|  |  |  | | | |  | |  | | I already buy art from other agencies. Why should I try Zymmetrical?
| We've got a knowledgeable and enthusiastic Editorial team, flexible and fair pricing (as set by our Artists), and an effective search flow and site layout. By leveraging the latest web technologies and concepts in stock, we allow buyers to find the files they need faster.
Our Fair Trade business model also ensures sustainability: the producers of the content that we sell need to be compensated in a fair way for their work, so they can continue outputting creativity. We have a thriving ecosystem where both the buyers and producers of the content sold are in balance.
Last Updated: 5/21/2008
| I already sell art with other agencies. What makes you different?
| - Artists receive a 70% commission on sold files, with minimum payout level of $10.
- You can change your pricing levels, from $3 to a maximum of $100, letting you adapt to sales trends on an ongoing basis.
- The Fair Trade concept we follow is the core belief that our Artist relationships are based on.
- Zymmetrical (Flyerstarter Services Ltd.) is a profitable, privately funded, Canadian business founded by two industry experts.
- We market your works globally, with (currently) 8 different languages and 9 different country portals, using a fully internationalized code base that allows us to reach new markets in dynamic way.
- We believe the days of artists making a sustainable and ethical living in this marketplace are here.
Last Updated: 5/21/2008
| Zymmetrical Advantages
| We aim to provide the most effective marketplace for buying digital art, for businesses of any size. We pledge to help you meet your needs for original, inexpensive, Royalty-Free content by enabling you to:
- Find content from artists all over the world, who may not normally participate in marketplaces in the same language as you;
- Quickly purchase and download individual files without spending extra money on "credits," which is typically a cost-offsetting strategy for agencies who sell files too cheaply;
- Shop with the confidence of a 30-day money-back guarantee; we are not satisfied until you are.
Last Updated: 5/21/2008
| Our Philosophy
| Zymmetrical is an exchange platform for artists and buyers at the forefront
of creative design. We feature a constantly updated selection of digital art
submitted by people from all over the world.
One of us has been involved with digital design from the start. The other is
a photography expert. Our core idea: wouldn't it be nice if every talented
photographer, designer, typographer, and video producer could connect to clients
and peers from all over the world?
We present to you Zymmetrical, an original, vibrant community where the
creatives are the boss. We hope you find new connections here, as a buyer,
seller, or both. Connecting to great artists from hard-to-pronounce locations
has never been easier.
Our support is top-notch and
shockingly quick. If you have any questions at all, please drop us a note, and we'll get back to you
right away.
Last Updated: 6/2/2008
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| | | | | General Account Information | |
| | | | | | E-mail Newsletters
| We publish E-mail Newsletters to keep members informed of news, special discounts, and other useful info. We promise to keep it short and sweet.
Should you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe from any of our E-mail Newsletters, please proceed to our Newsletter Subscriptions page to manage your preferences. A special note: We find it a real drag to open our personal e-mail inboxes in the morning and get deluged with spam. We wouldn't wish this on anyone else, so you have our guarantee that we will not share your email with any third party without your express consent. Last Updated: 5/16/2008
| | Privacy
| Please find our full Privacy Policy on our Legal page, under the "Visitors" tab. Last Updated: 5/16/2008
| Signing Up for an Account
| You may be just minutes away from accessing our marketplace as a Buyer or as an Artist. To begin, proceed to our Register page and fill in the necessary info.
There are no subscription or membership fees, and no hidden costs or obligations. Your participation is invaluable to us, and we don't believe in any tricky business to try to keep you a member. The registration process is the same for Buyers and for Artists. We realize that our Buyers are often creatives too, so we present all account options to all members; the opportunity to sell is always there.
Members are granted immediate access to all of the site's account tools immediately after registration. Last Updated: 5/21/2008
| Private Messages
| We offer a Private Message system on Zymmetrical to allow individual communications between members, and between members and our staff.
Your private message control panel is located on the bottom of your Account page, which by default displays your message Inbox. Just like a regular e-mail inbox, private messages sent by others on the site will be stored here for you to access.
Additionally, in the Dashboard on the top right of every page when you are logged in, the number next to the following envelope icon indicates how many private messages you have waiting: 
To send a message to someone, you can click on the "PM" icon found at various locations on the site: 
Alternately, you can click Compose in your PM control panel to create a message. Select a member to send the message to by either typing in their exact username or clicking on the magnifying glass icon to perform a member search: 
You can optionally create a signature that will be saved and attached to every personal message you send. Note: The PM system on Zymmetrical is not intended for discussing transactions or to be used as a means of communication to sell files outside of our system ("Hey, maybe you can sell me this file for half price?" etc.). Any such abuse may result in account suspension. Last Updated: 5/21/2008
| Logging In
| - For your security, we use 128-bit SSL Encryption on our Login and Registration pages, which means that the web address in your internet browser will switch to " https://www.zymmetrical.com/account/login/" when you login, and switch back to normal non-secure (http://) mode after your are logged in.
- Our website requires cookies and Javascript to be enabled for many areas, and the Login area is included in this requirement.
- Clicking "Remember Me" under the Username and Password inputs will keep you from having to log in again for a period of one week, so be sure only to enable this at a secure location such as your home or office.
- Zymmetrical will never contact you via e-mail requesting your password or other sensitive account information; should you ever receive a "phishing" e-mail please contact us immediately. Last Updated: 5/21/2008
| Updating your System Profile
| After registration, you can change your street address location on your Profile page.
For security reasons, we do not permit you to change your username, e-mail address, or first and last name after registration; should you need to change that information, please contact create a Help Ticket requesting a change.
We recommend changing your account password on a regular basis. You can change your password on the Profile page as well. Last Updated: 6/2/2008
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| | | | | | | | | | Buying Files
| All files on Zymmetrical are sold in a direct-download, pay-as-you-go manner. No credits to buy; simply find the file you need and grab it. Photos are sold in .JPG format in 3 sizes/prices: Large, Medium, and Small. The Large is the largest size that the photo was originally uploaded at. We take this source photo and create the Medium and Small sizes at a 70% and 40% reduction in pixel size and in price. Example Photo PageGraphics are available in either Vector .EPS or Raster .JPG format, and are Large size only. Some graphics may be only available in Raster .JPG format, such as paintings, illustrations, etc. Example Graphic PageFonts come in .TTF Truetype or Opentype formats.
Example Font Page
Video Footage is currently available in MJPEG format (more formats coming shortly).
Clicking on the Buy button on any of these pages will provide you a link to PayPal. Although our prices are set in US Dollars, with PayPal you can pay in a variety of the most-used currencies: Euros, British Pounds, Australian Dollars, and more. You will receive an up-to-date exchange rate on your purchase via PayPal.
All transactions are secure and immediate. After a successful payment, PayPal's system contacts ours and our system validates your order. You can then access your purchased art on your Downloads page.
If your purchased file is found to have a defect or otherwise not be as described, we offer a full 30-day money-back guarantee. Just contact us and we will quickly work to resolve any problems with your purchase.
Last Updated: 5/16/2008
| Searching
| We offer a variety of intelligent search tools to help you find the files you need. The main search tool on the site is via the search input on the top left of every page, just underneath the site logo. 
This is no ordinary search input, however. After you type a minimum of two letters into the box, our system will pull up some word suggestions that match files found in the system. You can click directly on the words that appear in the dropdown box, or, click on their row to select that word into the search input box, and then click "Search."
This "autosuggest" feature by no means displays all possible search word results for what you type in; it is intended as a quick reference to some of the basic words associated with your typed-in query.
Clicking on the "Search" button takes you to the Tag Search Results page, which displays a listing of the most relevant results sorted by freshness and our ZyRank algorithm.
At the bottom of the Tag Search Results page, you will also see "Similar Searches," which is a list of up to 30 words that are variations of the root word/phrase that you searched on, including plurals and combinations. Looking at these matches you can see that our search engine takes into account all variations of a root word, so you do not need to type in "women" and "woman;" the system will match both in a ranked manner. Last Updated: 5/16/2008
| Downloading Files
| Files are available for download immediately after successful purchase on your Downloads page.
If you chose to pay by PayPal E-Check, it may take up to 3-4 business days for PayPal to process your payment and notify our system; your download will become available on this site the moment that occurs. All other payment methods allow instant downloading.
If for some reason you know your payment was sent and the download status info still says "Awaiting Payment," try clicking the Refresh button on the top left:  Last Updated: 5/21/2008
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| | | | | | | | | | Model & Property Releases
| Model Releases
- All images where a recognizable human is present will require a MODEL RELEASE FORM.
- If the image is of a child under the age of 18, the Model Release must be signed by a parent or legal guardian.
- A witness signature must appear on all Model Releases. Property Releases
- The requirement for a Property Release isn't as clear-cut as for a Model Release, because there is no specific right of privacy that attaches to property, as it does to people. Having said that, there are at least two reasons for obtaining Property Releases: (i) on the theory that a person's identity might be connected to the property in question (such as where a person's property is used in a manner that might defame the person as owner); and (ii) on the basis that to use someone's property for commercial gain without their consent may amount to an offense called "conversion." Also, if you go on someone's private property to take a picture of them or their property, it could amount to trespass.
- The Property Release needs to signed by the legal and beneficial owner(s) of the property or their authorized agent. Many of the same formalities apply as for a Model Release.
- Zymmetrical suggests that a Property Release be obtained when the image contains identifiable property wherever possible (this isn't just for houses, it could apply to cars, pets, and other personal property). The more unique and recognizable the property (and the more the owner's identity might be connected to or determined from the property), the greater the need for a Property Release. Please upload all Release Forms via the form on the bottom of your Submissions page. We will soon have an association function that lets you assign Releases to specific submissions. For now, it is sufficient to simply get all relevant releases uploaded.
It is a very rare event that a release form should ever be required to be followed up on; however, we do require your cooperation in this matter to keep things fair and legal. Thanks!Last Updated: 5/16/2008
| Review Wait Times
| We receive hundreds of submissions per day. While we try to attend to reviews as quickly as possible, we are still in our Beta pre-launch phase and cannot guarantee instant reviews at present.
Some notes on our review process:
- Our Editors review your files for technical and conceptual standards, and review your chosen prices, categories, and keywords. You may change the price and keywords (for approved files) in your Art Manager.
- First-come is not necessarily first-served. Our Editors pick a balanced selection from the queue each day in an effort to not flood the site with one person's content.
- Files waiting in the FTP queue generally are moved into the visible queue on the same day, but this time frame may vary. No worries, we will and always do get to your files in due time! If you want your submissions to move through the review process as quickly as possible, please ensure:
- You have followed the instructions under "Editing Waiting Submissions;"
- You have relevant descriptive and conceptual keywords embedded in the IPTC keywords field;
- Your submissions meet all technical and conceptual standards specified on the uploads pages;
- You have uploaded and associated any relevant Model or Property Releases for the waiting submissions.
Remember: We would love to get every single great file online immediately; they are the reason our business exists. However, we must balance our resources to take care of all aspects of promoting your works. Thank you for your patience as we work to bring your files to the clients.Last Updated: 5/21/2008
| Selling Graphics
| Before uploading any graphics, please review the existing graphics on the site to get an idea what sells best.
Please be kind and only upload 5 graphics at one time if you are using the HTTP upload form. Do not open multiple windows at the same time to upload. There is no daily upload total limit. Upload SpecificationsFile format: EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) or JPEG (.JPG or .JPEG file extensions) Minimum file size: 500 kilobytes Minimum dimensions: 640 pixels (Height or Width) ALL MATERIAL SUBMITTED *MUST* BE PRINT QUALITY.
- Submit original-quality vector ( .EPS - Illustrator 8 version) or raster ( .JPG) graphics. Do not submit any extra files such as fonts, previews, etc.
- .EPS files are matched to their corresponding .JPG files by filename. If you want to make it past our review queue, your .EPS files will need to have a .JPG with keywords already in the system, either waiting in the review queue or approved and online.
- In the case of raster graphics, we only sell print-quality graphics, 180 DPI (Dots Per Inch) and up. Minimum raster pixel size (width or height) 640 pixels.
- Minimum file size 50 KB (for vectors) or 500 KB (for JPGs) .
- Normal Landscape/Portrait Aspect Ratios only, no ultra-wide or -high graphics.
- You may upload up to 5 individual designs in one transfer (one in each upload input). If you have more files, please return to this screen AFTER the previous transfer is done and repeat for the remainder.
- Maximum individual file size is 100 MB.
Examples of acceptable submission types:
- renders
- logos
- motifs
- illustrations
Examples of unacceptable submission types:
- layered flyer designs (please go to Flyerstarter.com to submit these)
- photos treated with standard Adobe Photoshop filters Last Updated: 5/21/2008
| Selling Photos
| Before uploading any photos, please review photos already selling on Zymmetrical, as well as the Photos Needed message forum thread.
Please be kind and only upload 5 photos at one time if you are using the HTTP upload form. Do not open multiple windows at the same time to upload. File format: JPEG (.JPG or .JPEG file extensions) Minimum file size: 500 kilobytes Minimum dimensions: 1000 pixels (Height or Width) ALL MATERIAL SUBMITTED *MUST* BE PRINT QUALITY.
If it looks fuzzy, grainy, unintentionally blurry, or just plain bad, save our mutual time and don't submit it!
You should prepare all your photos before uploading: - Rotate them 90, 180 or -90 degrees if necessary
- Adjust levels, brightness, and contrast
- Adjust color balance, saturation, and hue
- Crop if needed
Rejection of your photos doesn't necessarily mean that they are bad. One thing is sure, though: they're not a fit for the site. But don't be let down by this, try uploading different photos instead. EXIF & IPTC Info
We support EXIF & IPTC standards. Most digital cameras nowadays embed various pieces of information into the JPEG images they generate, including the current date/time, shooting conditions (e.g. whether a flash was used), camera settings (shutter, aperture, focal length), etc. Adobe Photoshop, the leading image editing package, is also capable of embedding various pieces of metadata into the JPEGs it produces, such as author, title, copyright notice, etc. The format for camera-embedded metadata is called EXIF, which stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. For more information on EXIF, visit www.exif.org. The format used by Photoshop is described by the International Press Telecommunications Council (www.iptc.org) and usually referred to as IPTC.
EXIF/IPTC information is not required for photo uploads on Zymmetrical, although we really encourage its use. While the average client is typically only interested in basic composition and technical specs, providing a broad range of data about your photos can only add to their "buyability," and search engines just love to spider interesting data such as EXIF.
For more info about photo submissions, please visit our Help page or contact us direct. Our site is not intended to sell material from beginner photographers; however, we will accept any great photos, regardless of your professional status. Stylish, good art sells, so if you think you've got this type of material, please submit! Last Updated: 5/22/2008
| Describing Uploaded Submissions
| Important - please read these instructions completely before attempting to use the Describe area. It is very easy to overwrite data in this batch system, and you could quickly do an update you may wish you hadn't. Please spend a moment here first!
After your files are uploaded, you will find them in this 'Describe' area of the Submissions page. If your uploaded files do not show up immediately in the Describe area after uploading is done, please press CTRL-F5 (or use your internet browser's Refresh button) to refresh the screen.
The Describe area let's you proof your uploaded files, as well as gives you the opportunity to optionally indicate the Category, Price, and Release form that is the best match for each file.
Each submitted file must meet the following description requirements:
Required (description items must be present in order for the file to advance to our Reviewers):
At least 10 keywords - The system automatically will read embedded IPTC keywords, or you can optionally paste comma or semicolon-separated keywords into the provided input. You can also of course type/edit keywords manually into any of the 40 keyword inputs.
There is no ranking/priority of keywords inside a particular file, so it is not necessary to put 'more important' keywords first. Plurals are not encouraged as our system can match on plurals and other root word variations, please choose the most appropriate form of each word and just use that.
Keywords must be provided in English. If you already have keyworded your submissions in another language, you can use the 'Translate' dropdown to choose the language to translate from and your keywords will be automatically translated.
Model/Property Release - Required for all submissions featuring recognizable people and/or objects and property requiring such release forms. To add new forms, click the link 'add new release forms'. After uploading via the popup window, you may associate a Release Form with a particular photo by choosing it in the Release Form dropdown.
Optional (description items are optional, and will be chosen by Reviewers if you do not choose):
Category - Choose the category you feel is most appropriate from the Category dropdown. Categories play an important role in helping Buyers find your works, so choose carefully!
Price - Choose a fair price for the file from the Price dropdown. Price range is from $3 USD to $100 USD, with photos being split by the following ratio: Large (100%), Medium (70%), Small (40%). Therefore, a photo price set to $10, would have $7 for the Medium size, and $4 for the small size.
Getting Started
To begin, click a checkbox or the area around the thumbnail picture of one or more waiting submissions, on the right of the Describe area. This will highlight it in blue and have the effect of selecting it. The description properties of the most recent item selected will show up in the inputs on the main form.
You can activate/deactivate particular description options by using the checkbox next to each title. For example, if you want to only change the price for a set of selected files, turn off the Category, Release Form, and Tags checkboxes, leaving only the checkbox next to "Price:" in the checked state. When you Apply the data in this case, only the Price would be set for the selected files.
To Apply the current information in the form to the selected files, double-check you have the correct file(s) selected (highlighted in blue on the right), check that the options in the main form are correct, and click the 'Apply Descriptions' button. This will update our system with your latest information for the selected file(s). You can do this type of update as often as is necessary.
To Submit all file(s) that you feel are ready for our Reviewers, click the 'Submit Descriptions' button, and all the selected file(s) will be sent on to our Reviewers. At this point the file(s) you have submitted will no longer appear in the 'Describe' area of the Submissions Page, but now will be in the 'Pending' area below. .
About 'Pending' Review Wait Times
We receive hundreds of submissions per day. While we try to attend to reviews as quickly as possible, we are still in our Beta pre-launch phase and cannot guarantee instant reviews at present.
Some notes on our review process:
- Our Editors review your chosen prices, categories, and keywords. You may change the price and keywords (for approved files) in your Art Manager. - First-come is not necessarily first-served. Our Editors pick a balanced selection from the queue each day in an effort to not flood the site with one persons content. - Files waiting in the FTP queue generally are moved into the visible queue on this page the same day, but this time may vary. No worries, we will and always do get to your files in due time! If you want your submissions to move through the review process as fast as possible, please ensure: - You have followed the instructions for Editing Waiting Submissions - You have great keywords embedded in the IPTC keywords field - Your submissions meet all technical and conceptual standards specified on the uploads pages - You have uploaded and associated any relevant Model or Property Releases for the waiting submissions Remember: we would love to get every single great file online as fast as you, they are the reason our business exists; however, we must balance our resources to take care of all aspects of promoting your works. Thank you for your patience as we work to bring your files to the clients.
And Finally..
If you have any questions or suggestions about this system, please don't hesitate to contact us! |
Last Updated: 8/1/2008
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| | | | | | | | | | | Ask questions, share answers, read tutorials and post your favorite Zymmetrical tips and tricks on the Zymmetrical Message Forum.
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