in the kettlebird brief, what happens if they cancel after the sketches are approved

kettlebird brief. kickoff is thurs 9/18 at the roastery

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KETTLEBIRD COFFEE ROASTERS — BAG ILLUSTRATION BRIEF
Prepared by Rashid Darwish with Bex Thao (design). Version 2, September 5, 2025.

1. WHO WE ARE
Kettlebird is a small roaster in Northeast Minneapolis. We started in 2017 in a shared kitchen and moved to our own roastery on Tallow Street in 2021. We roast about 900 pounds a week and sell to eleven cafes, four grocery co-ops, and through our own subscription. Our customers are people who like good coffee and do not want a lecture about it.

2. WHY WE ARE DOING THIS
Our current bags are plain kraft with a rubber-stamped logo and a sticker for the coffee's name. We like how honest they are. We do not like that on a shelf every bag looks the same, and that customers tell us they "buy the one with the green sticker." We want each coffee to have its own face while the whole line still looks like one family.

3. THE IDEA
Every coffee is named for a bird. This was an accident (the first blend was called Loon because of a joke about the roaster's laugh) and then it became the system. We want one illustrated bird per coffee, drawn the way a field guide would draw it: accurate, calm, observed. Not a cartoon, not a mascot. If a birder picked up the bag we want them to nod.

4. THE EIGHT COFFEES
Year-round:
- Loon — house blend, dark roast. Our best seller.
- Chickadee — breakfast blend, medium.
- Junco — decaf, Mexico Chiapas.
Single origins (these rotate but the names stay with the origin):
- Kingfisher — Ethiopia Guji, natural process.
- Nuthatch — Colombia Huila.
- Waxwing — Guatemala Huehuetenango.
- Killdeer — Kenya Nyeri.
- Bittern — Sumatra, wet-hulled.
We may add a ninth in spring (holiday or seasonal). That would be a separate conversation and a separate fee.

5. WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU
- Eight bird illustrations, one per coffee.
- Each bird shown whole, in a natural posture, with a small amount of habitat (a branch, reeds, a waterline). No backgrounds that fill the frame.
- Somewhere in each illustration, a kettle. Small, hidden, findable. A shape in the reeds, the curve of a branch. We want people to look for it. Do not make it obvious and do not put it in the same place twice.
- A label layout template that Bex can use to set the type, so that the bird, the name, the origin and the roast notes sit in the same relationship on every bag.

6. WHAT WE DO NOT WANT
- No steam swirls. No coffee beans as eyes, eggs, or anything else. No birds holding cups.
- No hand-lettering of the coffee names; Bex is setting those in our typeface.
- No gradients or fine tone that will not survive our printer (see 8).

7. HOW IT SHOULD FEEL
We keep three books on the cupping table and we would like the bags to belong on the same shelf: a 1950s pocket field guide with the plates slightly out of register, a seed catalogue from the 1920s, and a book of Japanese woodblock prints of birds that Tomas will not let anyone borrow. What they share is restraint. One bird, drawn by someone who watched it for a long time, with a little air around it.
A few things that matter to us more than they probably should:
- The eye. If the eye is right the bird is alive. If the eye is a dot, it is a logo.
- Feet on something. No floating birds. Even the Loon should sit in its water.
- Each bird should be doing what that bird does, not posing. The Nuthatch goes down the trunk head first. The Killdeer runs and stops. The Bittern points its bill at the sky and pretends to be a reed.
- Scale should feel true across the line. The Chickadee should not be drawn as large in its frame as the Loon is in its frame. We know this makes the small birds harder. We think it is worth it.

8. PRINT SPECIFICATIONS
- Label size 4 x 6 inches, portrait, applied to the front of a 12 oz kraft bag. Illustration area is the top 4 x 3.75 inches; the rest is type.
- Two-colour printing on uncoated label stock: black plus one spot colour per coffee. Bex will supply the eight spot colours (Pantone uncoated) before sketches begin.
- Line weights no thinner than 0.5 pt at final size. Uncoated stock spreads.
- Final art delivered as layered files with black and spot colour on separate layers, at 1200 dpi bitmap or vector. Our printer is Pressroom North and Bex will send their template.

9. TIMELINE
- September 18: kickoff meeting at the roastery, 10 am.
- October 3: pencil sketches of all eight birds.
- October 17: revised sketches, one round of changes included.
- November 14: final art for all eight, plus the layout template.
- First week of December: bags print, in time for holiday orders.
If any of these dates do not work, tell us at the kickoff and not in November.

10. BUDGET AND PAYMENT
- Eight illustrations at $450 each: $3,600.
- Label layout template: $600.
- Total: $4,200.
- Half ($2,100) on signing, half ($2,100) on delivery of final art. We pay by bank transfer within five business days of your invoice.
- Two rounds of revisions are included: one at sketch stage, one at final. Beyond that we pay your hourly rate.

11. APPROVALS
Rashid signs off on sketches and on finals. Nobody else's opinion is binding, including Tomas's, including Rashid's mother's. Sign-off is by email so there is a record. If we have not answered within three business days of you sending something, chase us; the delay is ours and the later dates move by the same number of days.

12. IF THINGS CHANGE
If we cancel after sketches are approved, we pay for the sketches at half the illustration fee for each bird sketched and you keep the deposit. If we cancel after finals are delivered, we pay in full. If you cannot finish for any reason, tell us as early as you can, return the unearned part of the deposit, and we will part as friends. If we drop a coffee from the line, the fee for that bird is still owed once its sketch has been approved.

13. USAGE
We are asking for the right to use the illustrations on our packaging, website, wholesale materials and social media for as long as we sell the coffee, and on merchandise (shirts, mugs, tote bags) up to 500 units per design. If something sells past 500 we come back to you and agree a royalty. You keep the originals, you can show the work in your portfolio once the bags are out, and you can sell prints of the birds as long as our name and the hidden kettle are not on them.

14. CREDIT
Your name goes on the bottom seal of every bag ("Bird drawn by ...") and on the page of our website that tells the story of each coffee. Tell us how you want it written. We will tag you when we announce the new bags and we would be glad for you to post process drawings after the launch date, not before.

15. WHO TO TALK TO
Rashid for anything about money, dates or what the bird should be doing. Bex (bex@kettlebird.example) for anything about files, colours or the printer. Tomas, our head roaster, has opinions about the birds and will share them whether or not you ask.

We found you through the heron print at open studios. That is the level of looking we want.
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need a bigger canvas than the laptop + wacom for 1200dpi line work. ipad??