v.2009.04.22

a.k.a. Terms and Conditions of doing business with Nick Zynda Design:  Nick Zynda, designer will herein be referred to as “designer”.  The client, or prospective client, will herein be referred to as “client”.

Client's Bill of Rights

QUOTES

1. The potential client has the right to request and receive a quote for a job.  For the most accurate quote, please collect all materials and send as much information when requesting a quote as you have available.
2. The client has the right to proceed with the job at the quoted price for up to 60 days.  After 60 days, the client must request a new quote from the designer.  The quote does not become an agreement for work until the client pays the 50% deposit.
3. The client has the right to be told if there will be charges in excess of the quoted price.  If the terms of quote change (ie., proofs in excess of those quoted), designer will alert the client that the quoted terms have been used and will request approval to continue with the new terms at the established hourly rate.
4. The client has the right to be told the hourly rate of the designer, in the case of additional billable hours accrued.  This hourly rate will stay true for 90 days from start of job, or until artwork is approved, whichever comes first.  During this period, increased rates will not affect the job, nor will discounted rate offers be applied after the deposit has been paid for a particular job.
5. The client has the right to request an estimated time of completion, never a guarantee, rather an educated determination of time based on average job length.  This estimated timetable will be altered by the following acts of the client: incorrect or insufficient instructions, changes to the original quoted job details, lengthy proof review, excessive proofing due to careless review of proofs, lengthy payment turnaround, or difficulty getting in communication with client.  This timetable can be altered by the designer due to: emergency, illness, unexpected personal engagement, equipment malfunction, digital file error, unexpected workload.  The client may request a revised timetable at any time during the process.
6. The client may request a Non-Disclosure Agreement or Confidentiality Agreement of the designer, but must provide the document, properly worded and in a legible format for the designer to sign and return.  If either document is needed, the designer will request at completion of artwork, or at product launch, to add the artwork to his/her public portfolio.  If the layout is to remain confidential for perpetuity, please disclose this during quoting and the designer will not include the work in his/her public portfolio.
7. The client’s contact information, billing information, and/or personal information not included in the layout/artwork contents will never be shared with or sold to any other party without the permission of the client.  The client’s email address, mailing address, phone or fax number will not be used for any purpose other than job correspondence and the occasional discount/offer by the designer for future work.  The client may at any time request to be removed from discounts/offers sent by the designer by emailing, calling, faxing or mailing the request.

DEPOSIT

1. The client has the right to pay only 50% of the total quoted price for the designer to start work.  The client may pay the entire quoted price if desired for the purpose of streamlining the process. The designer holds the right to charge the entire quoted price up front if the client has demonstrated past difficulty with paying timely, or based on other past negative experience with client.
2. The client can consider the combination of a paid invoice of deposit (or request one if necessary) and the quote based on provided materials as a business agreement.  By paying the deposit, the client agrees to the terms of these two sets of rights or “terms and conditions” for working with the designer.
3. The client has the right to request a refund for the unused portion of the deposit (value of deposit – billable time [at hourly rate] for sketches/roughs, proofs, research, any other time involved in producing the design[s]).  If the entire deposit value has been used there will be no refund, but the sketches and rough proofs may be used by the client.  Final printable artwork will not be provided unless the balance is also paid.
4. The client has the right to pay via personal check (with 4 business days to clear) mailed to the designer, or PayPal.  No work will begin until the funds have been received (and/or clear).  Refunds, if applicable, will be sent as personal check via First Class USPS for deposits by check, PayPal payments will be refunded as a PayPal refund if within 30 days.  If 30 days have passed since payment, refund will be made as personal check via First Class USPS minus PayPal fees.

INSTRUCTIONS & MATERIALS

1. The client has the right to direct the artwork development through email, over the phone, or through the mail.  However this may not include the use of any other business’ artwork or “brand imagery” designed by the designer or other artist, the inclusion of any material that knowingly breaks a law of the United States, or to request that the designer emulate the style of another designer/artist directly without the permission of that designer/artist.  If questionable content is
2.  The client has the right to send reference materials, logos, artwork elements, color samples, and copy to assist the designer in creating the layout desired.  The quality and format of these materials may not be sufficient to use as part of the artwork or may result in additional billable time to reformat or recreate.  Submitting as much material as possible prior to quoting will avoid unexpected additional charges.

PROOFS

1. The client has the right to legible digital proofs (jpeg by default).  If for any reason copy is not legible, please request a higher-quality image.  The designer hold final discretion on proof resolution based on rights-management until final balance is paid.
2. The client has the right to request printed proofs, but must pay the printing and shipping charges.  Please contact the designer to inquire about cost.  These printed proofs will be based on the high-quality, inkjet CMYK printer it is printed from.  Pantones will be represented by the nearest CMYK color.  Colors may differ greatly from the final press that artwork is printed on, if colors need to be specific you will need to provide CMYK values and it is recommended that you request a proof from the print house/press the client intended to print with.
3. The client has the right to review the proof as long as is necessary to insure that they are satisfied with the layout and insure that there are no errors.  If the proofing process exceeds 30 days, the client may be billed for the unpaid balance due for work completed.
4. If there are more revisions needed, and thus proofs in excess of those quoted, the client has the right to be alerted of the additional cost in excess of the original quote to approve prior to increasing the balance due.  If the client does not approve additional proofs, the client must pay the outstanding balance and will receive the last proofed version of the artwork.

BALANCE

1. The client has the right to pay the balance due via personal check (with 4 days clearing) or PayPal.  No final artwork will be transferred until final balance has been received.

FINAL ARTWORK

1. The client has the right to receive the final artwork in print-ready format.  By default, files smaller than 5mb will be emailed, larger files will be uploaded to the designer’s FTP and a link to download will be provided.
2. The client has the right to receive a “physical copy” of the artwork in the form of a CD-R or flash drive, however the media cost and shipping must be paid by client prior to shipment.  This cost is not included in the quoted price unless disclosed at the time of quote request.
3. The client has the right to receive editable artwork to make their own changes/updates in the future.  This may include OpenType/TrueType font files used, but obtaining licensing rights to use these fonts for other work will be the responsibility of the client.  The software needed to edit this file will not be provided, it is the responsibility of the client to obtain this software if the client wishes to edit it themselves.  This editable file will not be supported by the designer, but will be a format that other designers will be able to edit/use.
4. Once the client has paid the entire balance due, the client gains rights to the artwork.  This artwork layout or “look”, illustration(s) and/or logo(s) will not be used for any other clients artwork.  The designer does reserve the right, unless expressly agreed upon at start of work, to use imagery of the layout/artwork for his/her personal portfolio.

Designer’s Bill of Rights

QUOTES

1. Quotes are based on the information provided, but if upon starting the job the terms differ from those quoted, the designer has the right to alert the client of the change and request approval to continue at a revised quoted price.
2. The hourly rate quoted will remain true for 90 days from receipt of deposit, or approval of artwork, whichever comes first.  Discount rates offered after the deposit has been paid will not be applicable for the job in question.
3. The designer may offer discounts for combined jobs in a single transaction.  The designer reserves the right to re-quote the job if any portion of a multi-job is separated, added or subtracted.
4. The designer does not honor quotes made to any other party.  Only quotes sent directly to a client will be honored for a job.  Pricing is effected by current rates at time of quote, exchange rate, time/fees charged by payment method, special requests, combined job discounts, other discount/offer, continued business relationship, and experience with a particular client

DEPOSIT

1. The designer has the right to collect a deposit prior to starting any work.  Once work has been started, only the unused portion of the deposit will be refunded if requested by client.

PROOFS

1. The designer reserves the rights to any artwork produced, including sketches and proofs, until the final balance has been paid upon artwork approval.  It is a violation of intellectual property rights to use the proof artwork for any purpose prior to paying final balance due.
2. The designer has the right to proof artwork in flattened (non-print-ready) format with watermarks or other rights-management devices until balance has been paid in full.
3. The designer has the right to treat proofs (and their approval) as the final say in the life of the job.  The designer does his/her best to incorporate the best, up-to-date information provided, however it is ultimately the client’s responsibility to review the proof(s) for errors and omissions and alert designer prior to completion of job.  Any errors discovered after final approval of artwork will not be adjusted without additional billable hours.

BALANCE

1. The designer has the right to collect the used portion of the quoted price (total minus the deposit) whether or not the final artwork is approved.  This balance is owed the designer for all hours devoted to the job, even if a proof is not approved.  Of course, if a client has approved the proof within the quoted period, this artwork will be transferred upon receipt of this balance.
2. If the client chooses to use PayPal as the method of payment, the designer has the right to charge the client for the additional PayPal transaction fees if more than the 2 payments (deposit and balance) are made by client, or if a partial payment is made.

FINAL ARTWORK

1. The designer has the right to take a client’s official approval from an email as the completion of a job.  The final artwork will be based on the approved proof in a print-ready format
2. If the print house/press operator requirements for the artwork were not provided when the job was originally quoted, the designer has the right to charge for the adjustments required to prepare the artwork per the press/print/format requirements.  All artwork is always prepared to the designer’s best knowledge of press/print/format standards.
3. The designer will not be held to any financial responsibility for incorrect final artwork that has been proofed and approved.  The designer is not responsible for the cost of any printed goods and/or financial business impact that it results in if the client has approved artwork.
4. The designer has the right to charge for tech support to any print shop or press operator if the artwork constrains to the printing requirements provided by the client.  If the print house is unfamiliar with standards of digital design within the last 2 years of artwork completion, the designer will provide a contemporary file, or if necessary, one that is easily exported from the current software version.
5. The designer has the right to charge for media cost and shipping if the client requests a “physical copy” of the artwork on CD-R or flash drive.  These costs will be incurred for each copy that the designer must send to the client.
6. The designer will not be responsible for keeping the final artwork after it has been successfully transferred to the client.  The designer will keep an archive of all finished jobs, but will not be responsible for the failure of this archive or loss of any document after the final artwork files have been transferred to the client.
7. The designer reserves the right to use artwork created as part of portfolio, unless a request otherwise has been made by the client.  This portfolio may take the form of a website or web materials, printed material, or video content.

SUBJECT TO REVISION, CHECK BACK OFTEN