All clients should read and understand the following before working with East Coast.

For the purpose of this agreement, the following industry abbreviations will apply:

•   “EC” means East Coast Design Studio.
•   “PROJECT” means any job or assignment done by EC.
•   "CLIENT" means the person or company named on the project confirmation for whom EC has agreed to provide services.

The headings in this agreement are inserted only for convenience and shall not affect its construction.

EC provides graphic design, websites, digital marketing and SEO services tailored towards small businesses.

The EC confirmation containing the details of the project must be signed and returned by the client prior to the commencement of the project.  If signing on behalf of a company, the client must be authorised to sign this agreement.

•   Provide EC within a reasonable timescale – all content that is requested in order to complete the project including text, images and any other information.
•  Review EC’s work on the project, provide feedback (if required), and sign off approval in a timely manner.
•  Give advanced notice of any confidential information to be presented by email, written or verbal between both parties that is pertinent to the project. These correspondences are to be marked as ‘confidential’ in the email subject, or clearly stated on any written documents.

•   Carry out services in a professional and timely manner.
•   Make a reasonable number of revisions to the project until the client is satisfied with the project or such time as both parties feel an agreement is likely to be reached. However no more than 2 major revisions (EC reserves the right to define what constitutes a ‘major revision’) shall be made to the project. Additional revisions or design work applied to the project will be charged separately at the hourly rate.
•   Contact you within the first 3 month period to discuss continuance of: Website maintenance and support, website hosting and any other previously agreed ongoing services pertaining to the Project.

All websites are designed and developed to function across all major web browsers in both desktop and mobile versions (‘mobile’ as a term covers both phone and tablet devices). EC cannot guarantee complete and/or long-term functionality across all major browsers, platforms or mobile devices due to updates/upgrades enacted by their respective vendors.

EC cannot guarantee compatibility with browser software that has not received its most recent system update.

The payment schedule will be agreed in advance and set out on the project confirmation. 50% of the project fee will be invoiced, and payment must be made by return, prior to commencement of the project with the balance payable upon project completion.

In the event that any concepts or designs are not used, or a website is cancelled prior to it going live, EC reserve the right to charge the client up to 100% of the agreed costs.  The scale of the charge will be dependent on what stage the project is at when the cancellation takes place – stages shall be measured using hours spent by the designer on the project as a metric.

All fees are subject to VAT at the current rate.  A supplement of 20% will be added to any additional costs incurred by EC on your (or your client’s) behalf.

In all cases the client on the project confirmation will be invoiced and solely responsible for payment, unless otherwise agreed in writing prior to commencement. In the case of non-payment by the client, EC reserves the right to invoice the 'ultimate client' (i.e. designer/manufacturer/owner of the product in question).  The client should notify all parties affected or potentially affected by this clause as no usage of assets is permitted by any person or company until all fees have been paid to EC in full.

Support and hosting contract lengths are 12 months, unless otherwise agreed in writing.  Costs for this are invoiced at the commencement of the period and are non-refundable should the service be cancelled prior to the end of the contract.

Hosting fees are quoted annually and may increase due to increases from our suppliers.  EC cannot be held responsible for any such increases but will give the client 30 days’ notice of any subsequent increase.

Once a website is live, in the event of non-payment of the hosting fee, the site may be taken offline or reverted to a non-domain site.

The entire copyright in the Photographs and ownership of all physical materials is retained by the Photographer at all times throughout the world. Where Photographs are stored electronically, they must be erased at the conclusion of the agreed usage period.

The Licence to Use Photographs, comes into effect from the date of full payment to EC.  No usage of the Photographs is permitted before full payment is received without full permission in writing. Any permission that may be given for prior use will automatically be revoked if full payment is not made by the due date or if the Client is put into receivership or liquidation.

The period of usage commences from the first use or 6 months after the shoot date, whichever is sooner, unless otherwise agreed.

The Licence to Use only applies to the advertiser and products as stated on the invoice and shall not be assigned to any third party without the Photographer’s written permission.

Permission to use the Photographs for purposes outside the terms of the Licence to Use will normally be granted upon payment of a further fee. Any future changes/extensions to the Licence to Use must be negotiated with EC. Any unauthorised use of Photographs will be charged at the maximum percentage stated in the Association of Photographers’ re-usage guidelines and this will supersede any previous estimate.

Where extra expenses or time are incurred by the photographer as a result of alterations to the original brief by the Client, or otherwise at its request, the Client shall be liable to pay such extra expenses or fees, in addition to the original agreed rates.

If the Client is not present during the shoot then the photographer’s interpretation of the brief is deemed acceptable to the Client. There is no right to reject on the basis of style or composition.  In the event of any rejection, fees payable to the photographer are 100% of the agreed fees.

Manipulation of images may only take place with the permission of the photographer.

Any images that EC are required to obtain from third parties will be charged as an additional cost.

The client guarantees that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork provided to EC for inclusion in their project are owned by the client, or that the client has permission from the rightful owner to use each of these elements, and will hold harmless, protect, indemnify and defend EC and its subcontractors from any and all liability (including solicitors fees and court costs), including any claim or suit, threatened or actual, arising from the use of such elements provided by the client.

Evidence of ownership or permissions may be requested by ECDS if deemed necessary.

The copyright to the markup, CSS files, other code that may have been used by EC for the client, or certain images that EC may have supplied to or for the client are licensed in connection with this project and will be licensed solely to the client. The client owns the copyright and all files attached to this project.

EC reserve the right as the Company responsible for the design and/or development to place a small and unobtrusive link at the bottom of the client’s website as a credit.

As the design company, EC also reserve the right to display and link to completed projects as part of their portfolio, and to write about the project on other web sites, in magazine or ezine articles, books, written or digital publications of any design and source. Please inform EC in advance of the website going live if this is unacceptable.

A special fee will be negotiated when the booking is in conjunction with a brand which precludes work for competing brands. It is the client’s responsibility to check whether conflicting work has been done. EC are able to work for a competitor unless an exclusion fee is negotiated.

Any cause for complaint should be reported to EC when it arises. Complaints cannot be considered in retrospect.

EC fully complies with GDPR and is committed to ensuring that any data collected is secure and protected against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, and damage. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, suitable physical, technical and managerial procedures have been put in place to safeguard and secure the information collected.

The Company Privacy Policy is displayed on the website, and this includes the Cookie Policy.  This sets out what data EC collects, how it is used and how it is stored.  Acceptance of these terms and conditions constitute acceptance of our Privacy Policy.

These terms and conditions for booking and all other matters connected with the booking are governed by English Law and any dispute will be settled in accordance with that law by a court in England.

If legal representation is required to resolve a dispute, all costs incurred shall be claimed from the client in addition to late payment fees in accordance with The Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2002, (UK late payment legislation act 1998).

We reserve the right to negotiate within the structure of these terms and conditions.

These terms and conditions are without prejudice to any claim against the client.

As a supplier of services, these terms and conditions take precedence over terms and conditions that may be received from the client even when those terms and conditions have a similar clause to this.