Design-as-a-Service: A Complete Guide to Why Brands Choose It

TLDR: Design as a service provides you easy, fast and professional designs for a flat monthly fee. With Penji’s graphic design subscription, you’ll get everything from ads and social assets to landing pages and presentations with on-brand copies and quick revisions for as many requests as you’d like. Plus, it’s easy to scale once you grow.

You live in a scroll-first world. People make decisions fast. Almost 38% of users leave a website if the design is poor. Good graphics foster trust. Bad graphics turn people away. Therefore, good design is not nice to have. It is the cornerstone to growth. Yet good design requires great graphic designers. A professional does not simply “make it pretty.” He/She guides the eye, clarifies messaging, and shields your brand. This results in assets that people A) notice and B) trust and act upon.

But when you’re looking for a graphic designer, chances are you’ve never heard of design-as-a-service before. So, I’d like to break down what Design as a service is, why it’s better than one-off projects, what you can request, how to implement it and how to assess ROI. You’ll also learn where Unlimited graphic design is best, when it’s best to outsource graphic design, and how to find the right plan.

What is Design as a Service?

Design as a service refers to a business model which allows for unlimited graphic designs for a recurring subscription fee. You submit requests into a queue. They get drafts fast. You request edits and they turn around until it’s right. You approve and they move on. They also help give you great looking assets for your business so you look legitimate, trustworthy and professional.

How does Design as a service differ from traditional design?

Let’s be honest you’ve probably tried one-off pricing or hourly billing projects. These work for small projects but often hold you back from the speed of growth. Here’s how a design as a service compares:

• Price: flat rate vs. hourly peaks. One month fee based on what you’ll need.
• Capacity: endless queue vs. stop and go projects.
• Speed: quick cycles; submit today and see results in no time.
• Focus: you create the campaign; we run the design engine.
• Scalability: upgrade or downgrade plans as your needs grow and shrink.

Therefore, instead of managing several vendors, you have one service. You move faster with less phone calls and invoices.

What Are The Designs Offered by Design-as-a-Service Businesses?

Here’s a list of the designs most design-as-a-service business offers to its subscribers:

• Logos
• Business cards
• Packaging
• Brand guidelines
• Social media posts
• Social media ads
• Digital ads
• Billboards
• Magazine ads
• Print ads
• Email graphics
• Blog graphics

However, some design-as-a-service companies provide the following services:

• Web design
• App design
• Illustrations
• Presentation design

Top Reasons Why Brands Subscribe to Design-as-a-Service Businesses

Affordable

One huge benefit of subscribing to a design-as-a-service model is its affordable price. Although hiring freelancers seems like a cheaper choice, it will cost you in the long run due to the hourly rates and days worked with them. Meanwhile, agencies have higher costs, which can break the bank. 

A design-as-a-service company is the middle ground regarding pricing. It’s a cost-effective solution for businesses, regardless of budget. One reason it’s affordable is that design-as-a-service businesses put their services in a package. This allows you to request different designs during your subscription without worrying about finding a new freelancer to take on a new graphic design project!

Ease of Requesting

Another advantage of subscribing to a design-as-a-service model is that you can request designs through a simple process. 

Besides this, most design-as-a-service companies follow the same process. First, the user will submit their design request to the business’s project management software or application. From there, the company will assign the best designer for the project, whether it’s AI-powered or manually. Once assigned, the designer will submit a draft, depending on the turnaround time. The user can leave a review or feedback when the draft is submitted. Finally, when the design is all good, they can download it. After this, they can repeat this process for their next project.

Vetted Designers

One disadvantage of hiring freelancers is that you have to vet them. This means you need to view their portfolios and resume and interview them. When you subscribe to a design-as-a-service company, they eliminate that process for you because all designers are vetted. They undergo a rigorous hiring process, ensuring only the cream of the crop is part of their elite teams. For instance, Penji hires the top 2% of designers globally. This means you are working with the BEST of the BEST in the industry.

Faster Turnaround Times

As your business relies on visual assets for branding and marketing purposes, you will need more of them as you build campaigns. When you plan campaigns, it’s essential that you have a variety of assets like videos and graphics for your ads, social media posts, and more. That said, if you need plenty of graphics in a short amount of time, design-as-a-service models are the best to approach. 

Most design-as-a-service businesses follow a 24-hour or 1-day turnaround time. For more complicated projects, expect longer turnaround times, but it’s still faster than your traditional design services. With this in mind, you can save time instead of creating your designs!

Scalable

At times during the year, you would have more demand for graphics than in other months. That’s normal since some of these months would have special occasions, holidays, or meant for marketing campaigns. Conversely, there would be months when you will have a lull, meaning that you have a reduced need for branding or marketing graphics. 

That said, design-as-a-service is ideal for your business because you can upgrade or downgrade your subscription anytime. The pricing scalability will help with your monthly budgets. Additionally, you can choose to pause or cancel your subscription and come back whenever you need graphics again.

Access to Diverse Expertise

Since design-as-a-service businesses offer multiple design types, these businesses won’t run out of talent to fulfill your graphic design services, web design, and illustration requests. You don’t need to search for a new freelancer for a new project request. You should be paired with the best designer or illustrator to create your designs.

Manage Projects

Working with freelancers means that you might have to use multiple platforms to get one design from them. However, design-as-a-service businesses use a project management solution as the one place to request graphics, chat, and store designs. Some businesses allow you to organize different brands, which is ideal for agencies. Additionally, you can collaborate with your team! You can invite them and let them request designs, too!

Unlimited Revisions

Another reason why it’s good to invest in design service companies is the unlimited revisions feature. Some freelancers don’t offer unlimited revisions and will have you pay extra for more revisions. Meanwhile, unlimited revisions are built into their plans; you can revise as many as you can until you’re satisfied with your design!

How can you implement Design as a service in your business?

Implementing DaaS is relatively easy but a bit of preparation facilitates your efforts. Follow this step by step guide:

1. Assess what you need

This is simple, see what assets you create in one month. Look at social posts, ad sets, landing pages, emails, decks, print assets these all add up! Then, factor in revisions/approvals and quarterly season spikes for bigger numbers. This helps assess how much design “throughput” you need.

Then source your brand kit with logos, colors, fonts and tones of voice; examples you’ve made and great ones you’ve seen. Include your brand story and top campaigns; this database will save you time later.

Finally, determine goals—do you want more leads, less spend per click (CPC), higher click through rates (CTR), better demo sign-ups? You’ll need clarity over goals so that the designs can align with metrics.

2. Research Design as a Service providers

As you compare style look for:

• Quality portfolio work: can you see samples that match your niche?
• Work breadth: from ads to web to print to motion and illustration
• Speed of execution: first drafts and revisions
• Workflow: ease of submission and feedback
• Security: safe handling of files and permissions
• Control: ability to manage priorities and timelines
• Scalability: ability to adjust plans month-to-month

Be sure to check reviews/case studies/statuses for new work. See repeat clients—this is a good sign of value.

3. Onboard your provider correctly

Upload your brand kit, preferences, do’s/don’ts; link things you’ve liked in the past and what “good” looks like for your team; engage decision makers now so everyone can give quick feedback.

Then create your first sprint, 3 to 5 items to start (for example: a set of paid ads, a landing page hero image, two email headers, two sales one-pagers). Keep the first week hyper-focused so that there’s a quick win so that momentum can build.

4. Collaborate weekly

Write quick briefs; use simple language; state purpose; audience; size/channel specs; visual preferences. For example:

• “Make the headline bigger.”
• “Use our blue for the CTA.”
• “Diminish text on slide 3.”
• “Try using a lifestyle photo instead of the mockup.”

Be nice and direct—connect edits to outcomes (clicks, time on page, sign ups/demos); this creates a mutual language with your design teams.

5. Assess ROI through numbers

You want evidence; keep it simple:

• Output per month: how many final projects were submitted
• Revision cycles: how many drafts did it take to create final products
• Time to first draft: what’s the average time/month?
• Campaign effectiveness: CTR, CPC, conversion rate, lead quality
• Stakeholder satisfaction: easy thumbs up survey

Over time (60-90 days) you should see more output than less delays with steadier performance. If not, you’ll need to adjust either brief style or priorities or tier plan.

How to Analyze Performance by Doing The Same Work Faster?

Pilot something for two weeks; take one live campaign that could use support; make it part of the queue with 5-8 items (and track time-to draft/number of revisions/campaign results). Then compare against your prior design lifecycle, they’ll usually find they’ll be able to do more work with less stress.

When Implementing Design as a Service How Do I Ensure Brand Consistency?

• Create Define/Share Brand Book

Make a brief brand book that includes logos/colors/fonts/voice/image appeal do’s/don’ts and upload them into your Design as A Service platform so it’s easily accessible and updated.

• Create Simple Templates

Lock down pieces and create templates for ads/social posts/emails/decks/one-pagers where logos/buttons are secure so there’s only room for headline/pictures for your graphic design subscription to go quick while remaining on-brand.

• Create Clear Review Process

One person should brief; there should be one approver; keep feedback specific tied to time or goals (clicks/signups/demos). For example: “Make headline bigger.” “Use brand blue for CTA.”

• Asset Storage in One Place

Keep all submissions in one location (drafts approved/rejected). Tag items by campaign/date with clear notes as to where they can be found by you or your Outsource graphic design partner.

• Keep Communicating with Your Design Team

Share wins/misses; connect for 10-15 minute meetings weekly with one takeaway/one relevant example that your team will learn your speed/sound so they can keep up.

Pro tip? Rinse/repeat these steps quarterly increase variety/refresh the brand book/clear out the community library to solidify the integrity of your Design as A Service model going forward!

A Few Graphic Design as a Service Examples You Can Consider

There are many options out there these days; while each agency has slightly different focuses, they all help make accommodating design efforts much easier for the small business world. Some to consider include:

• Penji—Unlimited design requests and unlimited revisions for one flat monthly payment; they boast turnaround times without cutting coverage (meaning one designer isn’t handling too much so everything gets done); they’re popular among startups/small businesses with what would otherwise be limited access.
• Kimp—Unlimited design and video editing under one roof; if you’re going to want graphics and video content designed together, this is a must.
• Flocksy—Creative subscription membership that encompasses design along with copywriting and video/web development all good if your design efforts operate under the umbrella of other creations.
• Design Pickle—One of the original agencies who operate with flat-rate design, primarily through branding and other marketing-based requests; they boast turnaround times without cutting quality.
• ManyPixels—Another company that champions turnaround times on a daily basis for many request endeavors; their interface is easy for submission without hassle.

If you’re considering which works best for you, first, determine what kind of work you’ll need most frequently. If it’s social media graphics required every day, you’ll want more eyes on board versus someone who might need graphics every few weeks/few months for branding endeavors like pamphlets or flyers.

Design-as-a-Service Rates

You might be wondering how much the subscription plans or packages are for any design-as-a-service provider. On average, basic plans start from $399/mo. On any basic plan, expect that the essentials are included, like logo design, brand design, social media design, and ad design. Some plans may include web design or illustration for higher-tier plans. Meanwhile, some services would have a separate web design or illustration plan. At Penji, pricing starts at $499/mo with branding, illustrations, packaging, social media, and more! But what other benefits do you get when you subscribe to Penji?

Why Should You Subscribe to Penji?

Penji is one of the premier and most trusted unlimited design-as-a-service businesses among the hundreds of graphic design services. More than 25,000 brands and agencies count on Penji for compelling and stunning graphics. Besides this, expect that Penji checks off all the reasons included above and MANY MORE, making Penji a reliable graphic design services. Plus, you can request 120+ design types and switch designers anytime! Those are just a few perks of subscribing to Penji. To know the rest, watch a video demo here!

Final Thoughts

The design-as-a-service model is a more affordable option for most businesses considering you will pay a flat fee for multiple designs monthly. Additionally, you will work with professional designers and get faster turnaround times than most services. Plus, you don’t need to worry about finding a separate project management tool or chat option, since most design-as-a-service companies have built in tools for you to communicate with designers and manage projects. And if you want to give the design-as-a-service model a try, subscribe to Penji and get a 30-day money-back guarantee when you cancel!

FAQ’S

1. What are design services?

Design services are the expertise that creates the visuals, interfaces, and experiences intended to problem-solve and effectively communicate.

• Graphic design services: logos and advertising, social posts
• Web design: page layouts and user experience and mobile-ready pages
• Branding: visual identity, style guide, templates
• Product/UI Design: screens, interfaces, packaging
• Service design: the system that powers every customer journey

Ultimately, design services make you memorable, able to convert more and provide value through intentional, user-centered design.

2. What are the three core parts of service design (easy view)?

• Frontstage: what you experience (request form, previews, approvals).
• Backstage: what the design team does (assign, design, revise).
• Support systems: platforms, file rules, templates. Keep all three aligned, and your Unlimited graphic design workflow stays fast and on-brand.
  

3. Is design as a service product or service?

Both for Design as a service, you pay for an ongoing service (planning/collaboration/revisions). The deliverables/files at the end the logos/ad/decks are the products. You receive continued assistance and finished assets.

4. What is UX design vs service design?

UX looks at who uses what and their experience with it (website/app). A service design perspective looks at the entire journey briefing/queue/handoffs/support/delivery in a graphic design subscription as an end-to-end process that requires both smooth UX within the portal and solid service behind it.

5. What is the main goal of service design in a Design as a Service Model?

To ensure that every step runs smoothly from briefing to final file to clear roles/handoffs/outcomes that are completed timely for reliable results the better the service is, the simpler your graphic design services will feel!