By placing an order with PixelFreezer Design, you confirm that you are in agreement with and bound by the terms and conditions below. Upon acceptance of a job we may ask that you sign a copy of this contract.

Revision date: 24/04/2014

Between us, PixelFreezer Design
and you, The Client: The company or individual requesting the services of PixelFreezer Design.

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.

In short

You (The Client) are hiring us (PixelFreezer Design) located Cranleigh, United Kingdom, to carry out the requested work for the estimated total price as outlined in our job estimate sent to you on acceptance of the job. 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.

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.

Getting down to the nitty gritty

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 and we’ll have regular, possibly daily contact. If, at any stage, you’re not happy with the direction our work is taking, you’ll pay us in full for everything we’ve produced until that point and you may either cancel this contract or continue to commission us to make further design revisions at the hourly rate set out in our original estimate.

Text content

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

Photographs and images

You should supply graphic files in an editable, 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. We can arrange for you to hire our photographer if needed.

HTML, CSS and JavaScript

We deliver web pages developed from HTML5 markup, CSS2.1 and CSS3 stylesheets for styling and unobtrusive JavaScript for feature detection, poly-fills and behaviours.

Browser testing

The landscape of web browsers and devices changes regularly and our approach is to look forward, not back. 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. We may implement a single column design for older versions of Internet Explorer and we won’t test in other older browsers unless you specify otherwise. 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 (iPhone/iPad): Safari and Google Chrome
• Android 4.x/5.x: Google Chrome and Firefox
• Windows Phone 8: Internet Explorer

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

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, management of that server and any support issues will be up to you, unless you have agreed a separate hosting agreement with us.

Any domain name registration, hosting or maintenance agreement is detailed in a separate document.

Search Engine Listings

We cannot guarantee listings on Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.) and you accept that it is the Search Engines and not us who determine whom they list and whom they will not. There is no guaranteed placement or rank on the Search Engines and that a new website may never even appear on Search Engines at all. We do not control Search Engines’ algorithms and huge shifts can appear daily, weekly and even hourly.

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 estimated price we give you 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. If you want to change your mind or add anything new, that won’t be a problem as we’ll provide a separate estimate for that.

Along the way we might ask you to put requests in writing so we can keep track of changes.

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.

Phew!

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 the finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy or provide any native source files that we used in making them. 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 may make use of certain third party code libraries or frameworks, and they remain the copyright of their respective owners.

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.

Expenses

You agree to reimburse us for any expenses necessary in completion of the project. This includes, but is not limited to: fonts, software and plugins, proofs, research, shipping, stock photography, travel and telephone consultation.

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:

• 50% of the total estimated costs payable upon the signing of this contract.
• The remaining balance shall become due on completion of the work.

We reserve the right not to begin work on the project until the 50% deposit has been paid in full. The fee quoted does not include the cost of domain registration or hosting fees. These, if required, will be detailed in a separate document.

But where's all the horrible small print?

You cannot 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 the courts of England and Wales.