The following Terms and Conditions of Service apply to all products and services provided by Nextep Design. All work is carried out by Nextep Design on the understanding that the client has agreed to Nextep Design’s terms and conditions. Copyright is retained by Nextep Design 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 design is presented, only one solution is deemed to be given by Nextep Design as fulfilling the contract. All other designs remain the property of Nextep Design, unless agreed in writing that this arrangement has been changed.
PROJECT ACCEPTANCE
At the time of proposal, Nextep Design will provide the customer with a written estimate or quotation. The Terms and Conditions can be read on Nextep Design’s website. The client may send an official order in reply to the estimate or quotation which binds the client to accept Nextep Design’s terms and conditions. Once a project is approved to commence, it means that the client accepted all terms and conditions.
DESIGN CHARGES
Charges for design services to be provided by Nextep Design, will be set out in the written estimate or quotation that is provided to the customer. At the time of the customer’s acceptance of this estimate or quotation, indicating acceptance of the Terms & Conditions, work on the project will commence and the client will then be invoiced for all work completed. Final pdf or jpg files will be sent to customer after payment has been received.
ARTWORK APPROVAL, ERRORS AND OMISSIONS
Nextep Design will take all reasonable care to check proofs carefully for accuracy in all respects, ranging from spelling to technical illustrations. However, it is considered the responsibility of the Client to check all artwork carefully before final sign off and publishing. As a result, Nextep Design is not liable for loss, expense or damage caused by any act or omission.
PAYMENT
The customer will be provided with an Approval Form and/or Review of the work provided with 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 submit the Approval Form to Nextep Design. Payments may be made by cash, bank transfer or Paypal. Publication and/or release of work done by Nextep Design on behalf of the client, may not take place before cleared funds have been received.
DEFAULT
An account shall be considered default if it remains unpaid for 30 days from the date of invoice. Nextep Design shall be considered entitled to remove Nextep Design 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, business cards, flyers, pamphlets, 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 it’s obligation to pay the due amount. Customers whose accounts become default agree to pay Nextep Design reasonable legal expenses and third party collection agency fees in the enforcement of these Terms and Conditions.
COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS
By supplying text, images and other data to Nextep Design for inclusion in the customer’s business cards, flyers, pamphlets, 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 Nextep Design on behalf of the customer, will remain the property of Nextep Design and/or it’s suppliers. The customer may request in writing from Nextep Design, the necessary permission to use materials (for which Nextep Design holds the copyright) in forms other than for which it was originally supplied, and Nextep Design may, at its discretion, grant this. Such permission must be obtained in writing before it will allow any of the aforesaid artwork, images, text, or other data to be used. By supplying images, text, or any other data to Nextep Design, the customer grants Nextep Design permission to use this material freely in the pursuit of the design. Should Nextep Design, or the customer supply an image, text, audio clip or any other file for use in a business cards, flyers, pamphlets, 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 Nextep Design to remove and/or replace the file on the site. The customer agrees to fully indemnify and hold Nextep Design 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 required to be carried out after acceptance of the draft design will be liable to a separate charge. The customer also agrees that Nextep Design 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 Nextep Design, 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 Nextep Design and any of it’s 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. Nextep Design will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from such claims. Nextep Design is not responsible for any loss, or consequential loss, non-delivery of products or services, of whatever cause. The customer agrees not to hold Nextep Design responsible for any such loss or damage. Any claim against Nextep Design shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer.
DATA FORMATS
The client agrees to Nextep Design’s definition of acceptable means of supplying data to the company. Text is to be supplied to Nextep Design in electronic format as standard text (.txt), MS Word (.doc) via e-mail. Images which are supplied in an electronic format, are to be provided in a format as prescribed by Nextep Design via e-mail. Images must be of a quality suitable for use without any subsequent image processing, and Nextep Design will not be held responsible for any image quality which the client later deems to be unacceptable. Nextep Design 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.
DESIGN PROJECT DURATION
Any indication given by Nextep Design of a design project’s duration is to be considered by the customer to be an estimation. Nextep Design 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 Nextep Design for the initial payment or by date confirmed in writing by Nextep Design.
DESIGN PROJECT COMPLETION
Nextep Design considers the design project complete upon receipt of the customer’s Review and signed Approval form. Other services such as printing, display panel production, filmwork, website uploading, publishing etc., either contracted on the clients behalf constitute a separate project and can be treated as a separate charge.
DESIGN CREDITS
The customer agrees to allow Nextep Design to place a small credit on printed material exhibition displays, advertisements and/or a link to Nextep Design’ 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 Nextep Design to place websites and other designs, along with a link to the client’s site on Nextep Design’ own website for demonstration purposes and to use any designs in its own publicity.
RIGHTS OF REFUSAL
Nextep Design 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. Nextep Design also reserves the right to refuse to include submitted material without giving reason. Any images and/or data that Nextep Design does include in all good faith, and then finds out that it contravenes these Terms and Conditions, the customer is obliged to allow Nextep Design to remove the contravention without hindrance, or penalty. Nextep Design 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, Nextep Design will need formal notification in writing to the company’s email or postal adress. 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.
DISCLAIMER
Nextep Design makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, for any and all products and/or services that it supplies. Nextep Design will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from products and/or services it supplies. Nextep Design 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 Nextep Design responsible for any such loss or damage. Any claim against Nextep Design shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer. Nextep Design 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. Nextep Design will not knowingly perform any actions to contravene these and the client also agrees to be so bound. Nextep Design 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. Nextep Design 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. Nextep Design reserves the right to change any rates and any of the Terms and Conditions at any time and without prior notice.
ACCEPTANCE OF QUOTATION AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The placement of an order for design and/or any other services offered by Nextep Design and validated by the customer on the estimate or quotation form, 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 customer and Nextep Design.