Freelance Brand Designers,
on Retainer
Senior strategic brand management, without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
We work alongside growing SaaS and startup teams as their ongoing brand designers, helping you build out your identity, sharpen your story, and stay consistent as you scale, without the salary, recruitment process, or long-term commitment a senior in-house hire demands.
The Problem
Most small teams reach a point where the basics are covered, a logo, some colours, a template deck, but there's nobody senior steering the brand as things scale and move fast.
Hiring a full-time creative lead is a big commitment for a small team. Ad hoc freelancers can help with one-off jobs, but rarely bring the strategic thinking or in-depth frameworks a growing brand actually needs.
This retainer sits in between. Ongoing senior brand support, on tap, for exactly the hours you need.
What's included
Each month, retainer time can flex across whatever your brand needs most, including:
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Research and exploration of buyer psychology and competitor movements, to strengthen your positioning and sharpen your difference
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Narrative and storytelling, sharpening how you talk about what makes you different
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Brand identity development, extending and refining your visual system as you grow
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Ongoing design support, decks, one-pagers, social assets, campaign materials
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Brand consistency, keeping everything aligned as new people, products, and channels come on board
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Strategic input, a senior sounding board for brand decisions as they come up
No fixed project, just steady, senior support that moves with your business and supports your growth.
"I've worked with Gemma over many years because of her excellent design skills, unflappable and proactive attitude coupled with great attention to detail. She's also just the loveliest person to work with, and life really is too short to work with people who aren't! I see her and her team at Emotion Brands as an extension of our own marketing team, we couldn't do it without them!"
JESSICA SYMONS, MARKETING MANAGER, DAVINES UK
Pricing
A senior in-house hire is a significant annual cost, before recruitment time and fees, and onboarding. Then there's the risk of getting it wrong. This gives you the same senior thinking, at a fraction of the cost.
Tier | Hours a month | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
Starter | 20 | £1,200/month |
Growth | 40 | £2,400/month |
Scale | 80 | £4,800/month |
Just one month's notice to change tier or step away, whichever suits, so you're only paying for the level of support you actually need.
How it works
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An initial discovery call to understand where you are with building your brand and what you need most right now
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A focused first month of getting to know your brand, your audience, your competitors and learning what's working and what's not
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Ongoing monthly support, working through priorities together, with regular check-ins to keep things on track
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Scale as you grow, move up or down a tier with a month's notice, no need to rehire or restructure as your needs change
Proof it works
We've done this before, and watched it pay off. We worked with Utility Cloud as their ongoing brand designers from an early stage, growing their identity and brand presence alongside them as they scaled, right through to their eventual acquisition.
We've also brought this same kind of ongoing, brand design and management support to sustainability-led businesses, including Davines, J+S Subsea, and UAE Carbon Alliance.
Let's talk about what this could look like for your brand.
Book a Call
Book a 30 minute call with Gemma to discuss your requirements.