TL;DR – Flat-rate design services allow brands to get all the graphic designs they need without going over budget, making it a practical solution for businesses of all sizes.
Graphic design has never been as crucial to businesses as it is today.
Data showing 94% of visitors will reject a website if it’s designed poorly highlights the importance of strategic visual assets in securing consumer trust.
Despite the importance of well-designed branding materials, many businesses either lack the resources to hire an in-house designer or choose not to because they don’t want a long-term commitment.
In such cases, flat-rate design services are the best, most practical choice.
What Are Flat-Rate Design Services?
Let’s start with a common question, along with a related query: What is unlimited graphic design, and what is an unlimited design subscription?
Flat-rate design services, which often come in the form of unlimited design-as-a-service platforms, are creative services that provide all the designs users need for a fixed monthly pricing rate.
With a design subscription service like Penji, you won’t need to pay a designer per hour or per project. Instead, you’ll only need to renew your subscription every month to have all your visuals and scalable creative support handled by a remote design team.
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How Much Do Flat-Rate Design Services Cost?
Flat-rate design services rates vary anywhere from $250 to more than $5,000. The cost depends on several factors, including:
- Quality of designs
- Turnaround times
- Number of active projects at a time
- Range of design services
How do unlimited graphic design services reduce marketing costs? The practicality of unlimited design requests shines through data, revealing that users spend as much as $1,500 for a logo, with the average rate at around $800.
The average logo pricing already falls within the range of a graphic design subscription. And with the latter, you can request a whole lot of other visuals within your subscription period.
In addition, a monthly subscription offers a good price for graphic design if you consider how much you’ll likely spend on design services that charge per hour. The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the median hourly pay for graphic designers is $29.47.
If you compare a typical agency-level design subscription with traditional hourly design services, the same $2,000 budget can produce very different results in terms of output and creative capacity:
- Unlimited design services: One whole month of unlimited graphic design services
- Per-hour design services: Around 68 hours or around 8.5 days of design services
It’s no wonder many businesses turn to a remote design team subscription to lower their cost of graphic design service, making it a good design retainer alternative.
What Types of Design Work Can You Outsource?
The types of outsourced graphic design you can get depend on the range of services offered by your chosen platform. They typically include:
- Logos
- Brand guidelines
- Packaging design
- Social media templates
- Web design
- Custom illustrations
- Ad creatives
How Do Flat-Rate Design Services Work?
Upon signing up for flat-rate design services, you’ll get access to a remote design team or a dedicated designer. Here’s how it works:
1. You request a project.
Using the service provider’s dedicated app or project management system, you upload a design brief. You’ll have to include the basic details of the project, including:
- Project format
- Size, file type
- Audience
- Message
- Brand guidelines
- Visual inspirations
2. Your design submits a draft.
Upon receiving your project request, the assigned designer will work on it and submit a draft. Turnaround times vary, but most creative subscription service platforms offer a turnaround time of 24-48 hours.
3. You review the draft and request revisions, if needed.
If the design isn’t to your liking, you can request changes. After all, unlimited designs come with unlimited revisions. Your designer will work on the revisions within the turnaround time.
4. You approve the design.
Once you’re 100% happy with the design, you can approve the project, download the files, and move on to your next project. The cycle repeats for all the projects you need within your subscription month.
What are Smart Growth Tips for Using Flat-Rate Design Services?
Without a doubt, flat-rate design services save time and money. But if you want to maximize value, here are a few smart growth tips:
1. Prioritize your brand guidelines.
If you don’t have your brand guidelines yet, make sure that it’s one of the first projects you request. Brand guidelines document a brand’s:
- Logo
- Color palette
- Typography
- Icons
- Imagery
- Layout designs
- Other design and marketing-related elements
Once you have this document, use it as a reference for all your project requests. Doing so will ensure that all your visual assets stay on brand.
2. Use AI to fine-tune your design brief.
You may have toyed with the idea of using AI to generate designs. However, doing so poses several risks to your brand, including potential copyright issues and a lack of originality.
After all, a study found that AI image outputs often fall into 12 common styles, which means your visual asset might look like that of millions of other brands that also generated their graphics via an AI tool.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t harness the power of AI to boost your design workflow. In fact, you can use tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to fine-tune your design brief and make it as clear as possible to avoid delays in delivery.
Here are a few possible prompts for this:
- “Turn this rough idea into a detailed graphic design brief.”
- “Rewrite this design request to make it clearer for designers.”
- “Improve this branding request with clearer visual direction and goals.”
3. Keep your revision requests actionable.
When requesting revisions, make sure that they’re detailed and specific. Vague comments like “Make it pop” or “This doesn’t wow me” wouldn’t help your designer get closer to the design you want.
Detailed and specific revision requests may look like:
- Please change the background to something simpler, without the geometric pattern.
- Could you increase the contrast so that the highlights are brighter and the shadows are darker?
- Instead of fuchsia, please use baby pink for this shape.
The Bottom Line
Flat-rate design services allow brands to get consistent graphics at a predictable monthly rate. However, it’s crucial to note that not all on-demand graphic design platforms are the same. When choosing the right option, review its:
- Design quality
- Client reviews
- Turnaround time
- Communication clarity
- Workflow efficiency
If you’re looking for a reliable subscription-based design service that ticks all the boxes, Penji is the top choice.
Check out Penji’s portfolio and see why Penji is the chosen monthly graphic design service of brands all over the world.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Flat-rate unlimited graphic design services offer designs within a set timeframe (usually monthly) at a predictable rate. Hourly graphic design services, meanwhile, charge by the hour, meaning your bill depends on how many hours of service were rendered for the project.
Yes. On-demand graphic design services allow you to request all the projects you need. However, the number of active projects at a time depends on the graphic design service subscription plan you choose.
Yes. In fact, many agencies use design-as-a-service to augment their creative teams so they can offer white-label graphic designs under their brand.
About the author
Carla Deña
Carla is a journalist and content writer who produces stories for both digital and legacy media. She is passionate about creativity, innovation, and helping small businesses explore solutions that drive growth and social impact.
