.png)
In house Graphics Designers for small marketing teams
Add a Sr. level designer to your team without the cost and commitment or hiring full-time.
Meet your new designer
Start your FREE test project
Design Pickle vs
Darkroast Design
Updated for 2022
.jpg)
Design Pickle is great for beginners, but professional marketers and high-performing teams prefer Darkroast Design.
See why Darkroast is the partner of choice for serious marketing people who value quality work and service.
You’ve probably seen Design Pickle ads, or at least heard of the concept of Unlimited Graphic Design. It’s a new way of working for business owners and marketers looking for a fast and affordable way to get graphic design work done consistently, every month. This new genre of design service offers a flat fee for all your monthly graphic design needs and Design Pickle is the largest and most recognized brand name in this space, with 2000+ clients and 400+ designers.
If you’re looking for the cheapest possible solution for Unlimited Graphic Design and are NOT overly concerned about the quality of work and service you are receiving, and you also don’t mind working with a less experienced designer overseas or in another time zone, then Design Pickle is a great low-cost option and might be a good fit for your business.
However, if you’re concerned about the quality of work and/or experience that Design Pickle can offer, or maybe have used Design Pickle in the past and had a bad experience, but still like the idea of paying a flat monthly fee for all your graphic design needs, then it helps to know what other options are out there.
If you’re willing to invest a little more money to ensure that you get world class service and professional agency quality work, and would prefer to work with a designer that has 5 to 10+ years experience and is located in North America, then Darkroast may be the better fit for you and your brand.
"Darkroast is the Unlimited Graphic Design solution for professional marketers and high-performing business that value quality work and their brand’s image.
"Similar to Design Pickle, at Darkroast we offer Unlimited Graphic Design for a flat monthly fee, but we take it to the next level. Ultimately, the ideal solution for any business is to have its own in-house graphic designer, but most of you don’t have the budget or volume of work to justify hiring someone full time, which is why you turn to a monthly graphic design service in the first place. At Darkroast we’re committed to giving you the same experience you would get from having your own in-house graphic designer, without the cost, commitment, and hassle of actually hiring someone full-time.
This 7-minute video will change the way you work forever.
Discover why this is the #1 creative source for high-performing brands
And how you can try out your new designer for FREE
Why DarkRoast - Watch video
What’s the difference between Design Pickle and Darkroast Design?
Lucky for you the differences are pretty clear, and it should be easy to tell which one is the right fit for your business.
The following is an overview of each service, but if you would like to see a more in-depth comparison of the two services based on Price, Quality, Service, Location, What You Get, Assigned Designer, Team Collaboration, and Project Management see our full article on Design Pickle vs Darkroast.
.png)
Quality
Service
Location
What you get
Assigned Designer
Team Collaboration
Project Management
Price
Free Trial
0r
0r
.png)
0r
.png)
Nope
.png)
$1695/month
Nope
.png)
.png)
+
.png)
0r
.png)
+
.png)
+
Yup
$3500/month
Yup
Quality
Service
Location
What you get
0r
0r
0r
Assigned Designer
Team Collaboration
Nope
Project Management
Price
$1695/month
Free Trial
Nope
Quality
Service
Location
What you get
+
+
+
Assigned Designer
Team Collaboration
Yup
Project Management
Price
$3500/month
Free Trial
Yup
Design Pickle is the leader when it comes to Unlimited Graphic Design service. They typically use entry-level freelance graphic designers located in the Philippines and South America. As a Design Pickle customer you’ll be assigned a random designer and it’s not uncommon to have your designer switched multiple times.
Recently, Design Pickle has modified their pricing structure so that different designs and project types require different plans.
- You’re self-employed or work for a small business on a tight budget;
- You’re an agency or reseller of design services;
- You’re looking for the cheapest possible solution for Unlimited Graphic Design;
- You just want to get designs done fast and are less concerned about quality
- You don’t mind working with someone in a different time zone who speaks English as a second language;
- You can spare a fair amount of time explaining what you need and revising work;
- You have the time and ability to manage an entry-level designer;
- and You’re OK training and working with multiple designers
DarkRoast is a little more expensive than Design Pickle, but significantly more affordable than hiring a full-time designer; yet –with Darkroast you get the same experience as having your own in-house designer. Darkroast only employs professional full-time graphic designers in Canada with a minimum of 5–10 years of experience. With Darkroast you’ll be assigned a designer from the start that’s a perfect fit for your brand and industry and you’ll work with the same person indefinitely. Your new virtual in-house graphic designer from Darkroast becomes an integral part of your team and is available for you to communicate and collaborate with all day every day. They have the same working hours as you and are available to anyone on your team. And there are no limitations on what your Darkroast designer can create for you, including custom illustrations, logo design, web design, and animations.
With DarkRoast, you’re not only adding a super-talented, senior-level designer to your team right away, but you’re also gaining access to the entire DarkRoast team that is ready to assist and help out whenever they’re needed. We understand that workloads fluctuate and that’s why we don’t count the projects, and we don’t count the hours.
When you come across a busy month with numerous detailed projects or just need last-minute designs done super fast, DarkRoast is there. To get the amount of work completed across the variety of different project types that most marketers deal with on a daily basis, you would be paying 3x as much with Design Pickle compared to DarkRoast’s all-in-one plan.
Unlike Design Pickle, DarkRoast offers a free trial that allows you to meet your new designer and try them out with a couple small test projects. The free trial is also a great opportunity for you to tell us all about your brand and what you’re all about. Once you’ve brought us up to speed, we get to work right away and start building our relationship with your new designer that ultimately ends up becoming an integral part of your marketing team. You can start your free trial with DarkRoast here (warning - space is limited and availability isn’t guaranteed)
DarkRoast is right for you if...
- You’re part of a high-performing marketing team or a solo marketing manager;
- You’re the owner or manager of an established business or brand;
- You’re willing to invest a little more money in quality of work and service;
- You’re concerned about your brand’s image;
- You want to get design work done fast but are also concerned about quality;
- You would prefer to work with someone in your time zone who speaks English as their first language;
- You prefer to work with the same person for the long term;
- You don’t want to spend a lot of time explaining what you need and revising work;
- You’d rather work with an experienced professional who manages projects for you;
- You don’t want to spend time training or retraining designers; and
- You may need illustrations, logos, web designs, or animations
The creative weapon behind lovable brands
MORE USEFUL STUFF
If you’d like to learn more about why every business needs and in-house graphic design and how to add one toyour team this week without hiring full time you can check out this 7-minute webinar
If you’d like to see how Darkroast stacks up against Design Pickle you can check out our article
Design Pickle vs DarkRoast
If you’d like to see some of our work you can also check out or portfolio here or grab your free copy of the Ultimate Encyclopedia of Marketing Stuff below.
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Marketing Stuff
100+ ideas for high-impact marketing projects & content
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
.png)
.png)