Portfolio & Case Study Usage

01 Our default position

Unless you opt out in writing before the project begins, CMYK Ink may use completed work for portfolio, marketing, editorial, educational, and business development purposes. Our portfolio is our marketing, and showing the work helps future clients understand what we do.

02 Where we may show the work

• Our website and portfolio pages.
• Our social media accounts: Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, Behance, Pinterest, and any other channel we maintain.
• Awards submissions and entries.
• Case studies on our site or in pitch documents.
• Educational content: talks, articles, workshops.
• Pitch decks and proposals for prospective clients.
• Print materials and physical promotion.
• Press features and interviews where appropriate.

03 What we may show

• The final designed deliverable.
• Mockups and renders of how the work appears in context.
• Selected process work: sketches, iterations, exploration.
• Before-and-after comparisons.
• Strategy and rationale, where it isn't confidential.
• Production photography and behind-the-scenes content.
• Measurable outcomes only where they're already publicly available or where you've agreed to share them.

04 Timing

We wait until the work is public: the website is live, the campaign has run, the packaging is in stores, the announcement has happened. We don't leak. Exceptions: if you ask us to share earlier; if you ask us to wait longer (an embargo); for award submissions with deadlines, where we'll ask first.

05 Confidential or NDA work

Where confidentiality applies, any combination of: don't publish at all; anonymize (show the design but not the client or industry); delay publication; omit sensitive process materials; omit measurable outcomes. Confidentiality preferences should be in the MSA or a separate NDA, communicated before we begin.

06 Testimonials and quotes

If you give us a testimonial, review, or public quote about our work, we may use it in our marketing unless you tell us otherwise. We may edit for length, clarity, or formatting — we don't change meaning.

07 Credit and collaborators

When a project involves collaborators (photographers, developers, illustrators, partner studios, vendors), we credit them where appropriate. Tell us if there's someone on your side you want credited too.

08 Your opt-out

If you don't want us using your project for any of the above, opt out in writing before we begin. The MSA has a portfolio-rights section with a checkbox for exactly this. Once you opt out, we don't show the work. Opt-outs are project-specific.

09 Removal requests after the fact

If something has been published in our portfolio and you later want it taken down, ask us. We consider reasonable requests case by case. We can usually remove the work from our website portfolio, take down social posts, and stop using the work in future pitches. We may not be able to recall printed materials already distributed, withdraw work from publications or awards we don't control, or unpublish historical archived material on third-party platforms.

10 Ownership of our portfolio rights

Portfolio usage rights do not transfer ownership of the project deliverables (those follow Policy 08) and don't transfer ownership of our internal systems, processes, or methodologies. Those stay ours.