Use of Service
(a) Description of the Service. The DesignCrowd Service
is an online offering where individuals or entities that have registered with DesignCrowd
as businesses ("Clients", each a "Client") seeking a design can post specific briefs
("Projects" or "Briefs", each a "Project" or "Brief") and obtain responses (each,
a "Submission" including "Quotes" or "Designs") to those Briefs from designers ("Designers",
each a "Designer") who also use the DesignCrowd Service.
For Designers, the DesignCrowd Service includes the ability to:
-
Create and modify a profile;
-
Submit designs and artwork through the DesignCrowd Site;
-
Submit quotes to Clients through the DesignCrowd Site; and
-
Participate in Design Contest and Freelance Jobprojects.
For Clients, the DesignCrowd Service includes the ability to:
-
Post Projects or Briefs requesting designs (such as logo designs and website designs)
or quotes for designs from third party Designers through the DesignCrowd Site;
-
Purchase
designs from third party designers through the DesignCrowd Site; and
- Commission freelance design work from a specific third
party designer through the DesignCrowd Site.
(b) The Brief and Requirements. Clients are solely responsible for preparing and
posting detailed descriptions of their requirements ("Requirements", each a "Requirement")
in a Brief (either a "Design Contest Open Brief" or a "Freelance Job" Brief) to the
DesignCrowd Site, including providing samples illustrating your requirements, any
relevant deadlines and the amount you wish to pay the Designers for the design (the
"Project Budget"). DesignCrowd may, but is under no obligation, to review
a Brief for accuracy, completeness of information, quality or clarity. DesignCrowd
may decide, in its sole discretion, to deny a Brief from being posted on the DesignCrowd
Site. Clients are required to submit their requirements in the requirements
section of the Brief and classify each as being: Must Have, Should Have or Won't
Have. Designer Submissions are required to meet Must Have requirements that
are specific and can be verified objectively such as colour, text and layout ("Concrete
Requirements").
(c) Project Budgets. For Design Contests, Clients are required
to set a project budget before the project is launched and deposit the full budget
with DesignCrowd. For Freelance Job projects, the project budget is set when
a Client agrees to a quote submitted by a Designer. Clients may increase the
project budget after the project is launched but may not decrease the project budget.
(d) Fees. Clients are required to pay a posting fee to DesignCrowd to launch
Design Contests. Clients' project budgets are not considered Fees
paid to DesignCrowd, but rather payments made to designers. Designers pay commissions
on money earned through the DesignCrowd Site. DesignCrowd will
automatically deduct these Commission Fees from any payment a Designer receives.
Commission Fees will always be less than the total payment amount. View DesignCrowd Fees for the current
Fees and Charges.
(e) Design Contests. Clients may run an Open Brief Design Contest
by posting a Brief (that states a project budget) on the DesignCrowd Site to request
designs from multiple designers. Clients are required to pay a fee (a "Project
Posting Fee") to launch the contest (which may not be refunded) and their specified
project budget up-front (which is generally non-refundable but may be refunded for
the reasons outlined in the Refund Policy section of this User Agreement). Clients can purchase a design by selecting one of the designs submitted to their contest thereby releasing their project budget to the Designer who submitted the design.
(f) Timeframes and Deadlines for Receiving Designs. Upon payment for a project, the project will be launched immediately and published on our website (if the payment has been cleared by one of our trusted third party payment providers). The project will be 'open' for a given timeframe of 5, 10 or 15 days - as determined by the customer. This duration determines how long the customer will receive submissions from designers ("Deadline for Receiving Designs" or "Deadline for Submitting Designs"). These deadlines may be extended
by clients but they cannot be brought forward.
(g) Deadlines for Selecting a Design. For all Freelance Job projects and all
Open Brief Design Contest projects, Clients are required to select a design before
a given date specified by the terms in this agreement (the "Deadline for Selecting
a Design").
Clients are required to select a winning design within 15 days of the Deadline for
Submitting Designs. Clients can receive an extension on the Deadline for Selecting
a Design by extending their Deadline for Submitting Designs where this extension
takes place before the initial Deadline for Submitting Designs. In this case,
Clients will have a new Deadline for Selecting a Design that is 10 days from their
new Deadline for Submitting Designs which cannot be extended. Where the Deadline
for Selecting a Design elapses without a client selecting a design and where the
project budget was submitted upfront, DesignCrowd will award the project budget
to a designer of their choice or may split the project budget between all designers.
If DesignCrowd selects one designer on behalf of the client, the ownership
and copyright and files of those designs will transfer to the Client as they would
if the Client had selected the design themselves.
(h) Guaranteeing project budgets. Clients may choose to notify DesignCrowd that they will commit a design contest and guarantee the payment of their project budget to a designer through DesignCrowd and in doing so waive their right to a refund.
(i) Reviewing Submissions. When Designers provide Clients with Submissions through
the DesignCrowd Site, Clients are responsible for reviewing the Submissions. If
Clients fail to inform DesignCrowd that a particular Submission does not meet their
requirements of their Brief within 7 business days, they will be deemed to have
accepted the Submission.
(j) Revisions. Revisions are defined as: changes in colour, the text content, size,
layout and small modifications to the concept.
For Freelance Job projects, Designers who win a Freelance Job project agree to provide
2 revisions to their initial Submissions, if requested by the Client, unless a different
number of revisions was specified in their quote that was agreed to by the Client.
Clients may request unlimited revisions, but Designers are only obligated to provide
the 2 revisions or the number of revisions agreed to in their winning quote.
Where designer submissions do not match with the 'Concrete' stated requirements
(such as, designers must revise their work until the requirements are matched.
Where Designers do not meet the required number of revisions, they may not receive
payment for their work.
For Design Contests, Clients have the right to request unlimited revisions
and Designers have the right to perform these requested revisions for free as part
of their customer service, but Designers are under no obligation to do so.
A Client may also request major changes but DesignCrowd reserves the right of its
Designers to request payment of a Fee for major changes. Note that requesting
a completely new concept is a major change and is considered a major revision.
No revision work, which requires payment, will be started without the authorisation
of the client.
(k) Resellers. Designers agree that DesignCrowd Clients using DesignCrowd's
white labelling facilities ("Reseller Clients") may be on-selling selected designs
to their own customers.
(l) Should a Client receive a refund, the Client agrees that your acceptance indicates
that you acknowledge that you will have no right (express or implied) to use, or
hold any ownership, of any Submission you received through DesignCrowd.
(m) Service Changes. The Service may be added to or modified by DesignCrowd
in the future without prior notification.
(n) Registration. Joining DesignCrowd is free for
both Designers and Clients.
(o) Contract between Designers and Clients.
Designers and Clients agree to enter into a contract with each other that governs
the originality of work and the transfer of copyright from Designer to Client.
A copy of this contract can be found here: Designer/Client Contract
(p) Intellectual Property and Copyright. Designers
and Clients acknowledge that the ownership of designs and copright in any Design
will be set out in the separate agreement described in clause 6 between the Client
and the Designer.
(q) Service Changes.
The Service may be added to or modified by DesignCrowd in the future without prior
notification.
(r) Ethical use of Design Contests. Clients may only use a Design
Contest where their intention is to purchase a Submission. Clients may not
use Design Contests to generate ideas and use these ideas with no intention to buy
any Submission.
(s) Active Designer Accounts. Designers accounts are considered to be active
within any given calendar month where the Designer submits at least one design to
DesignCrowd.
(t) Abuse of Copyright.
You agree that you will report intellectual property problems, offensive material
or property violations to DesignCrowd. If you believe your rights have been
violated, please email us at copyright@designcrowd.com. Designers agree that
their contact details, identity details may be shared with clients or third parties
if it is deemed that their selected Design abuses the copyright or license of a
third party.
(u) Client contact. Designers agree not to contact Clients outside of DesignCrowd
unless they are invited to by the client.
(v) Non-disclosure agreement. Designers that read or submit to private Briefs
on DesignCrowd acknowledge client's right to privacy and agree not to disclose the
details of the brief or the client to any third party or other Designer or Client
within DesignCrowd.
(w) Withdrawal of Designs. Designers have the right to remove submissions
they have made ("Withdrawal of Designs" each a "Withdrawal of a Design").
Once a Designer has Withdrawn a Design, Clients can no longer view that design in
full or purchase that design.
Refund Policy
For projects posted on or after the 20th May 2010, DesignCrowd's refund policy is as follows:
(a) Design contest refunds - Clients will be eligible for and can request a full refund of their project budget (the amount offered to designers - excluding any posting fees and upgrade fees paid to DesignCrowd) where:
- They request a refund ('Refund Request');
- They have not selected a desgin;
- They have not guaranteed their project budget;
- The Refund Request is made within 30 days of launching their project; and
- The Refund Request is made after the project deadline has ended
(b) Posting fees - Clients will be eligible for and can request a full refund of posting fees and upgrade fees where:
- No
submissions are provided before the project deadline;
- All
the Submissions provided by designer(s) do not meet the Concrete Requirements you
outlined in your brief; and
- All
the Submissions do not meet DesignCrowd’s Minimum Design Standards
(d) Exceptions - Clients will not be eligible for or receive any refund where:
- They have guaranteed their budget at any point during the project;
- They have already selected a winning design; or
- All
the Submissions do not meet DesignCrowd’s Minimum Design Standards
(d) Waiving the right to a refund - Clients may 'guarantee' their project budget at any time, waiving their right to a full refund of their project budget.
(e) Timing - a refund request may be made only after a project's deadline has passed to allow designers time to submit their designs.
(f) Clients will not be eligible for or receive any refund where:
- They have guaranteed their budget at any point during the project; or
- They have already selected a winning design
(g) Freelance jobs - Clients will be eligibile for a full refund of their project budget where:
- No
submissions are provided before the deadline;
- All
the Submissions provided by designer(s) do not meet the Concrete Requirements you
outlined in your brief; and
- All
the Submissions do not meet DesignCrowd’s Minimum Design Standards
For projects posted before the 20th May 2010, refunds will be provided where:
- No
submissions are provided before the deadline;
- All
the Submissions provided by designer(s) do not meet the Concrete Requirements you
outlined in your brief; and
- All
the Submissions do not meet DesignCrowd’s Minimum Design Standards
Submissions
By submitting files
to DesignCrowd, Designers grant DesignCrowd a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free,
transferrable license to use, reproduce, prepare derivative works of and display
the submission in connection with the the Site.
Designers grant Reseller Clients a temporary license for the duration of any DesignCrowd
Project to display any submitted Designs outside of DesignCrowd. Reseller
Clients agree that these Submissions will only be displayed while protected by a
watermark that is automatically applied to Designs by DesignCrowd.
Upon purchasing any Design from DesignCrowd, Clients grant DesignCrowd a worldwide,
non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferrable license to use, reproduce, prepare derivative
works of and display the submission in connection with the the Site.
DesignCrowd will not sell Designer submissions without a Designer's permission.
Any copyright of a Submission, that is held by a Designer, shall remain with the
Designer, unless it is purchased by a Client.
Indemnity
DesignCrowd reserves the right, but not the obligation, to remove, block, not display
and not store any information or materials that we deem to be offensive or inappropriate,
regardless of whether this material is unlawful. DesignCrowd may limit, suspend
or terminate the Service or remove member content and submissions if we think that
they are creating problems, legal liabilities or breaching this User Agreement.
DesignCrowd will have no obligation to monitor submissions to or contributions made
using the Site. However, DesignCrowd its Clients and other members have the right
to monitor these transmissions and postings and report these activities or take
the action as detailed above where the User Agreement or any other policies are
breached.
