Frequently Asked Questions

Is my deposit refundable?

From 2026, Origami Graphics is now offering a 7-day cooling off period where you can cancel and have your deposit refunded for no penalty. This only applies if work on your project has not yet started, so you may not be able to use the cooling off period if your job is urgent and I’ve had to start right away.

In general, otherwise, project deposits are not refundable because they’ve reserved space for your project to the exclusion of others, and I’ve already undertaken preliminary work. If you, as a client, cancel your job, you will not get a deposit refund and, if the project was in advanced stages, may need to pay additional fees for the cancellation and to cover any work that’s not yet paid for.

That said, in the extremely unlikely scenario that I as the designer have to cancel your project due to extenuating circumstances and at no client fault, I’ll refund your deposit minus any outstanding fees for completed work.

Read my Terms and Conditions for more info about this.

Something has come up/I’m waiting on the CEO to approve something/my workers are sick and I can’t get my content ready on time. Can I postpone my project until later?

Yes!

I find this happens quite often with corporate clients and young families, whose timeframes can really get thrown off by unexpected events. Origami Graphics now has a Deferral Policy where you can postpone your project for up to 6 months and resume it later with no financial penalty. Check out the Terms and Conditions for more info.

Do you offer payment plans on your design services? What about on web design projects?

Yes, payment plans are available for most of my services over $1000.

You can either pay for projects with a normal deposit and conclusion, or pay gradually over 6 months with 20% interest. 

For websites, you won’t gain control over the back-end admin area until you’re finished making all your payments.

20% interest? Isn’t that a lot?

Nope! Clients who choose to pay for their projects over 6 months need to pay this interest, because:

• It means those who pay normally are rewarded with a lower price.
• It protects my income with a higher financial buffer, in case you stop making your payments and fall into delinquency.
• It compensates me for waiting 5+ months to be paid – for work that’s already done.

20% interest is a standard figure on par with many credit cards. If you don’t want to pay this surcharge, then don’t use a payment plan – just pay with the standard deposit/remainder arrangement.

I think you’re too expensive. Can I have a discount?

Investment 101: You have to spend money to make money. If you think I’m too expensive, I recommend re-examining your budget and, if you still think your desired pricing is fair, asking if my junior assistant is available or seeking another designer.

Note that I do have some lower advertised rates, but they are only available for:

• Charities,
• Not-for-profit organisations, and
• Clients who face financial restrictions such as reliance on disability support payments.

When analysing your costs, I would ask you to consider whether a budget-oriented approach is right for your business at this time – or if a result-oriented approach may provide a better return on investment. It depends if your current goals are short or long term, but often, a higher upfront payment provides better-quality work for longer-term success. It also avoids having to redo your job shortly down the track to fix errors or make updates. I frequently have to fix logo files and websites for people who initially thought they were getting a great deal, but whose prior designers weren’t competent.

My prices rose to $150 per hour in February 2026, after more than 4 years of being consistently booked out more than a month in advance – and not having enough downtime for my own life and creative recovery. My pricing is at this level for a reason. Also, all my prices include GST, which you may be able to claim back at tax time – alongside my fees, which are business expenses you’ll probably be able to claim as a tax deduction.

I recently wrote an article about how much graphic design costs, and you might like to take a read to learn more about it!

I think you’re too cheap.

You wouldn’t believe it, but I’ve had clients tell me this before: “I think you might be undercharging.”

And it’s true that there’s another side of the coin. Sometimes, you get a quote that’s so cheap, you think… “yikes. They mustn’t be very good quality” or “they’re outsourcing all their work offshore”.

I like to think neither of those things are true about Origami Graphics. So if you feel that I’ve underquoted you and it’s left you with questions about my dedication to your project and its ability to succeed, please reach out and we can re-evaluate the scope, output requirements, availability requirements, and investment – and adjust accordingly.

Ongoing Jobs

How can I hire you to work with me regularly?

I do contracting all the time, pending availability. It’s $150.00 per hour, $250.00 per hour express, and $1100.00 per full day unless otherwise negotiated.

For charities or other registered Not for Profits, this amount falls significantly – to $95.00 per hour, $140.00 per hour express, and $715.00 per full day.

GST’s included in those numbers.

Ongoing work >1 month will necessitate a retainer fee to hold ongoing availability. This will be quoted based on your estimated monthly workload.

Check out Services and Pricing for more info.

Feeling Unsure

I don’t know if we’re right for each other.

No service is for everyone!

You’re right for me if…

You’re ambitious, creative, willing to invest money in your dreams, and good at communicating – OR, a government organisation or not-for-profit needing custom work from an individual because your in-house designer is overloaded or doesn’t exist.

I’m right for you if…

You want quality, a personal touch to your design, and a well-thought out solution that takes a few weeks and drafts to truly nail.

We’re not right for each other if…

You’re after a quick fix, a very cheap solution, or a designer you don’t need to talk to clearly. We’re also not right for each other if:

• You need to closely monitor your designer and their work – space and trust is incredibly important to me to be able to work properly and creatively, so after our initial consultations and strategy sessions, I will e-mail you when drafts are ready for feedback and should otherwise be left to get my work done. I’m a tertiary-qualified specialist with multiple Bachelor’s degrees, and I expect to be trusted.
• Your deadlines are so rigid that the possibility of 1-2 weeks breathing room, or a hold on the job, in the case of an unexpected event or emergency is not possible.
• You feel you should be the exception to the rule: for example, you don’t stick to the conditions of the brief you agreed to, you repeatedly miss deadlines, or you expect your job to be prioritised over my other clients when you haven’t paid the express rate. This includes expecting unpaid travel or other stipulations which would normally be considered unreasonable.

One of the reasons I run my own business is to have full control over the way I operate and how it aligns with my values. If you are disrespectful to me or others, discriminatory based on gender, weight or LGBTQI status, or engaging in illegal activity, your project will be cancelled and you may be reported. I don’t enjoy having to do this, but it has been done before.

I’m scared this is going to be wrong for me after I commit, and I won’t be able to back out.

I accept cancellations anytime during your booked timeslot. You will need to pay for all work that’s already complete, plus a 15% cancellation fee. If your deposit already covers this amount, then you won’t need to pay anything else.

If you have external circumstances that have caused your cancellation, and I feel these were materially out of your control and extremely impactful, I may even decide to waive some or all of your fees. Just communicate with me and let me know what’s going on! You can find more info in my Terms and Conditions.

I’m worried I’m not going to be taken care of properly and I’ll be wasting my money.

I got into graphic design to help people’s business dreams come true and use my exceptional creative skills to inject flair and excitement into the world. I also take care of my clients like my friends, because they’re helping me live my own dreams. You may discover that we’re not the right mix, and that’s fine, you can move on to someone else next time – but one thing you shouldn’t be worried about is being taken care of.

In fact, many of my existing clients feel I go above and beyond for them.

Do you use generative AI to make your design work?

Goodness gracious me, no. With the exception of potentially coming up with initial ideas which I then take to the drawing board to develop myself, we cook from scratch here. I will go into this topic further directly below.

Logos and Branding

Why can’t I just make my own logo using AI or Canva?

You can. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

We’re privileged to live in a world where art is accessible at our fingertips, and AI is a fun and useful tool which has actually empowered some of my clients to communicate their ideas wayyyy easier.

Unfortunately, the more important part of design is using it to market effectively towards your target customer – and AI has not yet met this goal. That’s mostly because it a) uses other people’s stolen work, and b) relies on your professional judgement to be effectively used.

AI works by using data collected from crawling the internet, then integrating that information together to provide responses and generate artwork that it feels suits the prompt you’ve given. It’s not yet at the level where it can do this seamlessly, and AI art almost always features errors; most obvious in incorrectly-spelled words, smudged or distorted graphics, and nonsense letters. By using AI you may also be inadvertently stealing aspects of someone else’s design that it’s picked up during its learning phase, and a huge backlash against AI happened in 2023 for this reason. This could get you into serious legal trouble if you are found to have accidentally plagiarised another person’s intellectual property.

Canva provides more ability to create a design from scratch, but your artwork is still likely to have a “homemade” feel and you will be locked out of the vector artwork you need unless you pay for a premium subscription. Meanwhile, many designers who use Canva work from existing templates and you may find your finished product is a duplicate of other people’s and not able to be protected by trademark.

Branding from scratch is critical because it’s how you set yourself apart from the noise and communicate your brand values to your ideal client. It’s the first step in your customer’s process of recognising you, trusting you, and then buying from you (hopefully repeatedly!). One day, your brand might be as well-known and sought-after as Nike’s or Tesla’s… if you do the process properly.

Do I have to get the whole logo package? I don’t think I need the branding sheet or mockups.

Goodness no! You can get “”just the logo” in my Basic package for $550, but this is aimed at very small businesses who are just starting out and are super limited by their budget.

However, you are going to disadvantage yourself by not building a full brand for your business – because that’s how you’re going to properly connect to your audience, build a loyal client base, and start making serious money. Tone of voice, colour palette, use of shape, and font choice are part of this, and are so important to nail down to get your business recognised and respected.

On a practical note, it’s also going to be really difficult for you to build a nice-looking and professional website, business card, or set of print ads if you’ve just got a logo with no business colours or fonts to use.

This is why I only recommend the Basic package to super tiny, absolute beginner startups (or home offices, or family campgrounds, etc).

Websites

I can just make a website myself somewhere like Wix or Shopify. Why would I hire a designer to do this?

Go for it – if you need help, I can help you out with tweaks and changes for $150 per hour. I can also audit your website and give you pointers for improvement, or run an SEO analysis and instruction session for you. These services cost $450 each and are one-off, unlike specialist SEO management which usually attracts a recurring monthly fee of $1000 or so.

But websites are a super niche job, and it’s generally just easier to employ someone who knows what they’re doing so that you don’t have to spend time learning it yourself. Fun fact – it took me 3 years learning on and off before I was finally confident using WordPress, and I’m a designer with university web design experience. Time is money and your time could be better spent actually running your business, not trying to figure out Squarespace’s editor or where Shopify’s postage settings have gone.

Please also be advised that I’m no longer offering websites on Wix due to the Israeli Government’s genocide in Gaza – more info here.

It’s not the right time to get a professional website – money is too tight.

As of April 2026, I am now offering an Omakase Design and Web Intensive Day where you can get a logo, branding, semi-custom website, and SEO copy audit bundle for only $3000. This is extremely good value and is pretty much unheard of in the professional design industry – but the catch is, there’s no time for changes. It’s the design equivalent of a lucky dip. You get what you get and you don’t get upset.

If you want a more customised professional website, are worried about the spend, yet still want creative control and a few weeks to perfect things – then please tick the “Payment Plan” box during your questionnaire phase. I’ll then send over a proposal to break your website investment up into 6 monthly installments.

Alternatively, you might like to park professional design until things are looking better for you.

Keep in mind that a well-designed website is your most important tool for drawing in new clients. Many people find this to be worth the initial investment, as the financial return is felt for years to come. You also won’t be able to run marketing like paid search ads without a website to send leads to.

I heard you’re not using Elementor anymore. Is that true? Does that mean you can’t edit or maintain my Elementor website?

It’s true. I stopped using Elementor because I’m phasing Israeli software out of my business. This is due to verifiable reports of that country committing systemic war crimes, and the fact that the Australian government has not applied pressure through whole-country sanctions.

However, while I’m no longer going to support new signups to this company, I will happily edit or maintain your website if it was built using Elementor.

You can also ask me to rebuild your Wix or Elementor website on a new platform – this costs less than a standard website project since the design is finalised and ready to go. The project is simply a recreation.

Books and Reports

I don’t need a professional designer to design and set up my book up for me – I can do it myself.

Go for it! You always have the right to do things yourself.

But – before you make this decision, ensure you read up (haha) about book design theory. Seemingly small factors like line spacing, font style, and the space between the text and the edge of the pages can make a huge difference to the reading experience.

For example: did you know that the inside margins generally have to be bigger than the outside ones to make sure no content is sucked into the spine during binding? Plus, the outside margins have to be wide enough for a reader to put their thumb while holding the book, without covering any text!

Also, when designing a book, I recommend using Adobe InDesign rather than something like Notes or Word, as it will give you a much more professional look and it’s way easier to export for eReaders like the Kindle.

You can find lots of book layout tutorials on YouTube, which will help you with your journey. I also recommend Udemy. If you get your work 95% done and want someone to fix up the last few bits, contact me and I can do so for you.

Why are your books and reports so expensive?

Unfortunatelyyyyy, book and report design frequently runs into the thousands of dollars. There are several reasons for this:

1. It takes an incredible amount of time to design a long, custom publication like a novel or annual report. It’s the design equivalent of running a marathon.
2. You’re more likely to see a good financial return from your work if you invest into your reader’s visual experience properly.
3. I generally don’t take royalties from client book sales unless I’ve worked under a publisher, so it’s likely that your design fees will be the only payment I ever see from designing or illustrating your novel or picture book. Fees are quite high to make sure I receive some compensation for this.
4. In the case of annual reports, these documents directly influence shareholder perception of your company – so you need to be spending several thousands of dollars because it could secure you way more than that in funding and/or support next financial year.
5. Reporting seasons tend to be extremely busy and high-pressure, so I need to charge a bit higher to ensure we’re not overwhelmed and I have scope to pay for assistance delivering on time.

Random AMA (“Ask Me Anything”)

I thought you were a Canberra graphic designer, but some of your photos and blog posts are overseas. Where are you actually located?

While I Digital Nomad from time to time and serve clients all around the world, I am indeed primarily based in Canberra, Australia. My permanent home is there, and I’m an Australian tax resident. My invoices contain Australian GST tax, which is claimable by Australian businesses where applicable.

I just work remotely sometimes. Don’t let it stop you – I don’t meet most of my clients in person anyway!

Why ‘s your business Japanese-themed? Aren’t you sort of culturally appropriating?

I’ve had a long-held interest in Japanese art and pop culture, which was a major inspiration behind my life steering into the creative arts. The double meaning of paper artwork with graphic design and physically-folded origami is cool. Oh, also I have a Japanese language university major. 言語が話せるんです。これを読んでいるなら、理解できるはずです。

So I feel that I walk the walk. By calling my business Origami Graphics I got to have a cute little bird logo, too. Wins all round.

Are the curls natural?

Yes ma’am.

How did you get into the graphic design industry? Have you got any advice?

I talk a lot about this on my About page, as well as in a few blog posts that I’ve written. You can read those here:

How did I get here? Choosing Graphic and Web Design as a career

What’s it like being an Illustrator? I answer a student’s questions

If you’ve got any other questions, just send me an e-mail and let’s have a chat!