Design retainer
A senior product designer, without the full-time hire
Ongoing UX/UI design support for Australian businesses and startups that need design every month but not a full-time designer.
Example: a month of retainer work on a board — requests, in design and shipped — with features, fixes, design system updates and build reviews moving through it.
Proven design experience with brands of all sizes
Is this you?
A retainer is for teams with steady design work and no designer to do it.
There's always design work, but not a full-time role's worth
New pages, features and fixes keep queuing up.
Your developers are making design decisions
It works, but the product drifts and gets harder to use.
You had a redesign, and now it's slipping
Without someone looking after it, every new page looks a little different.
Hiring takes months
Recruiting, onboarding and a salary are a big commitment for work that changes month to month.
What a retainer covers
- 01New pages, features and flows, designed and ready to build
- 02UI and interaction design fixes as issues come up
- 03Design system upkeep, so new work stays consistent
- 04Reviews of what your developers ship, before customers see it
- 05A senior opinion on product decisions, on call
Retainer, hire or agency?
An honest comparison. Hiring makes more sense once you need a designer full-time, every day.
Hire full-time
- Getting started
- Months to recruit and onboard
- What you pay for
- Salary, super, leave and equipment
- Commitment
- Permanent, and hard to scale down
- Who does the work
- One designer, at the level you can hire
- Best when
- Design is daily, full-time work
Agency
- Getting started
- A proposal, then a project team
- What you pay for
- Project fees, plus account and project management
- Commitment
- Project by project
- Who does the work
- A team, with layers between you and the designer
- Best when
- You need a big, multi-discipline team
Design retainer
- Getting started
- A free call, then a monthly scope we agree upfront
- What you pay for
- One agreed monthly fee
- Commitment
- Month to month, no lock-in
- Who does the work
- A senior product designer with 8+ years, directly
- Best when
- There's steady design work, but not a full-time role's worth
Long-term design partnerships that keep shipping
Three years shipping inside CommBank's product team, and ongoing product work for RewardPay as its portal grew.
- 3 yearsSpecialist UI Designer, CommBank
Shipped design in a large product team, inside an enterprise design system.
- ~4×Monthly signups
RewardPay: ongoing product work as the portal grew.
Case studies from long-term clients
CommBank and RewardPay work, from the first problem to the result.
How it works
Month to month, on one shared priority list.
- 01
Start with an audit or a project
Most clients do, so I already know the product. Start a retainer within 30 days of your audit and half the audit fee comes off your first month.
- 02
A set amount of design each month
Agreed upfront, month to month, no lock-in.
- 03
One shared priority list
You decide what matters most and I work through it.
- 04
Works with your team
In-house developers or an agency, in your tools.
Design retainer FAQs
Need a designer, but not a full-time one?
Tell me what's on your list. We'll agree a monthly scope before anything starts, and you can stop month to month.