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Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-04-28 · governed by the laws of England and Wales

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern the supply of services by Mateusz Podeszwa, a sole trader operating under the name podeszwa.dev (the “Studio”, “we”, or “us”), to a client (“you” or “the Client”). By submitting a request via the /hire form, signing in to the client portal, or paying any invoice issued by the Studio, you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted these Terms in full.

1. Definitions

  • Engagement — a single project or assignment for which the Studio has accepted a brief from you, identified in the client portal as a “gig”.
  • Brief — the description of the engagement submitted by you and accepted by the Studio.
  • Deliverables — any output, draft, or work product produced by the Studio in connection with an engagement, whether transmitted to you or held internally.
  • Milestone — a discrete, defined unit of work within an engagement.
  • Final Revision — the deliverable formally tagged as such by the Studio at the conclusion of an engagement and released to you on settlement of all outstanding invoices.

2. Engagement and acceptance

  1. You may submit a hire request via the /hire form. Submission does not constitute acceptance by the Studio.
  2. The Studio reserves absolute discretion to accept or decline any request, with or without explanation.
  3. Acceptance is confirmed by the Studio promoting the gig to “Active” status in the client portal.
  4. Once active, the engagement is governed by these Terms together with any milestones, scope notes, and budget figures recorded in the portal.

3. Fees and payment

  1. Fees are quoted per engagement and may be split into one or more invoices at the Studio’s discretion.
  2. All invoices are issued via Stripe and payable in pounds sterling (GBP) unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing.
  3. Payment is due by the date stated on the invoice. Where no date is stated, payment is due within fourteen (14) days of the invoice issue date.
  4. The Studio reserves the right to suspend work, withhold deliverables, and refuse to release the Final Revision while any invoice remains unsettled.
  5. Refunds are governed by the Studio’s Refund Policy, which forms part of these Terms.
  6. Where required by law or by tax registrations recorded with the Studio’s payment provider, applicable VAT, sales tax, or equivalent levies will be added to invoiced amounts and remitted to the relevant tax authority.

4. Scope, milestones, and revisions

  1. The scope of the engagement is set out in the brief and any milestones added to the gig in the portal.
  2. The Studio includes free in-scope revisions per milestone (see Refund Policy clause 4).
  3. Out-of-scope changes will be quoted separately as additional work and require your written acceptance prior to commencement.
  4. The Studio is not obliged to undertake any work outside the agreed scope.

5. Deliverables and intellectual property

  1. On full payment of all invoices for an engagement, the Studio assigns to you all rights it owns in the Final Revision deliverables, save for those rights reserved in clause 5(c).
  2. Until full payment, all rights in deliverables (including drafts, work-in-progress, and unfinished materials) remain the sole and exclusive property of the Studio.
  3. The Studio retains:
    1. ownership of all underlying tools, frameworks, libraries, methodologies, and pre-existing materials used in the production of deliverables;
    2. the right to retain copies of completed deliverables for the Studio’s portfolio, archive, and case-study purposes; and
    3. the right to identify itself publicly as the author of the work, save where you have requested anonymity in writing prior to engagement acceptance.
  4. Third-party assets (fonts, stock imagery, plug-ins, third-party libraries, etc.) are licensed under the terms of their respective providers and are not assigned to you.

6. Client responsibilities

  1. You will provide, in a timely manner, all information, materials, access credentials, brand assets, content, and approvals reasonably required by the Studio to perform the engagement.
  2. You warrant that you have the right to use, and to authorise the Studio to use, all materials you provide.
  3. Delays caused by you will extend any agreed timeline on a day-for-day basis and may incur additional charges where they cause the engagement to span multiple billing periods.

7. Confidentiality

Each party will treat as confidential any information marked or reasonably understood to be confidential, and will not disclose such information to any third party without the other’s prior written consent, save where disclosure is required by law. This obligation survives termination of the engagement.

8. Liability

  1. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
  2. Subject to clause 8(a), the Studio’s total aggregate liability arising under or in connection with an engagement is limited to the total fees actually paid by you for that engagement.
  3. The Studio is not liable for indirect, consequential, or special losses, including loss of profits, loss of business, loss of goodwill, or loss of data.
  4. The Studio provides services with reasonable skill and care but does not warrant that any specific commercial, performance, search-engine-ranking, or revenue outcome will result from the engagement.

9. Termination by the Studio

The Studio may terminate an engagement immediately by written notice if:

  1. any invoice remains unpaid more than thirty (30) days after its due date;
  2. you commit a material breach of these Terms which is not remedied within seven (7) days of written notice;
  3. you, your employees, or your representatives behave abusively, harass the Studio or anyone associated with the Studio, or otherwise make the working relationship untenable in the Studio’s reasonable judgment; or
  4. you initiate a chargeback or third-party payment dispute in breach of clause 7 of the Refund Policy.

On termination by the Studio for any of the above causes, all unpaid invoices become immediately payable, all deliverables remain the property of the Studio, and no refund is due.

10. Termination by the Client

You may terminate an engagement on written notice. Termination by you does not entitle you to a refund save as expressly provided by clause 2 of the Refund Policy. All work completed up to the date of termination remains payable in full.

11. Force majeure

Neither party is liable for any delay or failure in performance caused by events outside its reasonable control, including acts of God, internet or hosting outages, governmental action, industrial action, illness, or any other circumstance reasonably beyond control. The Studio will use reasonable efforts to communicate impact and revised timelines where such events arise.

12. Data and privacy

The Studio processes the personal data you provide solely for the purpose of fulfilling the engagement, communicating with you, and meeting its tax and legal obligations. Personal data is stored on services located in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. The Studio does not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties except where required to fulfil the engagement (for example, payment processing via Stripe) or by law.

13. Variation

The Studio may amend these Terms from time to time. Amendments take effect for engagements commenced after the amendment date. Engagements already in progress continue under the Terms in force at their acceptance.

14. Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the Refund Policy and the contents of the gig in the client portal (brief, milestones, invoices, messages), constitute the entire agreement between you and the Studio in respect of the engagement, and supersede any prior arrangement, representation, or understanding.

15. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force and effect.

16. No waiver

The failure of either party to enforce any right under these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right.

17. Notices

Notices must be in writing and sent via the client portal’s messaging interface or to the email address recorded by either party on the most recent invoice or hire submission.

18. Third-party rights

These Terms are not enforceable by any person who is not a party to them, save as expressly stated.

19. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from or in connection with these Terms.

20. Studio details

Mateusz Podeszwa — sole trader, podeszwa.dev. Contact via the contact form.