Terms and Conditions

“Design Hero” refers to the limited company “Design Hero Limited”

the “client” refers to any person, business, organization using any service provided by Design Hero

Scope of Works

Your “design proposal” sent by email forms a contract of the scope of works
By engaging Design Hero for your project, you are agreeing to the scope set out in your proposal and on this terms page.

Terms of Services

Branding

Ownership of Brand: Upon full payment by the client, the designer will transfer ownership of the brand assets and designs to the client. Until full payment has been received by the Designer, all rights, title, and interest in and to the designs created as part of the project (the “Designs”) shall remain the exclusive property of the Designer.

Upon receipt of full payment, the Designer grants the Client a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, and display the final Designs for the intended purpose outlined in the Scope of Work.

After completion, the Designer withholds the right to display the work online for promotional purposes, including modification of the original designs, or promotion of unused assets or concepts.

Any concepts, designs or assets not used in the final brand remain the property of the Designer.

Web Design

Ownership of Website: Upon full payment by the client, the web designer will transfer ownership of the website to the client. However, the client may not resell or transfer ownership of the website platform to any third party for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of the web designer., for the reason that your website contains plugin licenses and other paid materials which will need to be removed before sale.

Restrictions on Use: The client may use the website solely for its intended purpose and may not modify, reproduce, distribute, or display the website in any manner that infringes upon the web designer’s intellectual property rights or violates any applicable laws or regulations.

Confidentiality: The client agrees to keep all information related to the website, including any confidential information provided by the web designer, confidential and to use such information solely for the purpose of maintaining and updating the website. The client shall not disclose any such information to any third party without the prior written consent of the web designer.

Indemnification: The client agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the web designer, its affiliates, officers, directors, agents, and employees from any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, or expenses arising from the client’s use of the website, including any violation of the terms and conditions set forth herein.

Termination: The web designer may terminate this agreement at any time if the client breaches any of the terms and conditions set forth herein. Upon termination, the client shall immediately cease using the website and return all copies of the website and related materials to the web designer.

SEO Services

SEO services are a flywheel marketing activity that requires front-loaded resources and activities by Design Hero. For this reason SEO is long-term commitment, charged in monthly instalments.

By signing up to a Design Hero SEO plan you are committing to a 6 month contract for SEO services between the client and Design Hero.

The term of Design Hero SEO contracts are valid for6months (“Initial Term”). Failure to complete the agreed-upon Initial Term shall result in financial charges related to an estimate of cost and services for the project. After the expiration of the Initial Term this Agreement shall automatically renew for an additional one (1) month periods or the same period as selected at the time of initial purchase of Services until terminated by either party.

Because SEO work is “front-loaded”, cancellation before the 6-month initial contract requires payment of 50% of the remaining service fees during the Initial Term plus a £200 cancellation charge.

After 6 months, SEO clients can stop work by giving a minimum of 90 days written notice (for contracts up to £500 per month) or 180 days written notice (for contracts over £500 per month) which will begin at the end of the current monthly period. If the notice period runs into the subsequent months work the Client will be liable to make payment for the subsequent month in full, payments will not be pro-rated.*

All payments to Design Hero with regard to the SEO service are non-refundable.

Design Hero may need to edit your site in order to carry out site optimisation work or provide you with instructions on changes to be made.

Design Hero will attempt to increase the rank of your website on search engines. We’re confident we provide positive results however there is however no iron-clad guarantee that we can do this. Your monthly payment is in respect of work carried out, not of results or search engine rankings.

Design Hero can not be held financially liable in any way with regard to your website ranking on the search engines.

Social Media Services

Social Media packages operate under a minimum 3 month initial contract.
After the 3month initial term, clients can stop work by giving a minimum of 30 days written notice (for contracts up to £600 per month) which will begin at the end of the current monthly period.
If the notice period runs into the subsequent months work the Client will be liable to make payment for the subsequent month in full, payments will not be pro-rated.*

All payments to Design Hero with regard to the Social Services are non-refundable.

Design Hero may need to edit your site or social profiles in order to carry out site optimisation work, tracking codes or provide you with instructions on changes to be made.

Design Hero will attempt to increase the engagement or scope of your social audience. There is however no guarantee that we can do this. Your monthly payment is in respect of work carried out, not of results.

PPC Services

PPC clients can stop work by giving a minimum of 30 days written notice (for contracts up to £250 per month) or 90 days written notice (for contracts over £250 per month) which will begin at the end of the current monthly period. If the notice period runs into the subsequent months work the Client will be liable to make payment for the subsequent month in full, payments will not be pro-rated.*

All payments to Design Hero with regard to the PPC services are non-refundable.

Design Hero may need to edit your website or social profiles in order to carry out site optimisation work, tracking codes or provide you with instructions on changes to be made.

Design Hero will attempt to provide leads for your business. There is however no guarantee that we can do this. Your monthly payment is in respect of work carried out, not of results.

Maintenance and Support

Web hosting and support

Our web hosting and support package combines multiple products, services and plugin licenses, which allow us to offer our service and is not customizable or adjustable.

Please be aware my policy is I don’t work on 3rd party hosting, or client hosting, or 3rd party servers, due to too many risks and unknowns (unless by prior agreement during the contract phase)

Our hosting and support package is set out in your original design contract.

Your web hosting & support package will start from when we begin hosting your website, which will be the start of the “build” phase.

Please note hosting fees apply even if your website is not visible to the public.

(Please note you will be given x1 free grace period, so your hosting fees will start from the beginning of the next month)

example. if we start the website build on 4th Jan, your first hosting fee will be 1st Feb.

Your web hosting and support package will be billed monthly.

The minimum period for your web hosting and support package is 6 months from the date of site launch,

After which the terms are reduced to a rolling monthly contract with 30 days cancellation notice.

Support is limited to services or products provided directly by Design Hero.

Outwith a Design Hero support or hosting package, maintenance & support will be charged at £50hr

If immediate attention/action is needed, unsocial hours charges of £75/hr may apply.

Design Hero can take no responsibility for services provided by third parties, including website servers,  plugins or website integrations.

Design Hero can take no responsibility for events outwith our control, or actions by other parties such as cyberware attacks, malicious activities or sabotage.

Design Hero will always endeavor to ensure that website downtime is kept to a minimum.

Updates to websites

Your hosting and support package covers “minor updates” to your website.

Minor updates are classed as small updates to existing text or images requiring less than half an hour per task to complete.

Updates not covered under your hosting and support plan will be billed at an hourly rate of £50/hr+VAT.

The client will be advised if any work is billable beforehand and asked if they wish to proceed.

Requests must be submitted by email.

Examples of what is covered

✅ Small updates to text content
✅ Swapping like for like images
✅ Changing contact details

Examples of what is not covered

❌ Correction of errors from client updates.
❌ Design changes
❌ Adding or editing functionality
❌ Changing site layout or structure
❌ Adding whole pages
❌ Adding blog posts
❌ Adding bespoke designed elements
❌ E-commerce support (an e-commerce support package can be agreed by prior arrangement)
❌ Fixing issues arising from 3rd party systems

Turnaround times for updates

We aim to attend to updates that don’t affect site functionality within 10 working days (9am to 5pm Mon-Fri). It can be more or less depending on current workload.
We aim to attend to updates that negatively affect site functionality within 5 working days(9am to 5pm Mon-Fri). It can be more or less depending on current workload.
We aim to attend to any website downtime as soon as possible, and aim to respond within 2 working days (9am to 5pm Mon-Fri).

Email Hosting

Design Hero Limited provides budget webmail email packages. The Customer acknowledges that the email hosting services may be subject to limitations and the Company shall not be liable for any loss or damage caused by any email hosting limitations.

Design Hero email packages may not be used for bulk marketing email campaigns. Customers should use email marketing services like Mailchimp or Constant Contact for this.

Design Hero reserves the right to cancel emails used for bulk marketing campaigns, to protect the spam rating of the email server for other customers.

The customer may cancel email hosting with just 30 days notice required in writing.

In the event of cancellation, Design Hero will cancel any future payments outwith the 30 day notice period and at the end of the billing period, Design Hero will delete all customer data and content hosted on the Company’s servers.

The customer will note that the email hosting service provided by Design Hero is limited to basic webmail hosting only.

The customer is advised to set up their webmail through a proper email client such as Outlook or Gmail, to ensure deliverability and backups.

Design Hero will not be liable to the Customer for any loss of data, loss of profits, or any indirect or consequential loss or damage arising out of or in connection with the provision of the Services.

The Customer shall indemnify Design Hero Limited against all claims, liabilities, costs, and expenses arising out of or in connection with the Customer’s use of email hosting services.

Content

The client is legally responsible for all project content (including, but not limited to, text and images) and by supplying text, images and other data to Design Hero for inclusion in the customer’s website or other medium, the client 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. The client agrees to fully indemnify and hold Design Hero 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.

Where Design Hero has quoted for functionality such as blog posts, products, services and/or bookable items, responsibility is limited to building the website functionality based on a small no. of sample posts. Unless specifically requested by the client, Design Hero is not responsible for creating and uploading bulk data and all final content such as products, services and blog posts.

Design Hero will not be held responsible for any legal difficulties resulting from content supplied by the client, including photography and text.

Correction of Errors

Revisions/feedback will only be accepted in typed form.

Design Hero takes no responsibility for the functionality or maintenance of the website after the work has been completed unless a maintenance agreement has been arranged for updates and amendments prior to work commencing.

Errors (both technical and typographical) attributable to Design Hero will be corrected free of charge.

Design Hero reserves the right to charge a reasonable fee for correction of errors for which Design Hero is not responsible, including, but not limited to malicious modification of the website by a third party and typographical errors contained in materials provided to Design Hero by the client.

Design Hero’s liability will be limited to the replacement of any defective works.

Design Hero will not be held responsible for any consequential damages resulting from errors in the work.

Promotion of Work

Unless specifically agreed upon in writing for specific reasons, Design Hero reserves the right to promote any work for marketing reasons and credit design services in print, online and in social media including links leading back to www.designhero.com

Design Hero reserves the right to reuse and repurpose, and promote any unused work for future projects.

Fees

By agreeing to the design proposal sent via email, the client agrees to the terms set out on this page.
Design Hero reserves the right to fee for work instructed by the client, even if the output is unused or no longer required or desired by the client.

Design Hero reserves the right to amend fees for any additional hours beyond the original scope of the project set out in the initial Design Proposal email.

Any fees paid in advance must be redeemed against design services by Design Hero within 6 months of payment date, unless by prior arrangement in writing.

Any license fees for plugins required by the client will be charged to the client via GoCardless. Any plugins with license fees will be discussed with the client beforehand.

Payment for Marketing Retainers

Design Hero offers ongoing marketing services feed via monthly Direct Debits.

These marketing services are a flywheel activity that requires front-loaded resources and labour provided by Design Hero. For this reason, our marketing plans are a long-term commitment, charged in monthly instalments.

By signing up to a Design Hero marketing package you are committing to a 6-month contract for marketing services between the client and Design Hero.

The term of Design Hero marketing contracts are valid for 6 months (“Initial Term”). Failure to complete the agreed-upon Initial Term shall result in financial charges related to an estimate of cost and services for the project. After the expiration of the Initial Term, this Agreement shall automatically renew for an additional one (1) month periods or the same period as selected at the time of initial purchase of Services until terminated by either party.

Cancellation before the 6-month initial contract requires payment in full of the remaining service fees during the Initial Term.

Until completion of the 6-month initial contract, any works carried out by Design Hero belong to Design Hero.

The client can cancel their contract and request ownership of the marketing materials by buying out the remaining value due under the initial 6-month contract.

After 6 months, clients can stop work by giving a minimum of 90 days written notice (for contracts up to £500 per month) or 180 days written notice (for contracts over £500 per month) which will begin at the end of the current monthly period. If the notice period runs into the subsequent months work the Client will be liable to make payment for the subsequent month in full, payments will not be pro-rated.*

All payments to Design Hero with regard to the marketing services are non-refundable.

By paying via Design Hero’s marketing retainers, the client recognises that the payment instalments are not related to project progress.

The client agrees that these payment instalments are still payable even if the client decides to cancel or delay the project, or no longer requires the project output.

If the client decides to delay the project, any outstanding fees will still be taken on the designated charge date set out in your initial invoice.

If the client decides to cancel the project entirely, any outstanding fees will be payable in full within 14 days.

Any additional works out with the original scope of works set out in your design proposal will be charged separately.

Payment Instalment Plans

Design Hero offers to split fees into 5 equal payment instalments, to make financing easier on startup businesses.

Please note the following points on my payment instalment plans:

The client is paying a one-off fee for the project, which is financed by Design Hero across x5 equal instalments on prearranged dates.

By coming onboard, you are agreeing to pay the full amount of the project,

Design hero is only financing the cost of your project across several instalments, which means taking on your business risk.

Your first payment secures your place in the work queue.

By paying via Design Hero’s payment instalment plan, the client agrees that one-off fees will be charged in 5 equal instalments.

By paying via Design Hero’s payment instalment plan the client agrees to payment instalments being charged automatically via direct debit on the dates set out in your initial project invoice or design proposal.

By paying via Design Hero’s payment instalment plan, the client recognises that the payment instalments are not related to project progress, and are due at the designated dates set out in your initial contract.
(Please note, that this means that all your payment instalments may be paid before your project is complete.)

The client agrees that these payment instalments are part of the initial fee charged for the project, and are still payable even if the client decides to cancel or delay the project, or no longer requires the project output.

If the client decides to delay the project, fees will still be due and be taken by Direct Debit on the designated charge date set out in your initial invoice.

If the client decides to cancel the project, any outstanding fees will be payable in full within 14 days (see my cancellation policy for more info)

Any additional works out with the original scope of works set out in your design proposal will be charged separately via additional direct debits, which will be discussed with the client prior to billing.

Direct Debits

Your Direct Debit is essential to take payments for ongoing services such as web hosting.

Since I have hundreds of clients, it would be physically impossible for me to send, check, and chase payments manually.

Since I finance your project for you in x5 equal instalments, I’m also taking on your business risk.

Therefore, your direct debit must be active in order to continue with your project.

Please note cancelling the direct debit does not cancel the project and may result in late fees if your payment fails.

Please note cancelling the direct debit does not cancel fees due and may result in late fees if your payment fails.

Please note each time a payment fails, or your direct debit is cancelled it costs Design hero £6, so if you’re ever having difficulty paying I would much rather that instead of cancelling you can just speak to me about it and we’ll figure something out.

It takes considerable time to set up each Direct Debit and payment schedule, so please note if the client cancels their direct debit, or if a payment fails more than x2 times, an additional admin fee of £60 will be incurred for each subsequent cancellation or missed payment to account for admin costs.

Late Payments

I’m pretty flexible so I always try to avoid this, but please be aware that Design Hero reserves the right to charge 5% interest per month on late invoices, to account for the extra admin required in chasing up late payments.

“Dormant Project” Policy

If we haven’t been able to reach you for more than 30 days, or we have not been able to make progress on your project for more than 30 days, we have a policy that your project will go into a “dormant” state.

Don’t worry, we’re human beings; We are always open to listening and understanding your position and will do our best to help whenever we can, We just need to communicate 😊 We will always let you know before your project goes into a dormant state.

When your project goes into a “dormant state”, the team must be retasked, information must be requested and processed multiple times, and we must do additional admin.

For this reason, there is a small charge to reactivate your project due to loss of continuity and time to restart a project after dormancy.

The ‘dormant project fee’ is a one-off fee, at a maximum of 10% of the total project value, chargeable each time the dormant project clause is triggered.
This fee will not always be charged when a project goes dormant, however, Design Hero reserves the right to apply the ‘dormant project fee’ to cover extra work or complications for Design Hero.

Cancellation

Design Hero takes on a limited number of clients per quarter. On proceeding with a design proposal with Design Hero, the client is securing time in my work schedule, and reserving one of a limited no of spaces in Design Hero’s client roster.

Therefore the client can cancel a project but must compensate Design Hero for the loss of earnings which would have been filled by another party.

Either party may terminate a project by providing not less than 14 days written notice to the other party.

In the event the client initiates a cancellation, the client shall pay for all work carried out, up to the date of cancellation, plus expenses already incurred up to the date of cancellation, plus 25% of the project fee in the design proposal, which must be paid within 14 days of cancellation notice.

After payment, ownership of all the original artwork for any work which has been paid for shall be transferred to the client.

In the event Design Hero initiates a cancellation, Design Hero will send all work which has been paid for up to the date of cancellation, and cancel any fees for work which has not been carried out.

Refunds

Because of the nature of the services provided, work provided by Design Hero is bespoke and specific to each brand and client.

Therefore work carried out by Design Hero (including physical assets, digital assets, design assets and labour) is non-refundable, even if the output is unused, or no longer required or desired by the client.

Dispute Resolution

Non–Payment of Services

If Design Hero does not receive payment by the designated charge date, we offer a 7-day grace period, after which we will stop working on your project until payment is received, however, payments owed will still be required.

In the event of the Client failing to make any payment by the end of the grace period,
Design Hero will be entitled to take any or all of the following actions
in any order it sees fit:-

• Require immediate payment of all monthly fees due during the remainder of the Initial Period;
• Issue written demands for the sum due, each such demand attracting a fee of £15 payable by Client;
• Suspend all the services until payment has been made in full;
• Require removal of all changes made to the Client website which were made with direct reference to work and reports provided by Design Hero, The client understands such implementations are the intellectual property of Design Hero and must be paid for in full or removed.
• Add fees charged by our collections team charged at £400+VAT or 20% of the debt owed (greater of).

Design Hero accepts no liability for any losses or damages which may be suffered by Client (or any person claiming under or through Client), whether the same are suffered directly or indirectly or are immediate or consequential, and whether the same arise in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise howsoever, which fall within any of the following categories:

• special damage, even though Design Hero was aware of the circumstances in which such special damage could arise;
• loss of profits;
• loss of anticipated savings
• loss of business opportunity;
• loss of or goodwill;
• loss of or damage to data;

Design Hero cannot be held responsible for anything adversely affecting the Client’s business operation, sales, or profitability that might be claimed as a result of a service offered by Design Hero.

The terms above are a last resort only and Design Hero will always try to reach an amicable agreement or payment plan first. Everyone has slow months; on occasions when a client has fallen into financial difficulty we have always worked out a payment plan on amicable terms;

I’ve never had to resort to debt collection, and have not fallen out with any clients yet, however have to cover all the bases! 😁😊

Updates and Amendments

This webpage acts as a live document of our terms and conditions of service. Design Hero may amend these terms and conditions at any time. The link to these terms can be found in your initial onboarding email. The customer’s continued use of the Services following any amendments to these terms and conditions shall constitute acceptance of such amendments.