Graphic Rhythm is a US-based design company operating on a subscription-based model for a monthly fee.

Their headquarters is based in Pennsylvania, U.S. They don’t give out any details on where they’re designers are based, but the competitive rates suggest overseas.

About Graphic Rhythm

The company has been in operation since January 2018 and is headed up by owner Ian Bower.

Like several other graphic design businesses, Graphic Rhythm operates on a monthly subscription model. An area where they differ, however, is that you get a number of “design credits” to use per month instead of unlimited designs.

This might mean you save money as unused credits roll over (up to 2x your plan level). On the flipside, if you have a heavy month, you may end up running out of credits early.

They work with entrepreneurs and business owners of all sizes. If you’re in need of regular graphic design work but can’t justify the cost of an in-house designer, then working with Graphic Rhythm makes sense.

As for areas of specialization, they list the following as their target customers:

• Digital agencies
• Small businesses
• Amazon professionals

If you fit into either of these categories, you might be able to take advantage of their expertise and experience working with similar businesses.

How Graphic Rhythm Works

When you sign up for one of their monthly plans, you’ll be given a number of design credits.

Design credits are basically the currency you use to request design tasks. Depending on how complicated or long a task takes determines how many credits it will cost.

For example:

• Social media graphics and design edits are 1 credit
• Presentations are 2 credits
• Infographics are 5 credits

To request a design, you can send all the information across via their customer portal.

When the work is completed and returned to you, which is usually within 24 hours, you’ll be debited the number of design credits the task costs.

You can request as many revisions as you like without any extra cost.

Services

Graphic Rhythm’s designers will take on most graphic design tasks.

Some of the most commonly requested examples they share on their site includes:

• Social media content
• Web banners and blog graphics
• Infographics
• Logs and branding
• Stationery designs
• Posters and brochures
• Apparel designs

Graphic Rhythm Plans and Pricing

At press time, Graphic Rhythm currently has three different monthly pricing plans as follows:

• Professional – $149/mo for 20 design credits.
• Small Business – $299/mo for 50 design credits.
• Agency – $599/mo for 110 design credits.

It’s worth noting that some of the types of designs you can request are limited with the Professional plan, such as no illustrations or logos. So, despite having enough credits, there are some design tasks you won’t be able to request if you’re on this plan.

All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and you can request as many revisions as you want. Discounts are available when you pre-pay for 3 months at a time.

Graphic Rhythm Alternatives

Graphic Rhythm’s credit system is unique in this space, and the Professional pricing tier compares very favorably to more well-known competitors like Design Pickle. Because of the turnaround times and revisions, most so-called “unlimited” plans still have some constraints on how much design output you can reasonably expect to receive.

Delesign is also worth a look, especially if you have need for web design, video editing, or motion graphics.

For one-off design work, Fiverr and 99designs are popular choices.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Graphic Rhythm? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

Kimp is a Canada-based design company offering unlimited graphic design tasks for a flat monthly fee.

Their headquarters is based in Markham, Ontario. However, all of their graphic designers work from their offices in India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, enabling them to offer competitive rates.

The company launched in February 2019, although the team behind Kimp has been offering graphic design services since 2003.

About Kimp

Kimp was founded by brothers Senthu and Ven Velnayagam. Senthu is based in Bangalore, India, and Ven is based in Ontario, Canada.

Kimp’s business model is simple–they offer a range of graphic design services for a flat monthly fee.

You can request an “unlimited” number of designs and revisions within a month, and they’ll work through them as fast as they can.

Kimp says that on average, their clients receive 2-3 designs per business day. This is specific to the type of designs, of course, as more complex tasks will take longer.

Kimp’s target customers are:

• Startups
• SMEs
• Internet marketers
• Creative agencies
• Charities
• Entrepreneurs

Basically, anyone in need of affordable ongoing graphic design help for a flat monthly fee.

How Kimp Works

When you sign up with Kimp you’ll be assigned a project manager and a team of 3 designers.

Multiple designers is a unique selling point to Kimp, and ensures a wider range of design skills are covered.

Start with a Free Trial

Kimp offers a 7-day free trial so you can test their service before committing to a monthly plan. Within these 7 days, you can make 3 design requests, so it makes sense to take the free trial.

Submitting Design Requests

When you sign up, you can start submitting requests via either Trello or email.

Every time you submit a request, it’s reviewed by your project manager. If they need any additional information, they’ll get back to you. Otherwise, it will be passed to the best-suited graphic designer to start working on it.

Your tasks will be worked through in the order you submit them and returned to you as they’re completed.

Services

Kimp’s designers will take on most graphic design tasks.

Some of the commonly requested design tasks include:

• Blog images
• Product packaging
• Facebook ads/posts
• Website sliders/banners
• T-shirt designs
• Illustrations
• Flyers
• Marketing materials

In fact, it’s probably easier to list what Kimp doesn’t do:

• Motion graphics
• 3D renderings
• UI & UX designs
• Website or app designs

Plans and Pricing

Kimp charges a flat monthly fee of $389. For this, you can submit an unlimited number of requests and revisions.

There are no minimum terms, contracts, or other fees. They offer a 7-day free trial, and you can cancel before that ends or at any time if you’re not satisfied for any reason.

Discounts are available if you’re willing to sign up for a 3, 6, or 12-month period. You’ll need to contact them to discuss this as it’s on a case-by-case basis.

Kimp Alternatives

If you like the monthly subscription model, there are a few companies offering a similar range of services.

Design Pickle is the market leader in this space, and is priced similarly, though without the “team of designers” feature. Delesign may also be worth a look.

And if you don’t have a need for tons of designs every month, you may be better off buying graphic design services on a one-off or project basis.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Kimp? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

DesignCrowd is a marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design contests. The Sydney, Australia-based company has been around since 2008 and has facilitated more than 350,000 design creations during that time.

In fact, they boast over 750,000 designers on their platform ready to tackle your project. Some of their top designers have earned more than $1,000,000, and you can even invite them to submit their concepts for your contest.

About DesignCrowd

DesignCrowd plays to the idea that for creative work like graphic design, it’s better to get a broad range of ideas and concepts, instead of working exclusively with one designer.

Their platform facilitates these types of “crowdsourced” contests, with you as the client gathering a ton of options and picking your favorite.

The company offers their marketplace for a wide variety of design services, including logos, web sites, advertising graphics, flyers, print ads, t-shirts, business cards, and more.

A typical DesignCrowd contest gets a little more than 100 entries. I imagine you’ll find something suitable for your brand out of 100 choices!

Special Offer: Use promo code AFF150OFF for up to $150 off your design project!

DesignCrowd Review

I tested DesignCrowd in 2016 for a book cover project and share my experience in this video:

In 2019, I went back to DesignCrowd for a t-shirt design and really liked the results. I got over 150 design submissions on this one.

Here’s the winning design:

How it Works

Your first step in getting started with DesignCrowd is to create a design brief. It’s a fancy way of asking you to describe your project and any vision you have for it, so designers have some sort of starting point.

At this stage, you can also decide which price tier you’d like to offer to the winning designer. Naturally the higher your offer, the more designs you’re likely to attract.

Almost immediately, designers will start submitting their ideas and concepts. You can solicit feedback from friends, customers, or colleagues, and even request revisions from the designers before you decide on the winner.

Once you have your selection, you get all the necessary files, legal protections and rights to that design, and funds get released to the winning designer.

Plans and Pricing

Like other crowdsourcing sites, DesignCrowd has some pricing flexibility depending on your budget.

Logo design packages start at $109 and go all the way up to over $700. The drawback to the $109 price-point is that you’ll only get 1 designer, which kind of defeats the “crowdsourcing” purpose.

But at the $319 price point, you can expect multiple submissions from several designers, giving you a nice variety to choose from and still spend less than at competing sites.

Special Offer: Use promo code AFF150OFF for up to $150 off your design project!

At the top-end, I can see some overwhelm setting in from trying to choose from 150+ designs, so would probably opt for something in the middle. DesignCrowd indicates their $499 package promising 100+ designs is their most popular offering, though if my budget is tight I’d go for the 50+ tier and save the $180.

There are add-ons to make your contest private or feature it to get more submissions.

If at the end of the contest you don’t like any of the designs, DesignCrowd will refund your project under their 100% money back guarantee.

(Of course, you’ll get more submissions if you make your project guaranteed and waive your right to a refund.)

DIY Logo Services

DesignCrowd has spun off an AI-logo design service called BrandCrowd, in which you can use thousands of templates to build your own logo.

Punch in your company name, an industry or keyword, and begin to sort through the options:

From there, you can logo style, font style, and color preferences until you arrive on the perfect logo for your business.

Like other Do-It-Yourself logo services, you’ll pay for the use of the high resolution files. On BrandCrowd, the fee is $25-45 (not sure if the $25 shown is a limited time promo):

There’s also a monthly subscription option, which includes a bunch of extra stuff, of which the “unlimited edits” is probably the most valuable. I can see that being helpful if you need to make a change in the future.

But otherwise, it seems kind of unnecessary to pay monthly for what if most likely a 1-off project.

DesignCrowd Alternatives

There are several companies that offer similar graphic design outsourcing. The best-known of the crowdsourcing options is 99designs. One interesting point of differentiation is DesignCrowd’s “Participation Payment” program, which rewards designers for submitting their work to your contest even if they don’t win.

If you have a need for ongoing design work, Design Pickle might be worth checking out.

Your Turn

Have you worked with DesignCrowd? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their hiring decision.

Designoye is a graphic design company offering unlimited graphic design services for a flat monthly fee.

The company started operations in 2011. Their headquarters are split across the US and UAE, and their designers work remotely from the UAE, Philippines, and India.

About Designoye

The company is headed up by current CEO Dushyant Bhatia.

When asked who their target customers are, Designoye told me, “Anyone who is looking to have a designer but is not keen on hiring full-time personnel.”

They went on to say they work with startups, creative agencies, bloggers, professionals, and a lot of brick and mortar businesses.

When you sign up for a monthly plan with Designoye you can start submitting as many design tasks as you wish.

You’re limited to the 24-48-hour turnaround per task, plus revisions. This means you can get around 30 tasks completed in a month in the best-case scenario.

That’s pretty good value for $369/month, especially when you compare that to the cost of an in-house designer.

They have offices in the US and the UAE you can call as a point of contact. The design work is sent overseas to India and the Philippines, which explains how they can offer such competitive rates.

How DesignOye Works

When you sign up for one of their monthly subscription plans, you’ll be able to log in to your account and access your dashboard via their site.

Once in, a member of their team will call you up and talk you through the process when it’s your first time.

Once you’re familiar with their software and how to submit jobs, it’s as easy as submitting a job and waiting for it to be completed.

You’ll receive a draft within 24-48 per job. You can either accept the work or send it back with revision notes. You can also add as many jobs as you wish to your job list and they’ll be picked up one after the other.

Services

Designoye’s team of graphic designers will take on just about any kind of graphic design task.

A few tasks, such as logo designs, animated Gifs, website designs, and Google Slides and Decks are reserved for the Premium Plan, but everything else is available in either plan.

Some of the common design tasks they expect from their clients include:

• Banner ads
• Social media graphics
• Email banners and graphics
• Blog images
• Infographics
• Flyer and brochures
• T-shirt graphics

Plans and Pricing

Designoye currently has two different monthly pricing plans as follows:

• Standard – $369/mo – Aimed at individuals, solo entrepreneurs or small teams.
• Premium – $999/mo – Aimed at agencies and medium to large businesses

Included in the Standard Plan:

• unlimited design projects
• unlimited revisions
• free stock photos
• one project at a time

The Premium Plan includes all the services in the Standard Plan, plus you are assigned a dedicated account manager, can request logo designs, animated Gifs, website designs, and Google Slides and Decks.

Designoye Alternatives

Design Pickle is perhaps the best-known service in the unlimited graphic design space. Rival Delesign might be worth a look as well, and performed well in my brief trial. Pricing is similar.

If you don’t want to commit to a monthly plan, you could try looking on marketplaces like Fiverr for one-off design gigs.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Designoye? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision