Design Retainers
What is a Design Retainer?
Between digital, social media and new retail channels, the quantity of visual materials brands are expected to produce has soared. And customers more critical than ever, expecting a seamless omnichannel experience with their favorite brands.
This is a challenge for brands who might not have the budget for a big agency, don't have the need for extra full-time in-house designers, but still need regular design help and don't want the headache of managing a patchwork freelance design team.
WhO DO YOU WORK WITH?
We love partnering with brands on an on-going basis to see them grow and evolve. Ideally for a retainer, you have a constant stream of design needs. We've done on-going design work for brands such as Estee Lauder, Ouidad, Laura Geller, AHAVA and others.
The advantages to you include first priority for your projects so you get faster turnaround times, consistently high-quality design, and scalability. We find building a long-term relationship and deep brand knowledge has immeasurable advantages.
Retainers also include calls on a weekly or as-needed basis as well as access to our project management system.
How Does a Retainer Work?
1. Discovery Conversation
Discussion about your goals of the project, what your brand's needs are and how we could best address them.
2. Sample Project
To see if it's a good fit, we like to first take on a small, sample project — for example and email blast, banner ads, or label resizing. This helps us learn each other's work styles and streamline our process. Since we see this as a partnership, this is fully-refundable if it does not meet your needs.
3. Planning and Projects
Once we have wrapped up the sample project, we can get started mapping out your needs or you'll start sending us projects that we've discussed. We can also arrange regular weekly, monthly or as needed calls to make sure we're always on the same page.
What type of work is a good fit:
Packaging Re-sizes
Brochures
Graphic Design
Email Blasts
Banner Ads
Website Landing Pages
On-going Website Improvements
Basically all the recurring design projects that come up in the day-to-day running of your business.
What types won't work:
Large, complex projects.
We would love to help you with branding, website redesigns, or packaging designs — BUT we’d recommend tackling them as individual projects rather than on-going retainers since then tend to be more involved but also shorter in duration.
How do retainer fees work?
Retainers are based on a prepaid subscription model. If you have consistent needs (for example 4 email blasts every month) we can do a fixed price per month. If you have more variable needs, we can work on an hourly basis and notify you when we're getting close to your budget. Hours rollover
Starting at $1,000 per month, depending on your needs and volume of work.
Interested? Contact us, we'd be happy to chat.