Contract Killer plain language design contract

What both parties agree to

You : You have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organisation. You’ll give us the assets and information we need to complete the project. You’ll do this when we ask and provide the formats we ask for. 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 at the end of this contract.

Us : We have the experience and ability to deliver 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.

By signing this contract, you agree to the following:

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Design services

We’ll create responsive designs which adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. To give you a better understanding of our designs, we’ll use HTML and CSS predominantly which will also avoid us wasting time mocking up every template as a static visual. Sometimes, we’ll use visuals to indicate a creative direction (colour, texture and typography.)

You’ll have plenty of opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. We’ll share either a Dropbox, Google Drive folder or Github repository or a development site with you. We’ll have regular, possibly daily, contact by phone, Slack, or Zoom.

If—at any stage—you change your mind about our deliverables or aren’t happy with our work, you’ll pay us in full for the time we’ve spent working with you. Then, we agree to terminate this contract.

Written content

Unless agreed separately, we’re not responsible for uploading text or images to your website or creating every page. We provide professional copywriting and editing services, so if you’d like us to create, edit, or input content for you, we’ll provide a separate estimate.

Graphics and photographs

You will supply graphic files in an editable, vector digital format including Adobe Illustrator (Ai) or EPS. You will provide high resolution digital photographs. If your design requires stock images, these assets—and the time we spend selecting them—aren’t included in our price. We can provide a separate estimate for stock images and research.

Changes and revisions

We won’t limit your ability to change your mind. Our price is based on the number of weeks we estimate are needed to deliver everything we’ve agreed to achieve. If you change your mind, adding extra work won’t be a problem and we’re happy to be flexible. We’ll provide a separate estimate for any additional work.

Testing

You understand that 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. You agree it does mean ensuring someone’s experience of a design should be appropriate to the capabilities of their browser or device.

We will test our work only in current versions of major desktop browsers including those made by Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Microsoft (Edge), and Mozilla (Firefox.) We won’t test in older versions unless agreed separately. If you need an enhanced design for an older browser or specific device, we will provide a separate estimate for that. We will test your design using the latest versions of:

iOS: Safari on iPhone and iPad
Android: Google Chrome

We won’t test specific Android devices, or other mobile browsers unless we agreed separately. If you need us to test using alternative devices, we will provide a separate estimate.

Delivery and backup

At the start of the project, you’ll set up a free Github account. We’ll use this account to deliver HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, as well as production and optimised images. You will retain these files as we’re not required to keep copies.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

You understand we don’t guarantee improvements to your search engine ranking, but that the websites we develop are accessible to search engines.

Hosting

We’re a design company—not a hosting company—so we don’t offer support for website hosting, email, or other technical services. You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting in-house; if you do, great. If you don’t already have hosting, we’ll recommend a provider and ask you to set up an account.

Setting up your website on a server and adding analytics software is included in our price. After that, updates to your website and management of your hosting will be up to you.

Legal stuff and nonsense

We carry out work in accordance with good industry practice and at the standard expected from qualified people with relevant experience. That said, we can’t guarantee our work will be free from errors. We won’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.

Your liability to us will be limited only to the price stated in this contract. You won’t be liable to us or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if we’ve advised you 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.

Intellectual property rights

You guarantee the written content you provide is original, or that you have the rights to use it. You also guarantee you have licences to use images which are owned by photographers or have been purchased from stock libraries. You agree to protect us from any claim by owners of copyrighted material. When our work requires licensed fonts or images from stock libraries, we’ll ask you to purchase them so you’ll be licensed to use them.We guarantee our work is original. When you’ve paid us in full—and if this contract hasn’t been terminated—we’ll assign intellectual property rights to you as follows:

You’ll own the graphic files we produce during your project. We’ll give you permission to use these files for any purpose.

We’ll own the unique combination of elements which constitute the complete design. We’ll license it to you, exclusively and in perpetuity, for this project only.

Displaying our work

We love to show off, so we reserve the right to display any aspect of our work as long as doing so doesn’t breach any confidentiality agreement. This may include sketches, work-in-progress designs and the finished project on our website, in magazine articles, or in books.

Payment schedule

You understand how important it is for a small business that you pay your bills promptly. We’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, so you agree to stick tightly to the following payment schedule.

[Payment details]
[Payment schedule]

Our payment terms are [number] days from the date of invoice. We issue invoices electronically and our bank account details will be included. Our invoices will be in [currency]. If your currency is different, you agree your payments will be the same value.

You agree to pay all charges associated with international transfers of funds. We reserve the right to charge interest on all overdue debts at the rate of [percentage] per month or part of a month.

But where’s all the small print?

Just like a parking ticket, neither of us can transfer this contract to anyone else without the other’s permission.

We both agree to adhere to laws and regulations in relation to our activities under this contract and not to cause the other to breach any relevant laws or regulations.

This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. Although its language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of English and Welsh courts.

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

Oh and don’t forget those men with big dogs.

The dotted line

Signed by and on behalf of [company name]
……………………………………………………

Signed by and on behalf of [customer name]
……………………………………………………

Date [date]

Everyone should sign above and keep a copy for their records.