Terms and Conditions of Service

All work is carried out by Small Dog Design on the understanding that the client has agreed to our terms and conditions.

The customer has paid for the rights and usage of the final print or online ready artwork files. All editable electronic working files are the intellectual property of the Small Dog Design and are not included as part of this contract – unless stated in the quote by Small Dog Design. The option for the customer to purchase the working/source files for use outside of North America from Small Dog Design can be negotiated separately at any time.

If a choice of designs is presented and one is chosen for your project, only that solution is deemed to be given by us as fulfilling the contract. All other designs remain the property of Small Dog Design, unless specifically agreed in writing.

At the time of proposal, Small Dog Design will provide the customer with a written estimate or quotation by email. These Terms and Conditions can be read at any time on the Small Dog Design website.

A copy of the written estimate or quotation is to be signed and dated by the customer to indicate acceptance and should be returned to Small Dog Design

Alternatively, the client may send an official purchase order in reply to the estimate or quotation which binds the client to accept our terms and conditions, or an email acknowledging acceptance of the quotation.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Small Dog Design Terms & Conditions are what govern the job, not any conditions on the customer’s purchase order.

Charges for design services to be provided by Small Dog Design will be set out in the written estimate or quotation that is provided to the customer. At the time of the customer’s signed acceptance of this estimate or quotation, indicating acceptance of the Terms & Conditions, a non-refundable payment of 50% of the quoted fee will become immediately due.

Unless agreed otherwise with the Client, all design services require an advance payment of a minimum of fifty (50) percent of the project quotation total before the work commences or is supplied to the Client for review. The remaining fifty (50) percent of the project quotation total will be due upon completion of the work prior to upload to the server or release of materials.

We will supply proofs and PDF files as appropriate for printing, or other graphic files as detailed in the job scope or request.

Charges for design work do not cover the release of our copyright design source files, including but not restrict INDD, PSD, AI, or source files; if the Client requires these files for transfer to an in-house or other designer, they will be subject to a separate quotation or ‘buy-out’ charge.

Charges for any additional services requested during the project that are over and above the estimated time or out of scope, will become fully payable (100% of the quoted amount) at the time of estimate or quotation acceptance.

The customer will be provided with a Proof email, and an invoice prior to final publication/or release of work. At this time the remainder of the amount due will become payable and the customer will also be required to sign and return the Proof Email with a written Approval by email to Small Dog Design.

Any invoice queries must be submitted by email within 14 days of the invoice date.

Payments may be made by cheque, online transfer – Canada only, credit card – Apple Pay, Visa, Mastercard and Discover available in Canada only or outside of Canada through Pay Pal.
(US customers please note Venmo is not available in Canada.)

Publication and/or release of work done by Small Dog Design on behalf of the client, may not take place before cleared funds have been received.

An account shall be considered default if it remains unpaid for 30 days from the date of invoice, or following a returned cheque. Small Dog Design shall be entitled to remove the customer’s material from any and all computer systems, until the amount due has been fully paid. This includes any and all unpaid monies due for services, including, but not limited to, design, sub-contractors, printers, photographers and stock libraries.

Removal of such materials does not relieve the customer of its obligation to pay the due amount.

Customers whose accounts become default agree to pay all Small Dog Design‘s reasonable legal and accounting expenses and third party collection agency fees in the enforcement of the debt and these Terms and Conditions.

By supplying text, images and other data to Small Dog Design for inclusion in the customer’s artwork or other medium, the customer declares that it holds the appropriate copyright and/or trademark permissions. The ownership of such materials will remain with the customer, or rightful copyright or trademark owner.

Any artwork, images, or text supplied and/or designed by Small Dog Design on behalf of the customer, will remain the property of Small Dog Design and/or its suppliers unless otherwise agreed in writing. A licence for use of the copyright material is granted to the customer solely for the project defined in the scope or request and not for any other purpose.

The customer may request in writing from Small Dog Design, the necessary permission to use materials (for which Small Dog Design holds the copyright) in forms other than for which it was originally supplied, and Small Dog Design may, at its discretion, grant this and may charge for the additional usage. Such permission must be obtained in writing before any of the aforesaid artwork, images, text, or other data is used.

Any software, or other third party material used in a digital project remains the property of the creator and any ongoing licence fees or fees for upgrades are the responsibility of the client, not Small Dog Design.

By supplying images, text, or any other data to Small Dog Design, the customer grants Small Dog Design permission to use this material freely in the pursuit of the design.

Should Small Dog Design, or the customer supply an image, text, audio clip or any other file for use in a website, multimedia presentation, print item, exhibition, advertisement or any other medium believing it to be copyright and royalty free, which subsequently emerges to have such copyright or royalty usage limitations, the customer will agree to allow Small Dog Design to remove and/or replace the file on the site.

The customer agrees to fully indemnify and hold Small Dog Design free from harm in any and all claims resulting from the customer in not having obtained all the required copyright, and/or any other necessary permissions.

The customer agrees that changes required over and above the estimated work, or in addition to the agreed scope, or where the client makes changes to the supplied copy or changes required to be carried out after acceptance of the draft design, will be liable to a separate charge.

The customer also agrees that Small Dog Design holds no responsibility for any amendments made by any third party, before or after a design is published.

Any design, copywriting, drawing, idea or code created for the customer by Small Dog Design, or any of its contractors, is licensed for use by the client on a one-time only basis and may not be modified, re-used, or re-distributed in any way or form without the express written consent of Small Dog Design and any of its relevant sub-contractors.

All design work – where there is a risk that another party make a claim, should be registered by the client with the appropriate authorities prior to publishing or first use or searches and legal advice sought as to its use.

Small Dog Design will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from such claims.

Small Dog Design is not responsible for any loss, or consequential loss, non-delivery of products or services, of whatever cause. The customer agrees not to hold Small Dog Design responsible for any such loss or damage.

Any claim against Small Dog Design shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer.

The client agrees to Small Dog Design’s definition of acceptable means of supplying data to the company.

Text is to be supplied to Small Dog Design in electronic format as standard text (.txt), MS Word (.docx) or via e-mail / FTP or shared folder.

Images which are supplied in an electronic format are to be provided in a format as prescribed by Small Dog Design via e-mail / FTP. Images must be of a quality suitable for use without any subsequent image processing, and Small Dog Design will not be held responsible for any image quality which the client later deems to be unacceptable.

Small Dog Design cannot be held responsible for the quality of any images which the client wishes to be scanned from printed materials.

Additional expenses may be incurred for any necessary action, including, but not limited to, photography and art direction, photography searches, media conversion, digital image processing, or data entry services, colour correction and alteration of images.

Any indication given by Small Dog Design of a design project’s duration is to be considered by the customer to be an estimation. Small Dog Design cannot be held responsible for any project over-runs, whatever the cause. Estimated project duration should be deemed to be from the date that cleared funds are received by Small Dog Design for the initial payment or by date confirmed in writing by Small Dog Design.

Small Dog Design considers the design project complete upon receipt of the customer’s signed Approval Form or Sign Off email. Other services such as printing, display panel production, film work, website uploading, publishing etc. either contracted on the client’s behalf constitute a separate project and can be treated as a separate charge.

The customer agrees to tag Small Dog Design on social media when posting finished designs. The customer also agrees to allow Small Dog Design to use any designs in its own publicity and portfolios.

Small Dog Design will not include in its designs, any text, images or other data which it deems to be immoral, offensive, obscene or illegal. All advertising material must conform to all standards laid down by all relevant advertising standards authorities. Small Dog Design also reserves the right to refuse to include submitted material without giving reason. In the situation where any images and/or data that Small Dog Design does include in all good faith, and subsequently discovers is in contravention to such Terms and Conditions, the customer is obliged to allow Small Dog Design to remove the contravention without hindrance, or penalty. Small Dog Design is to be held in no way responsible for any such data being included.

Cancellation of orders may be made initially by telephone contact, or e-mail, however, following this, Small Dog Design will need formal notification in writing to the company’s postal address. The client will then be invoiced for all work completed over and above the non-refundable deposit that will have been made at the time of first ordering. The balance of monies due must be paid within 30 days. Please note: any cancellation which is not formally confirmed in writing and received by Small Dog Design within 14 days of such instruction being issued, will be liable for the full quoted cost of the project.

Small Dog Design makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, for any and all products and/or services that it supplies. Small Dog Design will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from products and/or services it supplies. Small Dog Design is not responsible for any loss, or consequential loss of data, or non-delivery of products or services, of whatever cause. While we take reasonable steps to investigate the materials we recommend, we accept no responsibility for the performance or quality of materials or any consequential loss arising from their failure. The customer agrees not to hold Small Dog Design responsible for any such loss or damage. Any claim against Small Dog Design shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer.

Small Dog Design reserves the right to use the services of sub-contractors, agents and suppliers and any work, content, services and usage is bound by their Terms and Conditions. Small Dog Design will not knowingly perform any actions to contravene these and the client also agrees to be so bound.

Project file(s) retention, upon completion and full payment received of a project and all required deliverables are received by the client, Small Dog Design is not responsible for the archival of project files beyond the duration of the project.

These Terms and Conditions supersede any previous Terms and Conditions distributed in any form. Small Dog Design reserves the right to change any rates and any of the Terms and Conditions at any time and without prior notice.

The placement of an order for design and/or any other services offered by Small Dog Design, by email, verbally or in writing, is deemed to be acceptance of these terms and conditions, which are freely available at www.smalldogdesign.ca.

An estimate validated by the customer’s signature on the estimate or quotation form, or by email, constitutes acceptance of the estimate or quotation and agreement to comply fully with all the Terms and Conditions and forms a Contract for Business between the signatory and Small Dog Design.