Terms & Conditions

Brand Stimulant

Summary:

We’ll always do our best to fulfil your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We’ve no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. What we do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.

So in short;

You ([Company name]), located at ([company address]) are hiring us, Brand Stimulant, located at 216 Bordesley Green, Birmingham, B9 4SU, to design and develop a web site for the estimated total price of [total] as outlined in our attached Website Development Agreement. Of course it’s a little more complicated, but we’ll get to that.

What do both parties agree to do?

You: You have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organisation. You’ll give us everything we need to complete the project as and when and in the format we need it. You’ll review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out in this contract.

Us: We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve agreed with you and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We’ll endeavour to meet every deadline that’s set and on top of that we’ll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give us.

Design

We create look-and-feel designs, and flexible layouts that adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. We create designs iteratively and use predominantly HTML and CSS so we won’t waste time mocking up every template as a static visual. We may use static visuals to indicate a look-and-feel direction (colour, texture and typography.) We call that ‘design atmosphere.’

You’ll have plenty of opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. We’ll share our working Dropbox with you and have regular, possibly daily contact.

Text content

We’re not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy unless agreed in writing on this document. If you’d like us to write new content or input text for you, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Photographs

You should supply graphic files in an editable, vector digital format. You should supply photographs in a high resolution digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs, we can suggest stock libraries. If you’d like us to search for photographs for you, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

HTML, CSS and JavaScript

We deliver web page types developed from HTML5 markup, CSS2.1 + 3 stylesheets for styling and unobtrusive JavaScript for feature detection, poly-fills and behaviours.

Browser testing

Browser testing no longer means attempting to make a website look the same in browsers of different capabilities or on devices with different size screens. It does mean ensuring that a person’s experience of a design should be appropriate to the capabilities of a browser or device.

Desktop browser testing

We test our work in current versions of major desktop browsers including those made by Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Microsoft (Internet Explorer), Mozilla Firefox and Opera. We’ll also test to ensure Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 for Windows users get an appropriate, possibly different, experience. If you need an enhanced design for an older browser, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Mobile browser testing

Testing popular small-screen devices is essential in ensuring that a person’s experience of a design is appropriate to the capabilities of the device they’re using. We test our work in:

iOS: Safari, Google Chrome Android 4.x: Google Chrome and Firefox

We currently don’t test Blackberry, Opera Mini/Mobile, Windows Phone or other mobile browsers. If you need us to test using these, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Technical support

We’re not a website hosting company so we don’t offer support for website hosting, email or other services relating to hosting. You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting in-house; if you do, great. If you don’t, we can set up an account for you at one of our preferred hosting providers. We can set up your site on a server, plus any statistics software such as Google Analytics and we can provide a separate estimate for that. Then, the updates to, and management of that server will be up to you.

Turnaround times

Website complexity can range from simple to extremely comprehensive. Due to the technical nature of these variables, sometimes certain projects may take longer than initially planned. It is for this reason that we reserve the right to take extra time developing your website than what may have been initially estimated. This ensures your website is built to the very best standards we can offer.

Other delays may include personal emergencies, natural emergencies, and any other unusual circumstances that can cause delays to our productivity.

Either way we will aim to complete your project in a reasonable and efficient timescale.

Changes and revisions

We know from experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you to your earliest ideas. We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. The price at the beginning of this contract is based on the length of time we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything you’ve told us you want to achieve, but we’re happy to be flexible. Generally we are happy to offer one set of changes in relation to graphics, presentation or css styling. If you want to change your mind or add anything new regarding particular functions of your website, that won’t be a problem as we’ll provide a separate estimate for that.

Domain Registrations

Where domains have been registered on behalf of the client, we may collect registration, SSL and hosting fee to satisfy the services provided. This would be outlined in your invoices from us.

Any additional services including DNS configuration, updating registrant details or domain transfers will incur additional fees and costs.

Legal stuff

We can’t guarantee that our work will be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Copyrights

First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by your good selves, or that you’ve permission to use them.

Then, when your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:

You’ll own the visual elements that we create for this project. We’ll give you source files and finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all elements of text, images and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.

We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license its use to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.

We love to show off our work and share what we’ve learned with other people, so we reserve the right, with your permission, to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles and in books.

Payments

We’re sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the following payment schedule.

Payment are divided into two equal sections, firstly being the deposit, and
secondly being the completion payment. Our deposit is set at 50%, (unless otherwise mutually agreed in advance), of the whole balance and it is payable before any work on your project has commenced. The remaining payment will be invoiced for and collected on completion of your website.

In the interest of keeping our customers payments on time there will be a late payment fee of £75 added to your total balance if there is a delay of more than 28 days after we have invoiced you for our services. The late payment fee will re-occur every 28 days after the first late payment fee, for a maximum of 12 months.

Gaurantees

Depending on the size of your project it may be possible that we ask you for a personal guarantee of some sort to assure our agreed payments reach us. This protects us from any business bankruptcy, winding up, etc. If you are required to provide a guarantee, we will ask you to fill in another short form that will become part of this agreement.

But where’s all the horrible small print?

Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.

Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of [English and Welsh] courts.