Terms of service

About these terms

The service is supplied by VESSEY & VESSEY (PTY) LIMITED, registration number 2021/822256/07 and VAT registration number 4800300404, of 99 Conrad Drive, Blairgowrie, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2194 (“Vessey”, “we”, “us”).

Vessey & Vessey (Pty) Limited, VESSEY Design and Engineering (Pty) Limited and VESSEY Manufacturing (Pty) Limited are separate legal entities. The Product Concept Generator is contracted only with Vessey & Vessey (Pty) Limited. Shared branding, personnel, referrals or participation in a wider project do not make another group entity responsible for this service.

The agreement consists, in descending order of priority, of a signed project-specific agreement, an approved change order, an accepted proposal or quotation, an accepted purchase order, these terms and the approved brief. A customer purchase-order term applies only if Vessey expressly accepts it in writing.

By submitting a brief, requesting or paying an invoice, authorising work or otherwise instructing us to proceed, you confirm that you are at least 18 years old, have authority to act for the named customer and accept these terms.

The service

The Product Concept Generator is a structured, AI-assisted industrial-design concept service comprising five stages: sketch ideation, refined concept development, rendered concepts and material selection, design review and visual refinement, and final product visualisation.

The standard package produces one A3 presentation output for each stage and one combined concept document. It includes one consolidated revision at each stage, five revisions in total, provided feedback remains within the approved brief. A technical re-generation used only to correct an obvious AI generation fault does not use the included revision.

The service is based on the brief, references, decisions and feedback you provide. Dimensions, production drawings, engineering calculations, testing, certification, patent advice, tooling and manufacturing are not included unless separately agreed in writing.

Price, VAT and payment

The fixed concept fee is R 15,000 excluding VAT. At the current 15% VAT rate, the total is R 17,250 including VAT. When the complete brief is successfully submitted, the website generates a numbered tax invoice and emails it to the supplied customer address. Work begins after cleared payment is received unless the invoice states otherwise.

Payment must use the reference and banking details on the invoice. Bank charges and an incorrect payment reference may delay allocation. An invoice is not confirmation that a requested deadline or additional scope has been accepted.

Your responsibilities

You must provide accurate information, identify safety, regulatory, intellectual-property and confidentiality constraints, respond to decisions within the agreed time, and ensure that you have the right to upload and use every image, sketch, specification, logo and other reference supplied.

Do not submit unlawful, harmful, deceptive or infringing material, personal information that is not necessary for the project, or another person’s confidential information without authority. You remain responsible for assessing whether the concept suits your business and intended application.

AI processing and human review

The service uses a custom Vessey language-model workflow developed and trained using NVIDIA computing technology together with selected models accessed through the OpenAI API. Authorised Vessey personnel manually structure prompts, review generated material and make the design judgements used in each stage output.

Vessey does not use a customer’s confidential brief, uploads or project outputs to train or fine-tune the custom model unless that customer gives separate, explicit written permission. OpenAI states that API inputs and outputs are not used to train its models by default. Standard API abuse-monitoring records may be retained by OpenAI for up to 30 days unless a different approved data-control setting or legal requirement applies. See OpenAI API data controls.

AI output can resemble existing material or output supplied to another user and is not guaranteed to be unique, registrable or free of third-party rights. Vessey applies human review, but the customer remains responsible for specialist intellectual-property clearance before commercial launch.

Reviews, revisions and changes

Each stage is a decision gate. Feedback must be consolidated, specific and supplied by the nominated decision-maker. One consolidated revision is included for each stage. Approval by email or through the project interface closes that stage and authorises work on the next stage.

A material change to the brief, a return to an approved stage, additional concepts, extra views, extended research or specialist technical work falls outside the fixed fee and requires a written scope, fee and schedule. We obtain written approval before starting chargeable additional work.

If the customer does not respond for 30 consecutive days, the project may be paused. After 60 consecutive days without a response, it may be archived; reactivation may require a revised delivery schedule and a reasonable administration fee disclosed before work resumes.

Customer content, confidentiality and rights

You retain ownership of the material you supply and give Vessey a limited permission to use it only to quote, administer, create, review and deliver the project, meet legal duties and protect the service.

After full payment, the customer owns the final selected concept boards and combined final concept document created specifically for the project, to the extent those rights can lawfully be transferred. Drafts, rejected directions and internal working files are not transferred. Third-party material remains subject to its own licence.

Payment for this concept package does not include industrial design development, CAD, calculations, drawings, validation, prototypes, tooling or manufactured products. Those later stages require a separate scope and agreement with the relevant VESSEY Group entity.

Vessey retains its pre-existing and reusable models, prompts, methods, templates, software, know-how and design-system elements. Vessey may reuse general skills and non-confidential learning that do not reveal the customer, project or protected content.

Both parties must protect non-public project information with reasonable care and use it only for the project. This duty continues for five years after completion, and for trade secrets for as long as they remain protected as trade secrets. You authorise proportionate sharing within the VESSEY Group only for quotations, feasibility checks, project coordination, performing requested services and maintaining necessary records. That sharing does not transfer ownership, alter confidentiality duties or change the contracting entity. We will not publish identifiable confidential work as a case study without written permission.

Cancellation, delay and refunds

Send a cancellation request to concepts@vessey.co.za. If the request is received before project work begins, Vessey will refund the full service fee received. Once work begins, each of the five stages is allocated 20% of the fixed service fee for refund calculations. Vessey may deduct completed stages, the reasonable completed portion of a stage in progress and non-recoverable third-party costs, then refund the unused balance.

Approved refunds are paid within 10 business days to the original payment source where practical. A change of preference or dissatisfaction with a direction that materially follows the approved brief is managed through the included revision and is not, by itself, a service failure.

If Vessey cannot deliver an agreed output, we will first offer a reasonable correction, re-performance or replacement. If that does not resolve the failure, the customer may receive a proportionate refund for the affected undelivered portion. Nothing in these terms removes a right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded.

AI and concept limitations

This AI-assisted process is intended for product concept development and visualisation. Outputs may contain visual or technical inconsistencies and are not dimensionally accurate, engineered, tested or manufacturing-ready. Before manufacturing, the approved concept must be converted into accurately dimensioned CAD and reviewed by a suitably qualified product designer or engineer.

AI-assisted outputs may include impossible geometry, inconsistent features, incorrect text, inappropriate material suggestions or details that change between views. You must not rely on a concept output for safety, compliance, investment, tooling, procurement or manufacture without appropriate professional verification.

To the extent permitted by law, Vessey is not responsible for indirect or consequential loss arising from using an unverified concept as if it were engineered or manufacturing-ready. The aggregate liability of Vessey & Vessey (Pty) Limited for this service is limited to the fees paid or payable to that entity for the affected order. No other VESSEY Group entity has joint, several or vicarious liability merely because of shared branding, a referral or participation in a wider project. These limitations do not exclude liability or remedies that applicable law does not allow us to exclude.