” message tells you the type is still live text, which is fine for the editable file as long as you also got the font names. If you didn’t get them, that warning is the reason you need them.
• Check the details in the artwork. Old phone number, an ABN, a licence number or a tagline you’ve since dropped. Worth a look on any file that hasn’t been opened in years.
• Send one file to a real supplier. Email the EPS to your signwriter and ask whether he can open it and cut from it. A yes from someone standing next to a plotter beats every check on this page.

Then rename them so a stranger could pick the right one, and put the folder in 2 places that aren’t your phone. Cloud storage and something physical.

If the answer is nothing

Sometimes the bloke has moved on and no supplier kept a copy. At that point the question stops being recovery and becomes what you’re rebuilding from.

If any genuine vector surfaced, even an old one, that’s a tidy-up rather than a redraw, and it should be priced as the smaller job it is. If all that exists is a JPEG, it gets redrawn, because a trace of a JPEG is a copy of a copy and it shows on a big panel. That’s the $997 job on our brand kit page, and it’s the one situation where starting again is genuinely cheaper than chasing.

Either way, the thing that stops this happening twice is the same line: source files and copyright come with the job, in writing, before the invoice is paid.