The Benefits of a Graphic Design Retainer Contract

For small businesses or brands, managing employees and regulating their work can be a task, especially when you require a graphic designer. Graphic designers are really helpful for growing your business, but hiring a graphic designer full-time can be a hectic job for you. That’s when the graphic design retainer comes to light.

In this article, we will discuss:

• Why it’s important to know about graphic design retainer.
• The benefits of a design retainer contract.
• Different types of contracts for you to check out.

While almost all top brands often outsource their design needs, the results of such creative collaborations can sometimes create a unique brand personality.

Here, we’ll delve into how a designer on retainer can benefit both the brand and the graphic designer. As a designer, you have the opportunity to get a stable income and consistent work, while the client has the upper hand to plan and understand their design needs well in advance to meet their target audience.

In this article, we will explore the advantages of utilizing a graphic designer retainer.

Rest assured, I’ve included a few tips from my end to help you decide which graphic design retainer works best for you.

What is a Design Retainer?

A retainer is a formal contract between a brand and a designer outlining their collaboration over a specific period. The agreement is determined by a mutual understanding of the number of hours the designer will dedicate to working for the client.

This is based on factors such as the brand’s ideas, scope of work, and the design project’s significance. Typically, there is a minimum sign-up period, requiring both parties to commit to working together for at least three months.

Designer on retainer means it’s ideal for brands with consistent needs for a designer, whether for website design, specific social media graphics, or ongoing marketing collateral integral to the brand’s visual identity.

However, the scope of the contract package agreed upon by both parties determines the extent of services, encompassing tasks such as creating business cards and designing brochures, flyers, and website pages.

Before establishing a designer on retainer, it’s crucial for both the client and the designer to align their thoughts on the goals, ideals, and objectives. Design retainers are particularly suitable for brands requiring regular design work, such as the creation of posters, social media posts, or graphic updates to the website.

For brands, rather than undergoing multiple hiring processes to find the right designer for each job, having an expert designer around the clock on a regular basis ensures consistent design outcomes aligned with your expectations.

For budding graphic designers or freelancers, a retainer agreement provides an opportunity to receive payment even during periods when the client doesn’t have specific work. While some weeks may be hectic and busy, there may be days with fewer design tasks to handle.

Let’s explore the benefits a retainer agreement can offer to both the designers and the clients.

Benefits of a Retainer for the Client

Retainers bring forth evident advantages for clients in many ways. Before delving into the retainer contract, it is crucial for brands to have a proper understanding of the retainer agreement.

Here are some of the biggest benefits for brands for working on a retainer.

You get Less Paperwork

Starting a business, let alone handling all the paperwork, can be the one thing you might hate about managing a business. So, rather than trying to focus on multiple documents at the same time, having a retainer can calm your nerves down and help you balance your time and stress, not worrying about your design aspects.

When working with a professional graphic designer on multiple projects, you might already be aware that each part comes with numerous quotes, business invoices, and contracts.

However, with an ongoing retainer contract with a designer, there’s significantly less paperwork to handle. Once the package is set up, you only need to create one invoice or retainer payment per month. In fact, you’ll spend less time on paperwork, freeing up more time for the enjoyable aspects of your work.

To make this process smoother, you can use a customized invoice template for designers. By customizing the template as per your specific services, whether it’s graphic design or web design, you can quickly generate detailed invoices that accurately reflect your work. This gives a boost to professionalism and also ensures clarity and consistency in your billing process.

You can Get a Discount

Brands often find it difficult to discuss quoted rates when hiring designers, which can exceed the allocated budget. However, working on a retainer can help you deal with that problem.

Almost all designers might offer you a discounted rate when you sign up for a retainer contract. Designers working for you for a longer period of time on a retainer-based contract can give you a bigger discount the more hours you reserve.

So, the bigger retainer package you take can actually save your expenses and budget. Then, I guess your brand’s personality is in great hands, and you can receive a discount for the service you avail.

You get Consistent Style and Quality

As a brand, maintaining a consistent brand identity or brand image makes a lasting impression on your potential clients. This image must be preserved, as brand personality is the initial perception clients have of you. If you engage different designers for various aspects of your branding and other marketing visuals, it can result in a mix of design styles, quality, and ideas.

To maintain your branding without causing confusion, working with a single designer on a retainer ensures that the style and quality of the design remain consistent across all your branding. Consistency is a significant aspect of marketing, contributing to the brand’s memorability.

Rather than risking customer confusion or alienation, having a single designer on retainer could do a cohesive approach to your brand personality and social media designs, attracting new customers. Right designer knows how to create engaging graphics that help boost your brand value. I feel this approach can make your competitors envious of the remarkable quality and consistency you achieve in your designs.

You get a Simpler Working Relationship

For all brands working with a designer for the first time, investing enough time in getting to know each other is crucial. This time can be effectively utilized to familiarize the designer with the style and personality of your brand before commencing the actual work.

While there’s a slight probability of designers not aligning perfectly with your expectations in their creatives initially, compared to in-house designers, designers on retainer may require a smaller briefing to grasp your vision and translate it into their work.

With a simplified working relationship, you become acquainted with the designer’s work, enabling you to provide effective feedback. This establishes a nice groove for collaboration, reducing stress and eliminating the need to micromanage them.

Benefits of a Retainer for the Designer

For a professional designer, securing a retainer opportunity is almost a dream come true moment. A designer landing retainer allows you to collaborate with esteemed businesses for an established period, often with the possibility of extending the contract.

Working as a designer on retainer not only provides a stable career path but also offers the chance to build a robust portfolio. Here are some benefits of working on a retainer:

Stable Income

Even if you are in the design industry freelancing, income can be somewhat unpredictable. However, as a visual artist, being part of retainers provides you with a more stable and predictable income.

It also allows for a healthier work-life balance without the constant worry about future job prospects, offering a sense of job security. Adding multiple clients at a monthly retainer fee helps secure a stable and consistent source of income.

Fewer Clients

One of the challenges faced by freelance graphic artists is the constant need to find new retainer clients to maintain a steady income. This process can be arduous, particularly when continually learning about new clients.

You can set a maximum of three clients per month. Pursuing retainer work significantly benefits graphic creators, enabling them to work with a select group of retainer clients on an ongoing basis through mutual contracts.

Easier to Charge Clients

While working as a freelance designer, you may have experienced uncertainties regarding your fees for design projects. Depending on the size of the business, scope of design work, and other factors, your design rates may fluctuate.

However, with a retainer contract, you can request flat design fees from new clients, making it much easier to manage your finances. You can confidently quote your monthly retainer rate to the client after establishing it.

The Contract

So, as I said, for you to better understand graphic design retainer agreements, you should also know about the types of graphic design retainer contracts.

There are three types of graphic designer retainer contracts, all established through a mutual understanding between the client and the artist.

Traditional Retainer:
This type of retainer involves a set payment structure, either based on completing a certain number of projects or fixing a specific number of hours to work. For instance, agreeing to work 20 hours a month and complete four projects per month at an agreed-upon rate constitutes a traditional retainer.

Rolling Hours:
These retainer agreements are centered around the number of hours per month worked by the designer. This arrangement is often designed to have an expert available on call to answer questions and work on specific design projects when support is needed.

Access to an Expert:
Other retainer contracts are based on value rather than the specific number of hours worked. This involves securing the services of an expert designer to support the team whenever required.

Wrapping Up

A retainer agreement should be structured differently compared to a freelancing contract. You need to establish terms for elements that are specific to a retainer package. The most important element of this retainer agreement should be the amount of money on which both the designer on the retainer boost and the client have agreed.

I hope this information on the retainer agreement helped you as it offers a wonderful new perspective for both the artist and the client to strategize their design work and build a successful career.

FAQ

1. Is a design retainer right for you?

Working with a designer on a retainer isn’t right for all businesses. If you don’t need regular work, then sticking with occasional one-off projects with an in-house designer may be more cost-effective and efficient for you. But if you need or want regular design work done, there are many benefits of working with a designer on a retainer. A retainer package can save you time and money and give you peace of mind that your brand is in good hands.

2. How much is a retainer fee for a graphic designer

For an experienced designer, you can begin by charging $700-$3000 per month, depending on the success you’ve achieved in previous design projects. If you have prior experience in retainer design projects, it’s a plus point. Enhancing your technical skills and building an impressive portfolio can boost your credibility and enable you to command higher fees.