terms and conditions

draft   revie  The following Terms and Conditions of Service apply to all products and services provided by MDM Creative and in the event of any dispute are governed by the laws of England.

All work is carried out by MDM Creative on the understanding that the client has agreed to our terms and conditions.

Copyright is retained by MDM Creative on all design work including words, pictures, ideas, visuals and illustrations unless specifically released in writing and after all costs have been settled.

If a choice of designs is presented and one is chosen for your project, only that solution is deemed to be given by us as fulfilling the contract. All other designs remain the property of MDM Creative unless specifically agreed in writing.

Estimates, Quotations and Project Acceptance

At the time of proposal, MDM Creative will provide the customer with an estimate or quotation by email. These Terms and Conditions can be read at any time on the MDM Creative website.

A copy of the written estimate or quotation is to be agreed by the customer in writing to indicate acceptance and should be returned to MDM Creative.

Alternatively, the client may send an official purchase order in reply to the estimate or quotation which binds the client to accept our terms and conditions, or an email acknowledging acceptance of the estimate or quotation.

For the avoidance of doubt, the MDM Creative Terms & Conditions are what govern the job, not any conditions on the customer’s purchase order.

Design Charges

Charges for design services to be provided by MDM Creative will be set out in the written estimate or quotation that is provided to the customer. At the time of the customer’s signed acceptance of this estimate or quotation, indicating acceptance of the Terms & Conditions, a non-refundable payment of 50% of the quoted fee will become immediately due.

All costs supplied are estimated. Any increases or decreases in cost will be advised in writing before commencement of any work. Once agreed, a purchase order will then be required. Prices include up to 3 sets of author’s amends unless otherwise specified.

All estimates or quotations are valid for 1 month from the date specified.

Unless agreed otherwise with the Client, all design services require an advance payment of a minimum of fifty (50) percent of the project quotation total before the work commences or is supplied to the Client for review. The remaining fifty (50) percent of the project quotation total will be due upon completion of the work prior to upload to the server or release of materials. Websites: fifty (50) percent will be required prior to commencing work and full balance is due on completion but prior to launch. Occasionally we may request interim payments on projects if required prior to completion.

Website prices include initial email address setup and supply of information/logins for clients to set emails up locally. Any further email advice and local issues will be charged at our hourly administration rate or we will recommend an IT expert if the work is beyond our remit.

Source Files

We will supply proofs and PDF files as appropriate for printing, or other graphics files as detailed in the job scope or request.

Charges for design work do not cover the release of our copyright design source files, including but not restricted to indd, psd, AI, png or other source files or raw code; if the Client requires these files for transfer to an in-house or another designer, they will be subject to a separate quotation or ‘buy-out’ charge.

Charges for Other Services

Charges for any additional services requested during the project that are over and above the originally estimated time, will become fully payable (100% of the quoted amount) at the time of estimate or quotation acceptance.

Payment

The customer will be provided with Artwork Approval or Proof Email, and an invoice prior to final publication. At this time the remainder of the amount due will become payable and the customer will also be required to return the authorised approval in writing or by email to MDM Creative.

Account Clients: Any printed materials require payment within 14 days of invoice.

Any website balance payments are due before website launch.

Payment for web hosting is due by date of hosting renewal.

Any invoice queries must be submitted in writing within 14 days of the invoice date.

Accounts which remain outstanding for 30 days after the date of invoice, may incur a late payment interest charge at the Bank of England Base Rate plus 8% on the outstanding amount from the date due until the date of payment.

Payments may be made by online transfer, credit card (Visa, Mastercard) or Debit Card.

Payments made by cheque must be previously agreed and may be subject to an administration charge. Cheques should not be sent in regular mail unless sent recorded delivery.

Publication and/or release of work fulfilled by MDM Creative on behalf of the client, may not take place before cleared funds have been received.

Returned cheques will incur an additional fee of £50 per returned cheque. MDM Creative reserves the right to consider an account to be in default in the event of a returned cheque.

Default

An account shall be considered default if it remains unpaid for 30 days from the date of invoice or following a returned cheque. MDM Creative shall be entitled to remove MDM Creative‘s and/or the customer’s material from any and all computer systems, until the amount due has been fully paid. This includes any and all unpaid monies due for services, including, but not limited to, hosting, domain registration, search engine submission, design and maintenance, sub-contractors, printers, photographers and libraries.

Removal of such materials does not relieve the customer of its obligation to pay the due amount.

Customers whose accounts become default agree to pay all MDM Creative‘s reasonable legal and accounting expenses and third party collection agency fees in the enforcement of the debt and these Terms and Conditions.

Copyrights and Trademarks

By supplying text, images and other data to MDM Creative for inclusion in the customer’s website or other medium, the customer declares that it holds the appropriate copyright and/or trademark permissions. The ownership of such materials will remain with the customer, or rightful copyright or trademark owner.

Any artwork, images, or text supplied and/or designed by MDM Creative on behalf of the customer, will remain the property of MDM Creative and/or its suppliers unless otherwise agreed in writing. A licence for use of the copyright material is granted to the customer solely for the project defined in the scope or request and not for any other purpose.

The customer may request in writing from MDM Creative, the necessary permission to use materials (for which MDM Creative holds the copyright) in forms other than for which it was originally supplied, and MDM Creative may, at its discretion, grant this and may charge for the additional usage. Such permission must be obtained in writing before any of the aforesaid artwork, images, text, or other data is used.

Any software, code, plugin or other third party material used in a web or digital project remains the property of the creator and any ongoing licence fees or fees for upgrades are the responsibility of the client, not MDM Creative.

By supplying images, text, or any other data to MDM Creative, the customer grants MDM Creative permission to use this material freely in the pursuit of the design.

Should MDM Creative, or the customer supply an image, text, audio clip or any other file for use in a website, multimedia presentation, print item, exhibition, advertisement or any other medium believing it to be copyright and royalty free, which subsequently emerges to have such copyright or royalty usage limitations, the customer will agree to allow MDM Creative to remove and/or replace the file on the site.

The customer agrees to fully indemnify and hold MDM Creative free from harm in any and all claims resulting from the customer in not having obtained all the required copyright, and/or any other necessary permissions.

Alterations

The customer agrees that changes required over and above the estimated work, or in addition to the agreed scope, or where the client makes changes to the supplied copy or changes required to be carried out after acceptance of the draft design, will be liable to a separate charge.

The customer also agrees that MDM Creative holds no responsibility for any amendments made by any third party, before or after a design is published.

Licensing

Any design, copywriting, drawing, idea or code created for the customer by MDM Creative, or any of its contractors, is licensed for use by the client on a one-time only basis and may not be modified, re-used, or re-distributed in any way or form without the express written consent of MDM Creative and any of its relevant sub-contractors.

All design work – where there is a risk that another party make a claim, should be registered by the client with the appropriate authorities prior to publishing or first use or searches and legal advice sought as to its use.

MDM Creative will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from such claims.

MDM Creative is not responsible for any loss, or consequential loss, non-delivery of products or services, of whatever cause. The customer agrees not to hold MDM Creative responsible for any such loss or damage.

Any claim against MDM Creative shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer.

Data Formats

The client agrees to MDM Creative’s definition of acceptable means of supplying data to the company.

Text is to be supplied to MDM Creative in electronic format as standard text (.txt), MS Word (.docx)  or via e-mail / FTP or shared folder.

Images which are supplied in an electronic format are to be provided in a format as prescribed by MDM Creative via e-mail / FTP. Images must be of a quality suitable for use without any subsequent image processing, and MDM Creative will not be held responsible for any image quality which the client later deems to be unacceptable.

MDM Creative cannot be held responsible for the quality of any images which the client wishes to be scanned from printed materials.

Additional expenses may be incurred for any necessary action, including, but not limited to, photography and art direction, photography searches, media conversion, digital image processing, or data entry services, colour correction and alteration of images

Design Project Duration

Any indication given by MDM Creative of a design project’s duration is to be considered by the customer to be an estimation. MDM Creative cannot be held responsible for any project over-runs, whatever the cause. Estimated project duration should be deemed to be from the date that cleared funds are received by MDM Creative for the initial payment or by date confirmed in writing by MDM Creative.

Rights of Access for Website Construction

The client agrees to allow MDM Creative all necessary access to computer systems and other locations, as required, in order to complete a website project and until all due funds are cleared, including the necessary read/write permissions, usernames and passwords.

The customer also agrees to allow MDM Creative access to any computer systems, usernames and passwords required to remove data and/or sites for failure to comply with these Terms and Conditions.

The customer agrees to supply MDM Creative with all necessary materials, electronic, or otherwise, required to create and complete the project, and to supply them in a timely manner.

Design Project Completion

MDM Creative considers the design project complete upon receipt of the customer’s signed Approval form or signoff email. Other services such as printing, display panel production, film work, website uploading, publishing etc either contracted on the client’s behalf constitute a separate project and can be treated as a separate charge.

Website design only

MDM Creative require that a template is approved by the customer before coding of a site commences. Once the template(s) for the web site are approved by the customer, coding will commence. Any changes to navigation items, colours, structure or content that require changes to the template will incur an additional charge.

Once web design is complete, MDM Creative will provide the customer with the opportunity to review the resulting work. MDM Creative will make one set of minor changes at no extra cost within 14 days of the start of the review period. Minor changes include small textual changes and small adjustments to placement of items on the page. It does not include changes to images, colour schemes or any navigation features. Any minor changes can be notified to MDM Creative by e-mail.
MDM Creative will consider that the client has accepted the original draft, if no notification of changes is received in writing from the customer, within 14 days of the start of the review period. SEO is not included on any website but can be priced separately if required.

Hosting websites

MDM Creative offers limited hosting services through an out-sourced virtual server. MDM Creative does not guarantee continuous service and will accept no liability for loss of service, whatever the cause.

MDM Creative may request that clients change the type of hosting account used if that account is deemed by MDM Creative to be unacceptable because of poor service, lack of bandwidth or in any other way insufficient to support the website. Fees for hosting on MDM Creative’s virtual server are due at the commencement of any period of service and are non-refundable.

Fees due to third party hosting organisations are the responsibility of the client and MDM Creative are not liable for their payment, nor for the renewal of domain names, which are the sole responsibility of the customer/domain owner.

Domain Registration

MDM Creative recommends that all clients register and own their own domain and are responsible for the renewal themselves. MDM Creative cannot guarantee the availability of any domain name. Where MDM Creative is to register a domain name on behalf of a client it will endeavour to do so but the client should not assume a successful registration

Search Engine Submission

Due to the infinite number of considerations that search engines use when determining a site’s ranking, MDM Creative cannot guarantee any particular placement. Acceptance by any search engine cannot be guaranteed and when a site is accepted, the time it takes to appear in search results varies from one search engine to another. Rankings will also vary as new sites are added. MDM Creative recommend that customers use a professional SEO company and are happy to provide details of such companies but accept no responsibility for their services.

MDM Start-up/Launch and Small Business Packages

Websites created within our Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum packages are made affordable as we create them using either our own library of pre-made templates or we create a beautifully simple layout. All websites are created in WordPress and future-proofed, allowing any additions and updates to be made very easily in the future and eliminating the need for a complete website re-design. Any additional pages outside our package allowances will be quoted separately. All launch pages will be based on standard template pages and don’t include e-commerce, galleries, booking systems or any other functionality outside a standard brochure style page. Please check with us for any other options if we have not mentioned them here as this list is examples only and doesn’t cover every possible eventuality. SEO not included and will be priced separately if required.

All designs within these packages include one set of author’s amends. Any further amends to websites within the startup packages may incur an additional cost. We advise clients to thoroughly review the draft website and send all amendments to us in one document to save any additional costs.

Any stock images will be quoted separately if required.

Designs created within the silver package will use the client’s existing company branding whereas Gold and Platinum packages include new logo design so this will be reflected across the entire package chosen.

Any additional print run-ons and upgraded stocks or finishes outside our packages will be quoted accordingly.

Any additional design time will be charged at our hourly rate. All packages are calculated based on the time we have allocated to design your items. Should the design time exceed this due to any client producing more than one set of amends, this will be charged accordingly. A client will always be advised prior to potentially incurring additional time charges. Clients are advised to send any amends at once in order to avoid any additional costs.

Domains

If you don’t have a domain in existence, we would be happy to help you source one which is suitable. We advise all clients to purchase their own domain so that it belongs to them rather than MDM purchasing on their behalf. We can help you with how to do this.

Design Credits

The customer agrees to allow MDM Creative to place a small credit on printed material exhibition displays, advertisements and/or a link to MDM Creative own website on the customer’s website. This will usually be in the form of a small logo or line of text placed towards the bottom of the page.
The customer also agrees to allow MDM Creative to place websites and other designs, along with a link to the client’s site on MDM Creative’s own website for demonstration purposes and to use any designs in its own publicity and portfolios.

Rights of Refusal

MDM Creative will not include in its designs, any text, images or other data which it deems to be immoral, offensive, obscene or illegal. All advertising material must conform to all standards laid down by all relevant advertising standards authorities. MDM Creative also reserves the right to refuse to include submitted material without giving a reason. In the situation where any images and/or data that MDM Creative does include in all good faith, and subsequently discovers is in contravention to such Terms and Conditions, the customer is obliged to allow MDM Creative to remove the contravention without hindrance, or penalty. MDM Creative is to be held in no way responsible for any such data being included.

Cancellation

Cancellation of orders may be made initially by telephone contact, or e-mail, however, following this, MDM Creative will need formal notification in writing to the company’s postal address. The client will then be invoiced for all work completed over and above the non-refundable deposit that will have been made at the time of first ordering. The balance of monies due must be paid within 30 days. Please note: any cancellation which is not formally confirmed in writing and received by MDM Creative within 14 days of such instruction being issued, will be liable for the full quoted cost of the project.

Disclaimer

MDM Creative makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, for any and all products and/or services that it supplies. MDM Creative will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from products and/or services it supplies. MDM Creative is not responsible for any loss, or consequential loss of data, or non-delivery of products or services, of whatever cause. While we take reasonable steps to investigate the materials we recommend, we accept no responsibility for the performance or quality of materials or any consequential loss arising from their failure. The customer agrees not to hold MDM Creative responsible for any such loss or damage. Any claim against MDM Creative shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer.

MDM Creative reserves the right to use the services of sub-contractors, agents and suppliers and any work, content, services and usage is bound by their Terms and Conditions. MDM Creative will not knowingly perform any actions to contravene these and the client also agrees to be so bound.

MDM Creative and its clients agree to comply with Printers Terms and Conditions which include disclaimers for non-completion on time and the flexibility to supply quantities within 10% of the total ordered. MDM Creative recommend that if an exact quantity is required, then 10% extra is added to the quantity and extra time made available should the job be delayed.

General

These Terms and Conditions supersede any previous Terms and Conditions distributed in any form. MDM Creative reserves the right to change any rates and any of the Terms and Conditions at any time and without prior notice.

Acceptance of Terms and Conditions and Quotation

The placement of an order for design and/or any other services offered by MDM Creative, by email, verbally or in writing, is deemed to be acceptance of these terms and conditions, which are freely available at www.mdmcreative.com.

An estimate validated by the customer’s signature on the estimate or quotation form, or by email, constitutes acceptance of the estimate or quotation and agreement to comply fully with all the Terms and Conditions and forms a Contract for Business between the signatory and MDM Creative.