1. Booking Projects
Summary: You’re booked in once you agree to your contract and pay your deposit. If you ghost me, I might cancel your job after 3 days.
A project is booked in when the client has agreed in writing to the conditions set forth in their contract (see Section 2 Design Brief and Contract) and paid any required deposit (See Section 11.5 Extra Charges). Origami Graphics may cancel the booking if the client does not reply within 3 days of the booking’s commencement.
2. Design Brief and Contract
Summary: You’re considered booked in once you’ve accepted your contract and paid your deposit. You’ll need to provide me with some personal information so that I can issue those things. If your project is small, your contract might be replaced with an accepted official quote and agreement to these Terms instead of a comprehensive document.
Preliminary stages of design are usually conducted through the development of a design brief and project contract. This involves the designer and client discussing the aims and goals of the project in detail, developing a projected cost for the project, and establishing a deadline – all of which is described in a detailed PDF dossier. In less substantial projects or in ongoing work, an accepted quote with deadline, accompanied by these Terms and Conditions, may form the contract in place of the full document.
2.1 Acceptance: Acceptance of the terms set out in the contract, including agreement to these Terms and Conditions, is acceptance of a legally binding contract to finish your project.
2.2. Privacy: Drafting a contract involves the collection of some personal information including contact details. These are kept confidential and only used for communicative and project development purposes e.g. sending your files to you. For more information on privacy, see Origami’s Privacy Policy.
2.3. Failure to Agree: Failure to agree to the terms set out in the contract, including acceptance of the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, will result in negotiation to reach a solution. If negotiation is unsuccessful the project may be terminated.
3. Sending Your Files
Summary: Please don’t send me blurry photos or documents I can’t edit.
Origami Graphics kindly requests that text files sent to it for use in publications are Microsoft Word files (.doc, .docx). Any images sent to Origami by the client must be an appropriate resolution – make sure images intended for print are 300dpi and images intended for web are at least 72dpi.
4. Communication
Summary: I work online and usually talk to clients by email, phone and Zoom, but if you’re a Canberra local or I’m in your area we can get coffee.
The bulk of Origami’s communication will take place over e-mail and/or phone, with drafts delivered by email. Clients from Canberra are welcome to organise face-to-face meetings. You may elect a preferred form of primary communication prior to starting the project.
Clients are also expected to be available to give regular, timely and consistent feedback to their design drafts when asked and to cooperate with all reasonable requests by the designer to promote a smooth and orderly workflow.
5. Safe Work Policy
Summary: This is my code of conduct. If you violate it, you may be asked to leave without a refund.
Everyone has the right to feel safe and respected at work. It is expected that clients behave in a way which is professional and respectful at all times.
Accordingly, the following behaviours are considered to be violations of your contract justifying immediate project termination and potential forfeiture of deposit:
- Abusive or demeaning speech, including overt insults, harassment, or threats to the designer.
- Displaying behaviours which would be reasonably considered racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory.
- Actual or reasonably suspected criminal client behaviour which relates to your design project, including use of your business and design collateral to facilitate activities such as fraud, terrorism, or unlawful human or animal abuse. Note that clients whose projects are cancelled for this reason will be immediately reported to police.
6. Project Termination
Summary: Once you’re booked in, you can cancel anytime but you won’t get your deposit back unless required by law. You may also be liable for further charges if I’ve done more work than you’ve paid for yet.
Either party may terminate (cancel) this project at any time and for any reason, provided the deadline has not passed. If you cancel, you are financially liable to Origami Graphics for payment of all work completed, plus a 15% cancellation surcharge to compensate the designer for the lost booking. If the value of any deposit paid already covers this combined amount, then you will not be required to make any further payment.
If the designer is forced to cancel the project for any reason, internal or extenuating, you remain equally liable to pay for all completed work, but with the following exceptions:
a) There will be no cancellation fee.
b) Your deposit will be refunded less any outstanding amount, IF the project was terminated by the designer because of circumstances outside client control (eg. designer illness).
Note that project deposits remain completely non-refundable when projects are terminated either by client decision, or by the designer if citing client breach of contract as the reason for the termination.
7. Project Responsibility and Third-Party Actions
Summary: I have no control over your actions and over the actions of third parties, so I can’t be held responsible for those things.
While utmost care for your project will be taken during the time that you are engaged in work with me, no responsibility will be taken by the designer, financial, legal or otherwise, for errors or events out of their control. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Errors found once a design has been approved by a client. This includes spelling errors and low-resolution photos provided by the client.
- Errors or damage during printing and delivery which has been conducted by a third party.
- Client losses suffered through third-party events such as website server downtime, third-party security breaches, and/or discontinuation of services or software provided by a third party. These third parties may include website hosts, website building companies, website plugin developers, and/or design or publishing software companies.
- Website issues or breaches which occur because you have not taken reasonable steps to keep your website secured and regularly updated, or which occur because you have not paid the designer or another web developer to keep your website regularly updated.
- Unauthorised use of copyrighted content by the client. Please ensure you have the legal rights to use anything you send Origami Graphics for production.
8. Final Design Files
Summary: You’ll get a big folder full of design files. If your project was a website, you’ll get access to and ownership of the website. I’ll also keep copies of your work forever as a backup unless requested otherwise.
Final design files will be sent to you in a zipped (compressed) folder electronically or delivered via a cloud services such as Dropbox, whichever is most suitable for you. Provided files may include .png and .jpeg images, .eps, .ai and .psd documents, and .pdf documents. Websites are delivered as online products, to which you will have an account for access, editing, administration, and maintaining ownership.
Origami Graphics retains copies of original files indefinitely unless requested by you to destroy them, so feel free to get in touch if you require alterations in the future.
9. Licensing
Summary: You own your files once I deliver them to you, but I need to be credited as the creator. This might mean you have to pay royalties if you’re profiting by selling the design I made for you. You also won’t own any concepts that you rejected.
Upon the delivery of your design files, Origami grants you, the client, exclusive, worldwide of those files, including editable source files, with the exception of Origami Graphics, which retains the following rights:
- The right to be asserted as the creator of the graphic designs, alongside negotiated royalty payments in situations where ongoing profit is made primarily from the sale of those designs (eg. a picture book, a t-shirt with prominently featured logo);
- The right to keep and use copies of the final designs in its portfolio for promotional purposes. You may elect to have personal or contact details removed from these files.
- The right to ownership of designs and concepts which the client has rejected and which as a result were not delivered as part of the final product.
10. Printing
Summary: Printing is generally not included unless you ask for it. If you do, I’ll manage it for you for a small fee and add the costs to your invoice.
You may elect to handle printing yourself or have Origami organise it on your behalf. The designer will choose a printer based on the service deemed most appropriate for project needs. Printing fees apply equivalent to the cost of printing and postage plus a consultation and management fee (approx. $85-$170; 1-2 hours). Printing costs will be added to the invoice and must be paid before printing commences.
11. Payment and Invoicing
Summary: I reserve the right to charge a nonrefundable deposit of up to 50%. I charge $100 an hour unless otherwise discussed. I take electronic payments only, processed by PayPal and the involved banks. Payment will be late after 7 days of invoicing and I may take you to court if you don’t pay. You also won’t get your final files until you pay. Finally, may have to pay for necessary third-party costs like website hosting or domain registration for your own business on top of your design fees.
11.1 Payment Methods: Payment is conducted through PayPal and bank transfer. Origami Graphics accepts all major credit cards through this secure portal.
11.2 Fees: Unless a custom or express rate has been negotiated, payment is calculated by multiplying anticipated project completion time by $100.00 per hour, GST inclusive.
11.3 Invoicing: The projected invoice is included in the initial design brief and will be approved by the client before going ahead with the project. A final invoice is sent at conclusion.
11.4 Payment Deadline: Payment will be late after 7 days of final invoicing. Final, high-quality design files will not be sent to you until payment is received, and you will not receive access to online assets such as websites until payment is made. Once your payment has cleared via PayPal (instant) or in my bank account (allow several working days), a receipt will be issued and ownership of design files and access will be transferred to you.
Unpaid invoices are theft and are subject to legal action by the designer. It is the client’s responsibility to make sure all banking details are correct before transferring funds. Origami Graphics takes no responsibility for lost funds due to an incorrect transaction and the full amount owed must still be paid. If work remains outstanding for payment after 30 days of invoice issue, your design assets may be discarded and your website/s taken down.
11.5 Extra Charges: Origami reserves the right to charge a nonrefundable deposit of up to 50% of the total projected fee prior to the commencement of a project in order to secure the booking. Additional fees created after projection will be negotiated based on the time requirements of the additional project components. These additions will be added to the final invoice following client approval.
Some projects may also require payment of third-party fees, such as website hosting. By committing to work with Origami Graphics you agree that sometimes your project may entail paying third party fees necessary to the conduct of the service, and you agree to abide by that third party’s own Terms in doing so.
12. Late Fees
Summary: If you ghost me throughout our design project, you will get smacked with a fat late fee to compensate me and the clients waiting after you for the undue delay.
Origami Graphics takes deadlines seriously and meets them consistently. I recognise that they are important in building trust and helping business to flow smoothly, and pride myself on my ability to complete quick and high-quality work.
However, it is also essential that the client communicates in a prompt manner to avoid delays. When you book, time is plotted out for you and delaying progress – for example, failing to write copy on time or replying unreasonably slowly – can cause substantial income loss and interrupt the clients whose bookings follow yours. As a result, a late fee surcharge is applicable to projects delayed past deadline through no fault of the designer, as follows:
3 days late: 5%
1 week late: 10%
2 weeks late: 20%
3 weeks or more late: 30%
These percentages are proportional to the value of your entire booked project. A 2-week late fee on a $4000 project, for example, will be $800 GST inclusive bringing the final amount payable to $4800.
It is important to note that late fees are intentionally high in order to discourage unexplained lateness and/or repeated and unreasonable delay which seriously impacts my business and my other clients. These fees are not intended to punish clients who have genuinely experienced unforeseen circumstances and have let me know that they are having trouble committing time to the work. As a result, late fee surcharges may be waived in exceptional circumstances, or if you communicate well ahead of time that you need a deadline extension – just chat to me and let me know!
13. Refunds and Revisions
Summary: You’re protected by Australian law and are entitled to a refund or revision if the quality of your design work is objectively lower than it reasonably should be. Change of mind, preference or opinion doesn’t count as low quality, especially if you’ve already made revisions.
Origami Graphics complies with Australian consumer law. Accordingly, you are entitled to a refund or revision of your files if they have a major problem. More information on what constitutes a major problem and what you are entitled to can be found on the ACCC website. Change of mind is not a valid reason for refund.
https://www.accc.gov.au/
