TERMS OF SERVICE

By purchasing any services from Highland Creative you agree to the Terms of Service stated below.

Updated: June 8th, 2022

Independent Contractor

Highland Creative (HC) and employees are independent contractors; and are not employees, partners, or affiliates with any company of you, the Client(s). HC will provide graphic, blog, email, photography, web design, and other marketing-related services under your direction; however, HC retains the right to decide the manner and means that the services are accomplished.

Proposal

Project Pricing options will have a Proposal attached and will serve as what HC notes as “your Proposal” throughout the entire process. The Proposal itself will be effective only for the period of time listed under the “validity date” found on the Proposal itself. If HC receives an email from you after the validity date has expired, another proposal may be drafted and emailed to you for approval. Once signed, HC’s Proposal Acceptance Agreement will serve as a binding contract between you and HC in conjunction with the Proposal itself, alongside these Terms of Service. The pricing and terms of each Proposal are subject to change anytime after the validity date has expired.

Concepts & Revisions

HC provides all clients up to 2 revisions based on one initial concept for each project, as is included in your proposal. Once the amount of maximum revisions has been reached no further revisions can take place unless the client pays an additional fee for each additional revision(s). Additional revisions may extend or delay the completion date or deadline at no fault of HC.

Client Responsibilities & Completion

HC prefers email correspondence for all projects. HC and its employees do not accept any type of questions or troubleshooting about current or past projects made via Social Media. HC and its employees do accept testimonials via email.

a) It is imperative that you, the Client, return all correspondence with detailed, constructive feedback within 3 business days to keep all projects moving forward smoothly. In the event, there is no response within 3 business days, HC reserves the right to bill you for any additional fees incurred. Additionally, if there is no response within 10 business days, HC reserves the right to terminate the Agreement and bill any unpaid balances, if any, at that point. Payments made towards the project(s) as described in the Proposal will be used as a kill fee in order to compensate HC’s time and expenses in the event the Agreement has been terminated.

b) It is extremely important to HC that you, the Client, are happy with the services we provide. To that end, it is very important that you take the time to research and think about what you want your designs to look like before we start and clearly communicate your ideas to HC by thoroughly completing all project planning guides.

c) RAW’s project completion dates vary based on response times to her correspondence and the type of project being worked on. HC prioritizes and plans out a design schedule for each day, week, and month depending on the current amount of Client and/or work that needs to be completed. All project planning guides must be returned before any work will begin on a project. In general, the initial design process is the most lengthy potentially taking up to 10 business days for initial concepts to be delivered. Please allow up to 5 to 7 business days for revisions to be made and returned to you. For all rush/weekend/holiday services please inform HC of the extent of the project as well as the rush completion date and expect to pay a premium for all rush services.

d) The client is responsible to back up a copy of their original template, widgets or plugins, graphic files, images, and other supporting collateral.

e) The client is responsible for all content creation for both posts and pages on websites.

f) You also agree that once final(s) have been released, distributed, reviewed, and signed off, by you that HC no longer holds any responsibility for any/all errors and will not be held responsible for any errors once a project has been sent to print, been published, distributed, displayed, etc. in any way. You, the Client, also acknowledge that you will incur any/all costs to remedy the error in any manner at no fault of HC.

g) Once a project has begun and you have acknowledged either by a digital signature, visiting the Highland Creative website and/or on Highland Creative’s forms that you have read, understand, and agreed to Highland Creative’s Terms of Service Agreement; you, the Client, will be held to all standards set in the Agreement, as well as any and all legal fees necessitated to resolve any dispute that may arise at no fault of HC for this project and all future projects with HC.

Testing & Installation

HC uses and tests the latest versions of these browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on a Mac. Site designs will display correctly in the most current versions of Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome as of the installation date. HC does not guarantee that a design will render or display exactly the same on the aforementioned internet browsers. HC cannot guarantee your design will display properly in any outdated or future versions of any of the web browsers. HC does not design for or guarantee that your design will display properly on Internet Explorer. We highly suggest you download the most updated version of a modern internet browser and view all revisions or test sites on a computer monitor, not a mobile device.

a) HC will ask you for approval of the test site or design before installation and at that point, there will be no more revisions made to the design during or after installation.

b) Your site will be ‘under construction’ for several hours while HC installs the new design. We can decide together what will be the best time for installation. On occasion, certain existing widgets or plugins will not work with your new design. You agree to not hold HC liable for any loss or damage to your site or website content during the installation of your design, or any time after installation.

c) Once you have signed off on a project, HC considers the project to be in full working order and complete. In addition, if the Client does not respond or complete the sign-off agreement within 10 business days of the request or last communication with said Client, HC will consider the project to be in full working order and complete, at no fault of HC.

d) Any changes or revisions requested and made after project completion and sign-off will be billed at HC’s current hourly rate.

e) All digital signatures made to online agreements signed by you, the Client, are considered legally binding.

Payment & Refunds

HC accepts payments via Stripe or ACH Transfer.

a) All payments must clear before work can begin.

b) A 50% deposit is required to hold your place in the design queue with full payment due before any work on the Client’s project can begin. Any additional costs not specified in the initial proposal will be billed prior to installation.

c) HC will refund all payments in deposit minus a 10% cancellation fee if the Client cancels the project prior to the project start date.

d) Once work has begun, any amount paid will be used as a kill fee to cover the time and work that has been put into a project in the event the Client wishes to stop working with HC, at no fault of HC.

e) If full payment is not received within 5 business days of the initial invoice being sent, you will lose your place in the design queue and the project will need to be rescheduled based on the current design schedule. In addition, final files will only be sent after full payment has been received and has cleared. HC reserves the right to hold all projects until payment has cleared.

f) In the event, HC is working at an hourly rate, the rate will be billed in 15-minute increments unless otherwise stated, and described as such on the invoice. All hourly work is tracked by an online time tracking tool and must be paid in full before final files will be released in any capacity to you.

g) In the event a Stripe or other dispute is filed against HC or payment is overdue, HC reserves the right to revoke all Client rights to the deliverables discussed in the Proposal and they will remain the property of HC until the dispute is resolved. In addition, HC reserves the right to hold all deliverables until full payment is received.

h) All payment information given to HC in any form is kept confidential at all times.

Additional Costs

Additional costs include, but are not limited to: additional revisions above and beyond what was included in the Proposal; custom coding; installation of additional plugins; hosting fees; fonts; photography; custom illustrations; digital scrapbook kits; additional stock photos; and/or any other graphic, item, or coding not specifically listed in the Proposal.

Liability

The completed services are provided “as is” once the service has been paid in full and all assets have been delivered. In no event shall HC be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of data or profit, or due to business interruption) arising out of the use or inability to use the materials and services provided by HC, even if HC, or an authorized representative has been notified orally or in writing of the occurrence or possibility of such damage. HC makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties including, but without limitation: implied warranties or conditions of merchantability.

Privacy

HC respects the privacy of your personal & confidential information at all times.

a) The Client agrees to provide HC access usernames and passwords to any hosting, domain account, and site account for installing and updating the web products as needed. This information only is used for the purpose of completing your project.

b) HC takes extreme caution to keep the information shared with HC for billing & project set-up/installation purposes private & secure.

c) At no time will any information from past or present clients given to HC for billing & project set-up/installation, by the Client, be shared or sold for any reason.

d) In the event, any of HC’s accounts or personal property is hacked or stolen, you will be notified immediately. You agree to not hold HC responsible for loss of information. In addition, any dispute filed against HC by you, the Client, as a result of a privacy issue will be held to all standards set in the Agreement, as well as any and all legal fees necessitated to resolve any dispute that may arise at no fault of HC.

e) Email subscription lists will not be shared or sold for any reason.

Copyright

HC retains the Copyright to any and all work completed by HC and its representatives in the event a project is terminated at no fault of HC or until full payment is made on all fees including: quote, additional fees, etc. incurred for the project. HC will retain the right to reproduce, publish and display all work created for you in HC’s portfolios, websites, galleries, periodicals, exhibits, advertisements, etc. for the purposes of recognition of creative excellence or professional advancement. Copyright violation is strictly prohibited and protected by law. Any design not specifically copyright & purchased as a “logo design” may not under any circumstances be utilized for branding purposes other than what the design was initially designed for, unless licensing is purchased from HC which will allow the client the rights to use the design as a “logo” on all types of marketing materials for branding purposes. (ie: header design for website/blog may not be used as a logo for business cards, social media exposure., etc., etc.) All images that are created by HC are copyrighted to THEM, as designer. All images are to be used for their intended purposes only and are not to be copied and used elsewhere on the Internet or in print. You do not have permission to give away, sell, print, or change these images without the written approval of HC. If you are re-designing your site with another designer and would like to use any of HC’s graphics or elements please be prepared to pay a release fee.

Support

HC provides limited support via email after project completion for a period of 14 days dependent upon the type of service provided. Support applies only to the functionality of a site or website design and does not include or apply to: additional graphic(s) or a change to any graphic(s); content changes or additions; additional coding etc. Design changes and/or website maintenance is not included and will be billed at HC’s hourly rate.

Credits

HC will install a copyright bar located at the footer of your site. These credits are not to be removed or changed in any way. If you would like these credits removed please be prepared to pay a release fee.

Hosting

HC recommends HC Hosting for all web hosting purposes; if you have another hosting company please contact us first to see if we can work with the host of your choice before accepting HC’s Proposal Agreement.

Fonts

HC will only use commercial use fonts, purchased fonts, or open source fonts such as Google Web Fonts in the images created. Clients will be offered both free and paid fonts to choose from for type purposes on their site. Webfont licenses will be purchased at the client’s expense and added to the final bill. Clients who request a specific font that requires a commercial license will be asked to purchase that font and webfont license at their expense.

Image Purchasing

There is an allowance for stock images. Beyond that images will be purchased at the client’s expense and added to the final bill. Images that clients will be billed for will only be purchased with the clients consent.

Alteration

You, the Client, will be able to fully customize your sidebar widgets and pages once HC is finished with the installation. You are responsible for your sidebar content unless otherwise specified in the proposal. You may not alter or change the design in any way without written permission from HC, as it is a reflection of our work. Please notify HC if you are going to remove the design.

Printing

Proposals do not include fees that may be incurred to have the project printed after final file delivery. Please get a printed proof before confirming your order.

Terms of Service Agreement subject to change at any time without notice, at HC’s discretion. If you have any questions about these terms please contact: rachel@highlandcreativeco.com