Privacy

Hexalo Design Studio ("the studio", "we") is a branding and graphic design practice at 2-3-18 Nakazakinishi, Kita-ku, Osaka. This policy explains how the studio handles personal information under Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI). It covers visitors to this site, people who write to us about a project, and the clients whose briefs and files we work with.

When you write to us we receive what you choose to send: your name, your business and role, an email address, a telephone number if you add one, and your message. The site has no accounts, no shop and no hidden profiles.

When a project starts we also receive what the work needs: the brief, existing logos and brand files, photographs, copy, and the names and contact details of the people who will approve the work. Brand material often includes images of staff or customers, so we treat it as personal information as well as business information.

We use personal information to answer enquiries, to run the paid discovery session and scope a project, to design, revise and deliver the work, to send proofs and files, to issue invoices and keep accounting records, and to meet our legal obligations. We do not use client material for any other client, and we do not use it to build a mailing list.

Design work moves through files. Working files and proofs are shared with you through a link or an attachment that we agree at the start. If a project involves a printer, we send the printer only the print-ready files and the contact details it needs to quote and deliver, and only with your agreement.

Images of identifiable people that you give us are used only for the project they were supplied for. We do not put them in the studio's own portfolio without written permission.

Hexalo's site does not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, and it pulls in no third-party trackers. Your browser keeps just one small local-storage note, so that the cookie notice stays dismissed once you have closed it. Delete it through your browser settings whenever you like; the notice will then reappear.

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. We share it only with the service providers that help us run the studio, such as email, file-storage and font-licensing services and our accounting software, and with printers or developers you ask us to involve, each only as far as needed for the task. We also disclose information when a court or public authority requires it.

If we ever rely on a tool that holds files outside Japan, we will tell you where before any of your material is uploaded to it.

Enquiries that do not become projects are deleted after twelve months. Project files, including briefs, working files and proofs, are kept for the period set out in the project agreement; where it names none, we keep them for twenty-four months after delivery so that we can handle later changes, and then delete or return them. Invoices and accounting records are kept for as long as Japanese tax rules require company records to be retained, which is generally seven years.

Files are held in access-controlled storage and are seen only by the studio. We agree a transfer method with each client rather than asking for large files to be sent to a general inbox. If we learn of a leak that puts your information at risk, we will tell you and report it to the Personal Information Protection Commission where the law requires.

You may ask the studio, in writing, whether it holds personal information about you and request a copy; ask for errors to be put right; and, where the APPI allows, ask us to stop using the information or delete it. Email hello@hexalo-design-studio.com. We verify who is asking and answer within the legal deadline, and a copy of your information is normally supplied without charge.

We revise this policy when our practice or the law changes, and the date at the bottom of the page shows when it was last revised. Questions, requests and complaints go to hello@hexalo-design-studio.com or +81 6-6371-4806 (Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00 JST). If we cannot resolve a concern, you can also contact the Personal Information Protection Commission.