What is retainer program?
A creative and graphic design retainer is a flexible agreement between your business and ours that allows you to contract us for as few as 10 hours, or as many as 40 hours of service per month. This gives you instant access to a range of professional creative and graphic design services, minus the hassle and overhead associated with hiring and on-boarding a permanent employee.
What are the advantages of a creative and graphic design retainer?
First and foremost, you can save 20% or more on standard freelance rates and services. The more hours you commit to, the lower your hourly rate is.
Also, with a retainer, you know we are here when you need us! Wedgewood Graphic Design, LLC, specializing in traditional and environmental graphic design, reserves time exclusively for you. Additionally, we are, ensuring that even if you have rush work or an unplanned need, our staff can respond to your needs immediately.
For multiple small projects, you can take advantage of your combined work volume and avoid the need to seek estimates, manage multiple contracts, and pay multiple invoices while stabilizing your monthly creative budget.
How else can your company benefit from a creative and graphic design retainer program?
- Easy coordination: We will plan a call schedule so we can review your goals/deadlines each month and keep and open line of communication.
- Simplified accounting: You pay a set amount each month in advance for the duration of the retainer contract.
- Less paperwork: Only one contract to sign and one invoice per month. No need to track individual invoices per project.
- No overhead: You have professional design services without the expense of an employee… no salary, no benefits, no physical location required, no equipment and specialized software to worry about.
- Giving you time: By engaging in a retainer program, you gain time & mental space to devote your efforts elsewhere. This can ease pressure caused by an unruly and ever-growing to-do list.
- A fresh perspective: An external graphic designer provides a new point of view. This can bring a presentation or social campaign from boring to blockbuster!
- Expertise: Connecting to a new network of professionals could offer a pipeline of additional talent you might need in the future.
- Consistency: Unlike on-demand design outlets where you often have a different designer for each project, a designer on retainer gets to know you and your brand. Talent on retainer allows contractors to learn about your company over a longer period of time. They’ll come to understand your brand, your goals and your customers. As a result, they’re better able to recommend and deliver custom solutions. Additionally, they’ll ensure a consistent look and feel on each project.
It should be obvious by now that a creative and graphic design retainer makes a good fit for certain projects. So how can you make the final decision as to whether it’s right for your company?
If you find yourself managing multiple contractors, our retainer can simplify your life. If you routinely seek outside design services across numerous different scopes or projects, this is one big sign that a design retainer can help save you time and money.
A retainer might also be a good fit If you are understaffed internally. Even if you are seeking to hire a graphic designer eventually, you might still need a designer in the short term who can work closely and collaboratively with your marketing or communications team. A retained designer or design team can take on this role, acting like an in-house designer until you’re ready and able to fill that slot on your team.
So before kicking off your next project, step back and assess: does the scope of the project, the time it takes to execute, and the variety of design needs call for a retainer? If so, talk to your design agency partner about which option will deliver the most bang for your buck.
Retainer details:
- 3-month initial minimum commitment. After three months and a better understanding of your needs, this is adjusted to terms of 6, 9 or 12 months.
- Each retainer includes a set number of hours each month. If you decide to hire us for additional work, you will be billed at the standard hourly rate.
- Unused hours will expire at the end of the retainer agreement. We do our best to make sure you stay up-to-date on the status of your retainer hours, but ultimately, it’s your responsibility to make sure they’re used within the 6, 9 or 12 month timeframe.
- You will get an invoice each month itemizing the projects worked and hours allocated to each.
What type of services can be used in the Graphic Designer Retainer Programs?
- Environmental Graphic Design: Conceptual designs, environmental mock-ups, environmental rollouts following mergers or acquisitions and production design.
- Traditional Graphic Design: Infographics, illustrations, icons, and typography treatments.
- Print Materials: Sale sheets, direct mailers, brochures, newsletters.
- Digital Materials: Social media graphics, blog banners, email templates, and other web designs.
- Social Media: Social Media Post Graphics production.
- Sales Presentations: Create a PowerPoint template specific to your brand. Create stunning presentations that will get attention at your new sales pitch.
- Web Updates & Maintenance: Content, graphics and web maintenance can be provided for select customers. Only for WordPress websites currently. This does not include content copy, just updates to posts using copy or articles you provide.
Services outside of a retainer and estimated separately
- Marketing Strategy Sessions: reviewing your business goals the best way to accomplish them and a plan to executer on the sessions.
- Logo Design: For businesses, subsidiaries or products.
- Stock photography, music, video & fonts: Although we can source great images as part of your design project within the retainer program, the licensing fees for photography and stock images is not included in the retainer. We will present all options to you with associated costs for review and approval.
- Printing: We can find the most appropriate printer for your project and manage the print process for you, the actual cost of printing is the client’s responsibility.
Contact the Wedgewood Graphic Design team and ask for Amy when you’re ready to discuss your retainer options and pricing.
