Studio
Terms of Service
The agreement between Brainy Circles OÜ and a client using Studio.
Contents
- Who we are and what Studio is
- How a project starts
- Payment, escrow and our fee
- The money-back guarantee
- Approval and release of funds
- Scope, revisions and out-of-scope work
- Who does the work
- Ownership of the work
- Timelines
- Cancelling a project
- Confidentiality
- What we are not responsible for
- Raising a problem
- Changes to these terms
Who we are and what Studio is#
Studio is operated by Brainy Circles OÜ ("Brainy", "we", "us"). Studio is the platform where a design project is briefed, paid for, reviewed and delivered.
Brainy does two distinct things, and it matters which one applies to your project:
- We run the project. We hold the brief, we bring in the person who does the work, we review it before you see it, and we stay responsible for quality from start to finish.
- We connect you to a designer. The work is done by a member of our creator community. We still review it and stay on quality, but the working relationship is between you and that designer.
Your project confirmation tells you which applies. Unless it says otherwise, we run the project.
How a project starts#
A project starts when all three of these are true:
- You have a written scope in Studio setting out what will be delivered.
- You have paid, and the funds are held (see section 3).
- We have confirmed the project has started, in Studio.
Nothing before that binds either of us. A quote, an estimate or a conversation is not a project.
Payment, escrow and our fee#
Your money is held, not spent
Payment is held against your project and is not released to the person doing the work until you approve it. It is not ours to spend in the meantime, and it is not theirs either.
When you pay
| Project value | How you pay |
|---|---|
| Under $10,000 | In full, up front, before work begins. The whole amount is held. |
| $10,000 and over | A deposit to begin, then by milestone. Each milestone is held on the same terms. |
Our fee
Our fee is 10% of the project value, shown on your invoice and included in the total you pay. It covers running the project: holding your money, matching and vetting the person who does the work, reviewing that work before it reaches you, and staying available throughout.
There are no other fees. We do not charge for revisions inside your agreed rounds, for messages, or for using the platform.
The money-back guarantee#
If we cannot find you the right person, you get everything back
If we cannot match you with a designer that you accept and that we are willing to vouch for, you get a full refund. The entire amount, including our 10% fee. We do not keep anything.
Both halves of that matter. We will not push you towards someone we would not stand behind, and we will not ask you to accept someone you do not want.
How to claim it
Open a support ticket on your project in Studio and ask for the refund (section 13). You do not need to email anyone or explain yourself.
Going through a ticket rather than a message means the request is timestamped, assigned to a person and tracked until the money is back, so it cannot be missed or lost in a conversation. We return the funds to the original payment method.
How long we take
We usually find someone in the first week. Two weeks is the limit. If we have not matched you with a designer you accept within 14 days of your payment clearing, you can take the refund. You can also choose to keep waiting; the decision is yours, not ours.
What you get back
Everything except the card processing fee. Our 10% is returned in full. We keep nothing.
The processing fee is charged by our payment provider when you pay, and it is not returned to us when we refund you, so it cannot be returned to you either. It is roughly 3% of the amount and is shown on your refund. This is the only deduction, and it is not money Brainy receives.
When it applies
- Any time before you approve a designer and work begins.
- It does not apply once work has begun. From that point section 10 applies instead.
Approval and release of funds#
When the work is delivered you review it in Studio. Funds are released to the person who did the work only when you approve. Not before.
If you do not respond to a completed delivery within 14 days, and we have reminded you at least twice in Studio, the delivery is treated as approved and funds are released. This exists so a finished project cannot be left unpaid indefinitely; it is not a way to slip work past you.
Scope, revisions and out-of-scope work#
What is in scope
Your scope is written in Studio before the project starts. It lists what will be delivered and how many rounds of revisions are included. If something is not written there, it is not included.
Revisions
Your included revision rounds are stated in your project. A round is one consolidated set of feedback, not a series of separate changes over several days.
Out-of-scope work
New work is quoted or charged hourly, never absorbed quietly
Anything not defined in the scope at the start is out of scope. If you want it, it is either quoted as an addition or charged at the hourly rate in your project agreement.
How this works in practice:
- We tell you before doing the work that it is out of scope, and what it costs.
- You approve it in Studio.
- It is invoiced separately, on the same terms as everything else.
We will not do out-of-scope work and bill you afterwards, and we will not quietly absorb it either, because absorbed work is how a project stops getting proper attention.
If you think something has been called out of scope wrongly, open a support ticket (section 13) rather than argue it in the project channel. That way the decision and its reason are written down.
The hourly rate for your project is stated in the agreement signed between you and the person doing the work.
Who does the work#
Work may be done by Brainy or by a member of our creator community. Either way we review it before it reaches you and we stay on quality throughout.
You are never handed to someone you have not seen. We show you who we propose, with their work, and you accept or decline.
Ownership of the work#
Full ownership of the final delivered work transfers to you once payment has been released in full.
Until then, the work remains ours. Work in progress, rejected directions and unused concepts are not yours to use.
We may show the finished work in our portfolio and marketing, but not before you launch. Nothing from your project appears anywhere public until your launch date has passed. If your launch moves, tell us and the hold moves with it.
After launch you can still ask us not to show a specific piece, in writing, and we will take it down.
Timelines#
Timelines in your project are our honest estimate, not a guarantee. They assume you respond to questions and reviews within a few working days.
If a deadline is genuinely fixed, it must be written into the scope before the project starts so we can plan for it and price it properly.
Cancelling a project#
Once work has begun, either side can end the project in Studio. What happens to the money:
- Work completed and approved is paid for.
- Work in progress is settled at a fair proportion of what has been done, agreed between us.
- Our 10% fee is not refunded. It paid for matching you, vetting the person, setting the project up and running it, and that work has already happened by the time a project is underway.
- Anything left after those three is returned to you.
Before work begins it is different: section 4 applies, the fee comes back, and the only deduction is the card processing fee.
The short version
No designer matched?
Everything back except the card processing fee.
Cancelled after work started?
You pay for what was done and the 10% fee stays; the rest comes back.
Confidentiality#
We keep your brief, your business information and anything you share confidential. Anyone we bring onto your project is under the same obligation.
This carries on after the project ends.
What we are not responsible for#
- Printing and production. We deliver print-ready files to the specification you give us. We are not responsible for what a printer does with them, and we strongly recommend a physical proof before any production run.
- Trademark and clearance. We do not carry out trademark searches or legal clearance on names, marks or designs unless it is written into your scope. Getting that checked is your responsibility.
- Material you supply. If you give us images, fonts, copy or assets, we assume you have the right to use them.
- Commercial outcomes. We are responsible for the quality of the work, not for how a market responds to it.
Raising a problem#
Problems go through a support ticket, not the project channel
Open a ticket on your project in Studio. The channel is for the work itself, where things move fast and scroll away. A ticket is tracked, assigned to a person, and stays open until it is closed.
Use a ticket for anything that needs resolving rather than discussing: a disagreement about scope, a delivery you do not think matches the brief, a delay, a billing question, or anything you would want a record of.
What happens then:
- It reaches us straight away and is assigned to a person, not a queue nobody owns.
- You get a reply within one working day. That is a reply from a human, not necessarily a resolution.
- Everything stays on the ticket, so there is one thread to read rather than a conversation to reconstruct.
Most problems are a misunderstanding about scope and are settled the same day. Raising one early is always better than raising it late, and it is never taken as a complaint.
If we cannot settle it
If we cannot resolve it between us, these terms are governed by the laws of Estonia, where Brainy Circles OÜ is registered.
Changes to these terms#
We may update these terms. Changes apply to new projects, never retroactively to a project already underway. The terms that apply to your project are the ones in force on the day it started.