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.

In this new pricing model, if you’re looking for social media graphics, a new presentation deck designed, and a custom illustration for an upcoming product launch, each project would require its own dedicated plan and receive a completely different designer to work on it. While having 3 designers working on your projects may seem awesome, but it comes at a steep cost ($3450/month) and you’re still only getting 3 projects done at a time.

Beginning in 2022, Design Pickle will offer Graphic Design, Presentation Design & Illustrations for a flat monthly fee ($995/month). Unfortunately with this new plan, 1 project can only be worked on at a time, so turnaround times and over quality of work can suffer dramatically depending on the amount of work you need to get done at any given time.

With this new package you will also be assigned a different designer for each project you submit, so you’ll likely have to spend more time at the beginning of each project bringing your new designer up to speed and will likely have to make more revisions to get something you’re happy with.

With all that being said:

Design Pickle is right for you if...

• 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