Retainer Partnerships

“Good design is good business.”

– THOMAS WATSON JR.

When your design needs are ongoing, a retainer arrangement can be the perfect solution. Retainers offer ongoing consistency, availability, and rapport with an experienced designer, without the permanent commitment to payroll and other HR costs.

When you need guaranteed design availability, an ongoing retainer partnership is usually a great fit. But we do retainer arrangements a little different around here. We base our retainer agreements on days, rather than a bank of hours because we find the most reliable way to add value for our clients is by working with them consistently on the same day each week. By having a set day each week, you know exactly when I’ll be working on your projects. This means there is no confusion about when we’ll need any necessary materials, we always have specific, dedicated time allocated for your projects, and we’ll never accidentally work too few or too many hours. Give it a try! We have yet to have a client regret it.

Retainer arrangements work especially well for:

Startups working through product interface design, as it creates the perfect environment for cyclical iteration.
Established businesses who have ongoing design needs or are facing a large design project and want consistent guidance and deliverables from an experienced designer.
Small creative agencies who need reliable help from an experienced designer in dealing with a surge of work or a large project.

All of our retainers are month-to-month arrangements
Our month-to-month retainers offer you a great degree of flexibility, as you’re only committing to one month at a time. Simply give us 30 days’ notice when you’re ready to pause or change the contract. Month-to-month contracts are billed at a flat per-day rate, upfront at the beginning of the month.

How it works

Step 1
Select your day of the week

We base our retainer agreements on days, rather than hours because we’ve found the most reliable way to add value for our clients is by working with them consistently each week. Once you’re ready to get started, we will let you know what days of the week we have available to choose from. Once your day is set, it’ll stay that way until we both agree to change it.

Step 2
Schedule our weekly planning call

Once your day is assigned, we arrange a standing weekly planning call 1-2 days before your standing retainer day. Planning calls typically last about 30 minutes, and are designed to be a time where we can discuss which items you want help with this week and the order of priority. Then, you’ll have the rest of the day to gather up any materials we may need for our day of work. We take these calls seriously and expect all parties to show up promptly and prepared!

Step 3
We do our thing, for you!

On your day, we work through your tasks in the priority order we discussed, then we follow up at the end of the day with a progress report of what we accomplished, along with proofs and sometimes even walk-through videos. You’ll have a few days to review before our next planning call, when we’ll discuss whether we need to iterate or move on to new goals that week.

Why do you run your retainer partnerships this way?

We run our retainers like this for three reasons:

Having a set day/days of the week means you know when we'll be working on your projects, so there is no confusion about when we'll need the materials necessary to work on the projects.
Having a set day (or days) of the week means we always have specific, dedicated time allocated for your projects. This way we don't accidentally work too much or too little on them, and it helps us avoid projects sneaking up on us at the last minute.
Allocating a full day to your projects reduces interruption and increases productivity and efficiency, which often means you get a lot more work done for less investment per project.

Additional benefits of this system:

It works really well for clients who are uncertain of just how much design help they need because you can ramp it up or down as needed.
It helps reduce long-term budget commitments and HR overhead costs (especially during these uncertain times).
It provides access to senior-level design thinking and work product at a much lower investment than an equivalent hire.

Some of our favorite Retainer Partnerships

Have more questions? We have answers.

What if I need more than one day?

If we’re working on a time-sensitive project that can’t wait until our next scheduled day or if you have an unexpected project crop up, you can always book extra one-off days (pending availability) or we can log overtime hours that will simply be billed on your next invoice. Since our retainer clients are an ongoing relationship, we work hard to prioritize their needs and do whatever we can to come through for them consistently.
How long do your retainer partnerships last?

We have had retainer partnerships last anywhere from 3 months for nearly 4 years! We’ve also had clients stop and start their retainer several times as their projects ebb and flow. In terms of your contractual obligations, all of our retainers are month-to-month arrangements, which means you have a great degree of flexibility. We simply require 30 days’ notice when you’re ready to pause, change, or halt the contract.
What kind of projects can I have you work on?

Retainer design services may include and of the following: brand design, logo design, brand collateral, website information architecture, website content planning, wireframing, website design, quality-checking of websites, app design, UI design, print and digital marketing collateral, stationery, packaging, booklets, catalogs, brochures, slide decks, email campaigns, web banners and ads, social media graphics, brainstorming, research, and creative direction. If you need it, there’s a pretty good chance we can help with it.

Services and costs that are not included in the Retainer Agreement include (but not limited to): website coding or development, email coding or development, animation, copywriting, complex custom illustration, purchase of printing, purchase of fonts, photography, domains, hosting plans, or other third-party services, subscriptions, and creative assets.
I have multiple businesses, do I need a separate retainer agreement for each business?

Not necessarily! Since the key idea of a retainer is that you are buying our availability, you are free to use your reserved day for whatever you choose. So if you have multiple businesses you can absolutely have us working on a project for one business during one week, and a project for another business the following week (or even during the same day if the projects are small!)
Why do you assign your retainer clients to a recurring day(s)?

You’re probably familiar with the hour-based retainer concept, however, we historically have encountered a ton of issues with project planning and scheduling when using this method so by moving to the day-based model it creates a predictable cycle for all parties involved in the projects at hand.
How does billing work?

Each month is billed up-front on the 1st of the month, with the payment due within 15 days. Occasionally we take some time off for vacation, but when we do, we try to give you 2-4 weeks' notice so that we can plan around those days off, and then we prorate the total monthly invoice to account for skipping the day(s) we’ll be out. If we happen to get sick or miss a day unexpectedly (which is very rare), we’ll either make that day up for you at our earliest opportunity or credit it back to you on your next invoice if there is not a timely opportunity to make up the missed day.