Thank you for considering Fisher Agency, located in Jacksonville, FL (Also doing business as Savvy Partner and formerly known as Fisher Design and Advertising) as your design and marketing partner. Working with a new organization sometimes prompts a few questions. Because our customers are important to us, we have addressed some of these questions to give clarity to our process. We know many people don’t have a clue how to work with a marketing firm, advertising agency, website development firm or even a graphic designer. We have put together some things that will alleviate your anxiety.
Working with our Jacksonville-based Marketing Firm
ADVERTISING AGENCY…THE BASICS
After your initial consultation (at no cost) with CEOs Mary Fisher or Erin Gordon, our creative team will assess your marketing needs and present a written estimate. The subjective nature of graphic design/ illustration/writing/web design/logo design does not permit us to give firm bids or quotes. However, we do adhere as closely as possible to this estimate unless the assignment changes or we have gone over the estimated number of alterations. Typically we build in 10% of the job for alterations. So, if we have estimated 10 hours for the assignment, we will give you 1 hour in alterations at no additional charge.
We will try to alert you at the point it is evident that your project will go over the estimate. We base our estimates upon an hourly rate of $150 for design, marketing, and consultation services, which is below the industry standard in our area. Our customers find us to be creative as well as quite efficient with their money.
DEPOSIT
Work proceeds upon receipt of a 50% deposit and signed estimate. Subsequent meetings and client alterations from originally estimated work are considered part of the billable time. If the job takes more than 2 weeks, you will be invoiced for the time spent weekly or biweekly. The balance is due upon completion of the job.
AFTER BEING ASSIGNED THE BUSINESS
After you have decided to work with us, Mary or Erin will introduce you to the team that will be working on your assignment. Many times we will have you come back into the office if this is a website, print job and if you are in town. Feel free to bring a staff member with you. We are interested in scheduling, budget, target audience, specifications and your preferences in style. Bring with you any photos, logos, and text that we need to incorporate into your marketing piece.
ADDITIONAL EXPENSES
Additional expenses may include courier services, copy writing or editing, client alterations over original estimate, photography, and/or illustration. We will try to alert you at the point it is evident that your project will go over the estimate.
INITIAL PROOFS
Creative work cannot always be produced in a flash. We will need to schedule your job into our workflow in an orderly fashion. Depending on the job’s complexity, we normally ask for at least two weeks to turn around the first draft after we have received everything from you. If you have a rush project or tight deadline, we may be able to accommodate you, but keep in mind the pricing may change.
PRINTING
After you have decided to work with us, Mary or Erin will introduce you to the team that will be working on your assignment. Many times we will have you come back into the office if this is a website, print job and if you are in town. Feel free to bring a staff member with you. We are interested in scheduling, budget, target audience, specifications and your preferences in style. Bring with you any photos, logos, and text that we need to incorporate into your marketing piece.
APPROVALS
We try to make certain all information in your job is correct. It is, however, the responsibility of the client to review all material before printing or publishing to verify its accuracy. We want your marketing materials to be perfect, therefore we ask you to take extra time reviewing your proofs.
CONFIDENTIALITY
To protect your intellectual property, we are happy to agree to and/or sign confidentiality agreements with any client.
KILLED JOBS
If you have contracted with us to do a job and midway through the job, you decide to cancel the assignment, you will be responsible for paying Fisher Design for the time put into the job thus far. You will be charged our normal hourly rate for all hours after the initial consultation. The client is financially obligated for all work done, whether or not it is used.
SPEC JOBS
Please do not ask us to do speculative work. The reputation of Fisher Design is solid and our portfolio speaks for itself, allowing the client to decide if Fisher Design is the right agency for the job.
OWNERSHIP
Although the law specifies the rights of the artwork remains with the artists, we want our clients to be the final owners. Therefore, after full payment of the job, the rights of the final files and final product are transferred to you, the client. The only exception is with rights protected and royalty free photography or illustrations which remain with the author. We buy a license to use the photo on your behalf. A copy of your file can be given to you on a CD or a drop box link can be sent. Additionally, should you need your files distributed to other parties over a period of time, we will charge on an hourly basis, accumulating time spent on these tasks until reasonable to bill out.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Two clients in the same category = conflict; three clients in the same category = specialty. We have several specialties: healthcare, professional services, real estate and finance. Designing a logo for one client shall not keep us from developing a logo or website for another client in the same industry. If a client is a substantial piece of business for us, one art director doing the client’s marketing strategy, media buying, graphic design, and website design, shall not work with a competing client with the same marketing requirements simultaneously. We feel strongly about protecting the intellectual property of our clients.
TEAM
Our marketing team is made up of employees and 1099 contractors. Currently, all of our contractors are on long-term assignments with us. We like to keep our work local, predictable and professional. Our creative team does not do work directly with our clients outside of Fisher Design. Please do not put them in a position to respond to these requests.
FEES
In order to keep our prices low, we are charging a 3% credit card handling fee for people who prefer to pay their bills this way. To pay your bills via credit card, go to the bottom of the home page to PAY MY BILL.