Should your marketing team get a design retainer?
Updated: Sep 3
If your to-do list currently looks like this: campaign assets, a report that's overdue, three sets of social graphics and presentation, you already know the feeling. Marketing teams are doing more with less, and design is often the thing that gets squeezed when time's tight.
Not every team needs, or can justify, a full-time designer. Maybe you're a small team, a growing organisation, or the budget just doesn't stretch to another salary yet.
That's where a design retainer comes in, and it's exactly the model I've just started offering.
Think of it as having a designer on tap, without the overheads of hiring one. Every month, a set amount of my time is reserved just for you.
So, what actually is a design retainer?
Simple put, it's an agreement to set aside a chunk of my time, every month, just for you. It could be two days, could be eight, whatever suits how much design work actually comes your way.
The difference between this and booking me in as and when you need me? The time's already reserved. No waiting to see if I'm free, no starting from scratch explaining your brand for the hundredth time.
And because I'm working with you regularly rather than dipping in once, I actually get to know your brand, your audience and what you're trying to achieve. Less explaining, more doing.
What can you actually use it for?
Genuinely, whatever's on your plate that month. This could include:
Campaign design
Social media graphics
Reports and publications
Presentation design
Event branding
Digital assets and web graphics
Infographics
Marketing materials
Brand updates adn refreshes
Some months are campaign-heavy. Others are all reports and presentations. The point of a retainer is that it flexes with whatever's actually happening, rather than locking you into one type of project.
Why a retainer works so well for marketing teams
You've always got support in your corner.
No scrambling to find a freelance designer every time something new lands on your desk. I'm already reserved, already briefed, already halfway there.
No re-explaining your brand every single time.
No re-sending the guidelines, no walking someone through your tone of voice again. I already know it, and more importantly, I know the bits that never quite make it into a guidelines document.
You can actually plan ahead.
Knowing you've got design time locked in each month makes it far easier to plan campaigns, publications and events properly, instead of hoping a freelancer's free when you need them.
No surprise invoices.
One agreed monthly cost. No mystery quotes landing in your inbox, no wondering what this one's going to cost before you've even started.
Consistency your audience will actually notice.
Same designer, same style, same understanding of who you're talking to. That builds trust in a way that swapping designers project to project just doesn't.
It's not just good for you, it's good for me too
I'll be honest, retainers are the newest part of how I work. Since signing my first retainer client, it's already changed how I think about my workload: less time spent constantly introducing myself and my process to a new brand, more time getting properly embedded with the organisations I work with regularly.
It's a better way of working, for you and for me.
Is a retainer right for your team?
Not always, and that's okay.
If you need help with one specific campaign or a single project, a Design Day is probably the better fit: no ongoing commitment, just focused support when you need it.
A retainer makes the most sense for teams with regular, ongoing design needs: another campaign, another report, another event always just around the corner. Rather than starting from scratch every time, you've got someone who already knows your brand and has the time already set aside.
For marketing teams juggling more than they've got hands for, especially in outdoor, adventure and education organisations where the workload never seems to slow down, that can mean fewer things stuck on the to-do list, and more ideas actually making it out into the world.
Fancy some regular design support?
I offer monthly design retainers for marketing teams who want reliable, dedicated creative support without adding another full-time designer to the books. If that sounds like what you need, I'd love to hear from you.
Find out how my retainers work.
