As an Incorporated Association we are made up of members.
To become a member of Illustrators Australia Inc. please read and agree to the following terms and conditions and Code of Conduct. For the purposes of this document, "The Illustrator", "Member", or "You" refers to the individual whose name is on the membership application.
"We", "Us", and "The Organisation" refers to Illustrators Australia.
Membership Eligibility & Requirements
To become and remain a member, you agree to the following:
Residency & Connection: You confirm you are a current resident or citizen of Australia (including its territories), Aotearoa/New Zealand or the neighbouring region of Australasia (including but not limited to Papua New Guinea, Polynesia and Melanesia) and/or that you have ongoing connection to Australia. Please inquire if you are unsure.
You support: by becoming part of the organisation you agree to our values, goals and purpose "The purposes of the association are to advocate, educate and help build business for illustrators."
Rules of the Organisation/Constitution: Please familiarise yourself with our Constitution/The Model Rules which govern our organisation processes and outline your rights.
Accuracy: You agree to provide accurate personal information, including your legal name and correct contact details. You must update us as soon as possible if these details change.
Registry & Communication: Your contact information will be added to our Member Register database (required) and mailing list (optional). If you wish for your contact information not to be visible on our Membership register please let us know (access to this list is only available to our members by request).
Prizes & Opportunities: We may use your contact details to enter you into prize draws or notify you of opportunities. If you win a prize offered by a third party, you consent to your contact details being passed to that business for prize fulfilment.
Public Profile: You agree to have your uploaded professional contact information (email, phone, and/or website/socials) displayed on your public profile/portfolio on our website. If you wish for specific inclusion/exclusion of info please let us know.
Student Members: You must upload a valid photo of your student card upon application to qualify for student rates. Annual confirmation of continuation of studies is required.
Affiliate or Organisational Members: You must confirm and prove you are a current member of an affiliate organisation or an organisational board member or official representative.
Membership Fees, Refunds & Renewals
Term: Membership is granted for a fixed period of 12 months from the date of payment, upon approval of membership.
Timeframe for Approval: All applications need to go through an approval process. We will endeavour to inform you as soon as possible — usually within 1–2 weeks, though it may take longer during holiday periods.
No Refunds: In accordance with Australian Consumer Law (ACL), fees are non-refundable except where required by law (e.g., a major failure of service). Refunds will be provided if a membership application is unsuccessful, but not if cancelled.
Renewal: It is your responsibility to renew your subscription to maintain your online portfolio, unless automatically renewed.
Digital Portfolios & Content Standards
As a member of Illustrators Australia you agree to pursue and maintain the highest standard in professional conduct, communication, standards and quality of your work, to the best of your ability. To make artwork ethically, honestly and honourably.
Member Rights and Responsibilities
Image Quality: You are responsible for keeping your bio and folio up-to-date by providing us the images/text you wish to display. We will create your Profile/Portfolio page with the content as provided by you. We will not edit or resize your work, although the platforms we use may resize or crop images. You must supply us with quality images — we recommend you select only your best, most finished 'portfolio ready' artwork. If we deem an artwork is not of high enough quality we reserve the right not to include it (we will contact you in this case).
Content Restrictions: We reserve the right to remove or exclude content that is defamatory, promotes hate or violence, is discriminatory, pornographic, or otherwise inconsistent with the professional standards, ethics and reputation of the organisation. We also reserve the right to remove work which we believe or suspect may breach copyright, intellectual property rights, or any Federal and State laws.
Freedom: We defend the right for illustrators to have the freedom to create work that is political, historical, personal, challenging and satirical. Artistic freedom of expression is an important value we uphold as an organisation. We do not endorse any artwork published on our website and will not accept liability for publishing such artwork.
Intellectual Property & Promotional License
Ownership: You warrant that you are the author of, or control all necessary rights (including under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)) in your work, or have obtained all necessary licences, consents and permissions to use any third-party or underlying materials incorporated in the work (including, for example, reference images or photographs), such that our use of the work as contemplated by this agreement will not infringe the intellectual property or moral rights of any third party. You indemnify us against any loss, damage, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising directly out of any infringement of the intellectual property rights of a third party, except to the extent caused by our use of the work outside the scope of this agreement.
Promotional License: While you are a member, you grant the Organisation a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to feature your work on our official social media channels, email newsletters and other platforms — primarily for your promotion and our archival purposes only. We will seek your permission for other non-profit purposes, or for any other use.
Opting Out: If you prefer us not to use your images for promotion of your work, you must select the "Opt-Out" option provided on the membership form or notify us in writing.
Attribution: We commit to providing clear attribution for all usage of your work (e.g., tagging your social media handle or crediting you by name) in accordance with your Moral Rights, using the handles, tags and links provided to us where reasonable.
Changes: By granting us the licence to use your artwork for promotion you accept that we may need to make minor changes for the purposes of uploading to social media, newsletters etc. (such as cropping or file type changes e.g. CMYK to RGB). We will always seek to retain the integrity of your images.
Authenticity & Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy
We support human creativity. By submitting work, you confirm:
Originality: All artwork is original and created by The Illustrator.
Human-Made Work Only: Your portfolio must consist exclusively and strictly of original work created by you.
No Generative AI: Images submitted must not be created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) or "Text-to-Image" generative AI tools (e.g., Midjourney, DALL-E, ChatGPT etc). If we are in doubt of the work's origins, we reserve the right to exclude work or refuse or cancel membership. Authorship must be exclusively your own.
Code of Conduct
By joining Illustrators Australia, you agree to uphold the following professional and ethical standards:
Professionalism & Business Practice
Communication: Stay connected, foster relationships, keep details current, and be polite and responsive to clients.
Community: We value kind, ethical, clear communication. Non-violent, non-discriminatory behaviour is expected of all members and volunteers in our community at all times. Any behaviour, online or in-person, deemed unacceptable or unethical may result in warnings or cancellation of membership.
Dispute Resolution: Any dispute or complaint must be made in writing to us and will be reviewed by our committee and/or a third party if necessary. All disputes will be handled in accordance with our Model Rules of the Association.
Expertise: Our members work hard to maintain high standards and support each other to research, understand and maintain their technical knowledge and best professional illustration and business practices (printing, web specs, etc.).
Written Agreements: We recommend written agreements to define project scope, deadlines, and fees before starting work.
Resources: We encourage you to use our professional resources and example contracts, as well as seek your own legal advice. Always communicate clearly in writing with clients including detailed quotes, agreements/contracts and rates.
Fair Pay: Base your fees on the highest industry standards, for both your time and the intended usage (licensing) as informed by our recommended rates. We do not support requests for unpaid work or work for free in hopes of future work or "exposure".
Rights & Integrity
Rights Awareness: You are not required to supply clients with your originals. Only license the rights the client actually needs. You have the right to be credited (Moral Rights) and to have physical/digital files returned or deleted after a licence expires.
AI and Alterations: You can request that a publisher does not use AI or any other artist to change or alter your artwork.
Integrity: Never claim another artist's work as your own. Do not use or imitate another artist's specific style or copy their work. We encourage artists drawing on reference to use Creative Commons, open licence, purchased references, or their own photos and references. If using someone else's image as a source, always ask permission and credit the original reference if requested, where possible and where substantial use has occurred. Otherwise your artwork may be a breach of copyright.
Sub-contracting: Never outsource a commission to another artist or designer without your client's express permission.
Ethical Conduct
Confidentiality: Respect client privacy and do not share work publicly until officially released or approved, or as agreed.
Respect Peers: Do not tarnish the reputation of fellow illustrators or undercut industry standard rates. Treat our volunteers and other community members with respect.
Liability & Privacy
Not an Agency: Illustrators Australia is not an agency. We do not facilitate transactions, take commissions, vet clients, or negotiate contracts for members. The Illustrator is solely responsible for their own interactions and disputes with third parties.
Volunteer Liability: Illustrators Australia is run by volunteers. We provide support only as far as our volunteer capacity allows.
Illustrators Australia expects the highest standards but is not to be held accountable for the conduct of our volunteers or members.
Platform Security: We make every attempt to prevent it, but Illustrators Australia is not liable for unauthorised scraping or downloading of images by third parties. We recommend using a small watermark, labelling your files with your name and the title of the artwork, and using low-resolution files (72dpi) for web display.
Termination: Breach of these terms (including the AI policy, Code of Conduct, or copyright law) may lead to warnings, restrictions, removal of artwork or termination of membership without a refund.
Privacy: We handle personal data in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Private payment and address details are never shared with third parties without your consent.
Changes: Should we change these Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct we will notify our current members via email.
If you have any questions or comments about our Terms & Conditions, please contact us at [email protected].