GENERAL
QUERIES
Of course! As much as we try to provide you with a very minimalistic lingo and an uncluttered layout, sometimes a lot of information at once can become confusing. Schedule a 30-minute live and free appointment with us via our Calendly App, and allow us to enlighten you. Or you can always feed your curiosity and see if we are a fit.
Although we use a variety of applications and software to facilitate communication with you, our main way of keeping in touch is by email at [email protected]. Provided that our task and time management apps, as well as online payment systems, are all linked to our email, we can keep track of any processes at hand thoroughly and so can you.
We do not take into account any project requests forwarded via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram or any social media-related apps. Certain modifications (at our discretion) made via phone calls also need to be forwarded by email.
All final artworks will be unanimously sent via email (unlocked promptly after payment has been processed from Bonsai) to stick to a clean process and observe our strict quality standard policy.
In today’s era with all the mind-blowing technological advancement, being “unreachable” is almost impossible. We always have a Plan C to Plan A no matter what. However, every so often we do need days off and whenever we zone out we always make sure that you are aware of when we are setting off and coming back by sending you a communication a month in advance for you to plan accordingly.
Our terms and conditions do not require a signature or official stamp, unlike our quotes and invoices. They are what we call “a gentleman’s agreement” between two organisations and mainly represent a set of guidelines that we follow in order to keep things clean and tidy during our collaboration(s). Freedom Creative Studio Ltd reserves the right to interrupt a collaboration at any moment without justification, should the need arise for various reasons may them be inappropriate or unfair. We often attach them to our initial quote and require you to go through them thoroughly before going forward with any deals or projects.
The document is available in 2 formats:
• A detailed version,
• A basic version (for last-minute requests, although we recommend going through the detailed version afterwards).
However, should your organisation require a signed copy of our agreements, kindly send us a communication and we will do the necessary in providing you with said document.
While our director, Dominique Paul, is fluent in French and Mauritian Creole (his mother tongue) both spoken and written, our main language to interact with you will be English. All our emails, newsletters, messages and other communications will follow the same tone of voice which is friendly, uplifting, approachable and straightforward.
Unless you cannot communicate in English, we will swap to our second language which will be French or use a translator from your language to English and expect you to do the same should you really want to work with us; after all, it takes two people to make a collaboration work. No communications will be made using Mauritian slang or Mauritian Creole.
Also, kindly note that we follow a strict code of conduct when communicating with you and look forward for you to honour the same. Slang language, offensive words, unkind behaviour, rudeness, arrogance and foul language will immediately result in a first warning followed by the termination of the collaboration if any of the inappropriate misconduct doesn’t cease. The goal is to make everyone feel comfortable which often leads to a successful endeavour from past experiences.
Shortly said, communicate with respect.
As much as we try to keep things transparent, we do need to have a certain level of privacy. You can find everything you need in regards to our servers, web host and other privacy settings by going on our Privacy Policy page or by contacting us at [email protected], should you need more insight or a better understanding of how we safely manage your data.
Stemming from our love for art, gaming, music and travelling, our sub-concepts play a big part in making Freedom Creative Studio what it is today. Created by our team as a means to showcase our daily lifestyle and get you involved in it, Freedom Sessions is our music-fuelled segment, Freedom Journeys is about our adventures and travel vlogs, Freedom Arcades regroups our golden finds in the gaming/entertainment world and last but not least, ‘The Brainstalking Sesh’, where we get to casually chat during 30 minutes, although it usually takes just under 5 minutes to connect to someone.
TIME
FRAMES
We already work with a catalogue of organisations and people from around the world and have had zero issues. Following the work plan is one way of doing it and keeping in touch at all times is another; both combined, we make sure that no matter where we are, the workflow stays uninterrupted. Our team of professionals will assist you and never bail on you.
The duration of a project depends on how big the actual project is. A small project, a bi-fold brochure design for example, will take approximately 2-3 business days until final delivery is completed, whereas a complete branding, considered as a big project, can take up to 2 months to be entirely approved and completed. It all depends on how fast the back and forth as well as admin processes will take. Allowing a time period of 2 weeks before the actual deadline is commonly advised, therefore avoiding any issues or missing an important deadline.
We also kindly ask our clients to bear in mind that we also work on other projects simultaneously and that missing deadlines on their end or coming at the last minute, will either result in us not being able to take the project or being charged an extra rush fee on top of the total amount of the requested job.
We do not work during weekends or public holidays and do not expect you to do the same. Although we always communicate our availability beforehand if we take some time off, you can also find our hours of work on our stalk us page or social media pages. However, if it still happens that you need us for an emergency, take into account that an additional rush fee will be charged to your final invoice on top of the total amount.
ORDERS &
PAYMENTS
Our price list is an internal documentation that only our staff members and collaborators have access to. We provide you with a Pricing Guide which has very often proved to be useful for you to know what is it you really need, and us to charge you righteously.
Once you have chosen what fits your needs and we have received your RFP (Request for Proposal) via email, we will reply back with a quote detailing what you are paying for as well as any other information worth knowing before your investment.
You can send us an email directly with your request and contact details at [email protected], check out our Pricing Guide page or simply get in touch by selecting the subject of your email provided via our ‘I Need A Chat’ section below.
After replying to your email and arranging a meeting where we can discuss everything, your tailored quote will have to be validated which will be followed by an invoice sent to you via Bonsai, our online secure accounting system. A downpayment must be carried forth before starting any projects and full payment processed to unlock any finals and therefore deliveries. You can find our bank details via our billing info page.
Currently, Freedom Creative Studio Ltd accepts business checks, personal checks, VISA, Mastercard, Paypal, cash and direct bank transfers. We mainly charge in British Pound Sterling (GBP – £), US Dollars (USD – $) and Mauritian Rupees (MUR – Rs.) via our secured online payment system, Bonsai. You can choose your payment method and do the necessary.
Kindly note that any banking and taxation charges will automatically be added to your final invoice, based on the current exchange rate.
Depending on your budget and what you are looking to get from what you want to invest, we are quite adaptable. However, we will not lower our prices and the standards of our products as well as services to accommodate your budget. We will instead work around it and find potential solutions while keeping it transparent. In the end, we should both should benefit from our collaboration afterall.
Trust is something that is built and earned. We stay loyal to our clients and them to us, because providing a good, trustworthy and consistent service is what fuels us to keep going. The awesome work that we have done with our one-offs and recurrent clients shows proof and their reviews on our ‘The Studio’ section speaks levels about the kind of credibility we emanate.
While we are very flexible when it comes to payment methods or putting a payment plan in place to facilitate you, we however stay very strict when it comes to our policies. We usually take a downpayment of half of the total amount and segment the rest of the project which makes the process easier on both of our sides – us for the design part and you for the payment part.
Just like we respect your projects’ delivery dates, we expect you to closely observe our payment deadlines. We work hard to provide you with the best experience possible and, therefore, love for the people we collaborate with to match this same energy when it comes to remunerating us back.
Our payment processes work as such:
50% upfront downpayment to start the project in itself which happens right after the closing-deal meeting ends followed by the invoice of what we discussed. Depending on how big your project is, we will either break down the remaining 50% in half or charge you the full amount at the end of the project’s cycle. The final link(s) will be uploaded on our payment system application Bonsai, where you will be able to unlock it by purchasing the project together with their full rights.
Our policy, unless discussed during quote and contract settlements, demands that payment be made within 7 days of final project approval. Should you miss a payment deadline without warning us via email communications solely 3 days prior to the payment deadline, a 10% late fee will be added to the invoice’s total the day after the due date has passed, then every month thereafter.
If after 30 consecutive days, or 1 month, no payments have been received therefore leaving your project on our servers, we reserve the right to cancel any other ongoing subscription you have with us and archive anything we have previously worked on for you and your organisation. We will not be held accountable for not keeping a copy of your files.
be made at the expense
of our home.
DELIVERIES
We usually ask for a 5-business-day delay for the finalisation of a small project and therefore meet the deadline. However, bear in mind that the bigger the project the longer the processes. If verifications are made and approvals given in a quick manner, the design process will follow the pace. Simply put, we try our utter best to meet your deadlines but do not take accountability if you are not respecting the laid out and discussed schedule.
At Freedom Creative Studio, being an eco-conscious organisation, we make sure that almost all of our deliveries consume as less as possible, if even nothing, from the environment. Therefore, unless specified and charged accordingly, all of our deliveries will be made via email, dropbox and other paperless means of communication. You will be provided with a link (unlocked upon payment from our secured payment gateway, Bonsai) granting you full access to a complete folder containing a copy of all your files, previously discussed and requested formats:
Your final files (.jpg / .pdf etc.)
Any source files (.tiff / .gif / .svg / .png / .eps etc.)
Any unflattened or flattened designer files (.psd / .ai / .indd etc.)
Any downloaded or purchased files, plugins, templates or documents including copyright licensing should any be involved.
Once our invoices have been paid in full and delivery has been fulfilled by us, you own everything including any copyright. What you do next is entirely up to you making you solely responsible for the products and services approved that we have initially delivered to you.
Copyright and approved imageries are yours upon receipt of final payment.
We do, however, reserve the right to use any final artworks for promotional purposes solely, only if we have worked on them. However, rest assured that we will never post anything until you have launched your project first.
Should you decide to opt-out from wanting your project to be advertised on our socials and website, please kindly specify this detail during the admin stage (contract discussion, signing, quoting/invoicing etc.) of our collaboration and the necessary will be made.
Despite the fact that we design brochures, flyers, magazines or other media for printing as per our clients’ request(s), we try our best wherever and whenever we can to digitalise everything when it comes to our studio. We lead an eco-sustainable lifestyle as it is of utter importance to us to contribute to saving the planet by protecting the environment and doing other small actions that contribute to the bigger picture, ‘For A Better Tomorrow’.
Our quotes, invoices, receipts, presentations and other documents are all forwarded to you by email as well as your own files. We package everything in high and on-screen quality, which you can find at the bottom of your invoices via a link or delivered by email. We create a folder system for each of your files containing your finals in the desired/discussed formats and their source/designer files.
Should you want a hard copy of your files delivered to you by post or in-person via USB or involving paper and printing services, kindly acknowledge that an additional cost for these services and transportation (if applied) will be incurred and added to your total amount. Although we advise going digital for many advantages, please specify this during the admin procedures of our collaboration.
DESIGN
PROCESSES
During our initial meeting, we first begin by understanding the history of your brand and what is it you had in mind – why you hired us.
After this brainstorming process where we hope your ideas would have been further funnelled down, we will ask you to provide us with a detailed brief. In this email, we ask for samples of existing logos, colours, directions and anything that you like or dislike to get an idea of your taste – call it inspiration.
From there, our design process starts leading to a thorough development from 3 chosen ideas, finalisation of the identity and brand world construction as well as applications on any discussed collaterals.
Usually, some of our previous clients already had a design concept in mind. Other times, they had no idea whatsoever of what they wanted. Either way, we make sure we have collected enough information before we begin anything.
Should you request to see extra concepts after our 3 initial ideas or if you just need some more logo designs for multiple companies, our services can be priced according to your needs anytime.
Our processes will be communicated to you during our first meeting and forwarded via email after any contracts and quotes have been signed as well as downpayment taken care of. We usually use tools like ClickUp and Slack where we will add you for free, for you to have a proper follow-up and monitor everything at any time in real-time in the comfort and ease of your home or wherever you are.
Most of the time things work out as we give our clients and collaborators ‘la crème de la crème’. But sometimes it may occur that once in a while some things get lost in the process. Although we do try our best to overcome those barriers, we still cannot please everyone.
We offer you, the client, 3 revisions per collateral depending on the nature of your project. We keep in touch with you throughout each stage of our design process as we like to involve you in the behind-the-scene schematics. If at any given point you feel that some things aren’t right, we can always modify them or start from scratch.
However, if by the end of the project you decide that you don’t like anything, you will still be charged for the hours spent on the project and refunded the remaining amount.
Should you pay us in advance and later decide to cancel your collaboration with us, a service fee will be deducted and the remaining amount refunded back to you.
We make our workplace as peaceful and welcoming as we can. Race, colour, religion, sexual orientation and whatever makes you who are you are embraced and valued at Freedom Creative Studio. However, as open-minded as we can be, communication is sometimes the key element to resolving any misunderstandings.
If by any chance you still feel uncomfortable and want to terminate any collaborations present or future, kindly send us an email at [email protected] stating a valid reason for your decision, and we will wrap up everything we have worked on and been paid for in one folder to be forwarded to you. You will have a 7-day grace period to download all your files which will then be archived from our servers.
Should you decide to not specify your reason, we reserve the right to close your account, and deduct the sum based on what we have completed from the total amount which will be rewired using your same method of payment leading to the prompt archiving of your project(s).
PARTNERS,
COLLABS
& SPONSORS
The simple answer is NO.
Freedom Creative Studio is a design agency on its own, whereas Fourlines Design Studio is a worldwide collective regrouping several design agencies under one brand. Dominique Paul, founder of Freedom Creative Studio, is however a co-founder of the Fourlines Design Studio eco-initiative together with Xavier Coiffic, Fernando Kylas and Alexandra Ribet. Backed up by a solid team of experts growing by the minute, we are more than happy to help you find the right solutions and fits by assisting you from start to finish, therefore seeing your projects to perfect completion.
We also recommend professional services, like printing, architecture, interior and exterior decoration amongst others, but are not responsible for the services and prices you are being quoted for by them. We leave it to you to make the final decisions.
Although we are very resourceful, our collaborators are often a very big part of our design processes. They come up with solutions and specific sets of skills that we sometimes lack in our repertoire and, therefore, add up to the success of your projects.
Our partners collaborate with us and we fully entrust them with you and vice versa. We only act as a bridge which links you to them, and once you feel comfortable enough, we always stay in the background monitoring to let them have their spotlight moment to provide you with the best outcome.
We are very flexible and adaptable when it comes to our payments, as long as the deadlines are respected. You can choose to pay for each service individually, therefore, paying each supplier you have collaborated with directly, or you can pay us the totality thus including the amount of our invoice plus the amount quoted to you by our suppliers filed under one single invoice, and we will take care of the rest.
Backed up by a solid team of creatives, we are more than capable of handling your requests and projects providing you with quality content in a solution-oriented environment.
Just like any other client, our collaboration will start with an introductory meeting followed by an email featuring a detailed scope of work that you expect from us. We will then customise your experience and provide you with our prices, charged on an hourly basis, together with a copious list of services which can you choose from. Once your option is selected, an account will be created for you on our database as well as payment system, and each month an invoice will be emailed to you 14 days prior to the payment deadline date of your choosing.
All the hours of work will be totalised and appear on ClickUp, our time management application, which you will have access to anytime for free. The same hourly amount will be charged to your final invoice if your projects exceed the time option initially allocated.
Should you fail to pay for an invoice on your selected payment deadline date, services will be ceased (at our discretion) until payment is completed. A 10% late fee will be added to the invoice’s total the day after the due date has passed, then every month thereafter.
If after 30 consecutive days, or 1 month, no payments have been received, we reserve the right to cancel any other ongoing subscription you have with us and archive anything we have previously worked on for you and your organisation until further notice.
We consider each member of our team a friend as we do spend 8 hours a day, if not even more, together. We take care of our own no matter what, making loyalty and trust two of our most valuable cornerstones when it comes to our connections.
If you think you have what it takes to be a part of our squad may it be to collaborate, work with us or sponsor us, feel free to reach us at [email protected] or simply get in touch with us by selecting the subject of your email provided via our ‘I Need A Chat’ section below. The more the merrier!
NEED A CHAT ?
Ascend To Freedom
