Simple Options for Rapid Response Design

It depends. If you have a main brand which is the main focus, and then some micro-sites or complimentary brands, then we can likely include this in the subscription coverage.

However, if you have completely separate brands, with different teams of people we need to interact with, it will likely require a separate subscription.

Feel free to chat with us about your specific situation - every client is different - and we’ll tailor a package for you.

Theoretically yes, if you are happy with us chatting directly with them.

But otherwise, probably not. Our approach doesn’t suit a white label engagement.

Note: if using the subscription option we would require a different subscription per client.

Yes, for larger companies who already have an internal design team, we can be a complement to your team during busy periods - a common example is if preparing for a trade show or conference and needing help preparing booth collateral, sales collateral and email follow up series.

We require payment upfront via credit card. We provide a link to a Stripe checkout page to securely process your card.

For our On-Demand customers we send you a link to pre-purchase a minimum of 4 hours. You can purchase additional blocks at once (eg an extra 16 hours) if easier for your accounts.

For Subscription customers we send you a link to purchase a recurring subscription. You can pause/cancel this from recurring at any time.

For the Design Subscription, the agreement is month to month - no lock-ins, cancel any time.

This ensures that there’s no risk on either side (you can cancel if you don’t think you are getting value, and we can cancel if we don’t think we’re a fit for you going forward).

There's plenty of 'Design as a Subscription' services out there - so what's different about working with XEN Create?

There's four key frustrations (plus a bonus one) we've worked hard to solve for growing businesses:

1. Talk with your designer
   Yes, you can actually jump on a call (Teams/Zoom/Meet) with your designer(s) and video editor(s) whenever you need. As opposed to having to add everything as tickets or emails or slack messages. 
   

2. Rapid response
   No more artificial task queues that bump a response to the next day even when it's just a quick 5 minute tweak. Get rapid updates from your designer.
   

3. Work on all your outcomes at once
   So important for ensuring brand consistency of your outcomes, we'll work across multiple items together so that you can view all their progress at once, provide feedback, etc. No more having to wait until one outcome (eg a brochure) is finalised before starting on the next one. 
   

4. Never use a stock image again
   All our designs are created fresh by designers, using AI tools (including Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, etc) and full rights are transferred to you. No more cliché stock images. Ever.
   

5. (Bonus): HubSpot expertise
   If you use HubSpot, you'll love that we can set up all your visual assets directly in your portal, including landing pages, emails, social updates, website pages, documents, files, etc.

An outcome is a deliverable for your business eg build a landing page, or designing a slide deck, or designing a brochure, or creating some social media posts, etc.

We avoid using the work 'task' because usually an outcome requires a number of 'tasks' (eg multiple images for a landing page, combined with laying out the page, etc).

You can view the full list of outcomes available to you here.

With our Subscription option we aim to cover all your graphic design needs each month.

Most of our clients have medium volume needs, around 2 outcomes per week. An outcome might be some social media posts, or an ebook, or a landing page, or an email series, or a slide deck, etc.

In terms of the capacity or hours (if you wanted to think like that) consider how much you would expect if you hired a full time senior graphic designer in your company. That’s a good indication of what we provide each month for our clients.

Every business is different, however as a general guide we've found that mid sized companies typically need 6-8 key design outcomes each month (some months are busies, some are quieter, but overall it's a good average).

One of the misunderstandings with 'unlimited' design services is that it's not unlimited items, it's actually just unlimited requests.

And when you actually start using them you find out that they usually only work on one task at a time. And they don't start the next one till the current one is finished. And they don't start the next one till the next day.

At the end of it all you might be lucky to get 2 to 3 tasks done per week... hardly the 'unlimited' tasks you were expecting.

Yes, we've just added additional subscription tiers: up to 3 outcomes for low volume requirements, and up to 20+ outcomes for larger companies and scaling startups.

Short version: all of them at once

Long version:

We like to focus on business imperatives with you. And then work on the associated outcomes in a batch approach.

Here's an example: let's say you have a trade show or conference coming up, and you are sending a few of your sales and marketing team along.

You'll likely have sales collateral (slide decks, brochures, business cards, trade show booth) as well as marketing items (email series, landing pages, social updates, ad banners, explainer video) that are all needed for the conference.

We'll work on all of these outcomes with you at once, because:

• that's probably the way you think about things anyway!

• it ensures brand consistency (as opposed to doing one at a time and each one being a little bit different)

• it means we can be proactive with suggestions and strategic ideas

• it avoids a last minute rush getting the final few finished

• it means your teams can be learning about (or being trained on) all the assets together

Here's the key takeaway:

Our clients want to work with a design partner who is part of the process, working alongside them delivering outcomes. (As opposed to an outsourced resource who just ticks off tasks one at a time and doesn't understand the bigger picture.)

By working on all your outcomes (or as many as possible) at once, we can deliver a streamlined, brand consistent, rapid experience for you.

Our goal is to be as responsive as possible. With similar turnaround times to if you had a full time designer in your team.

Having said that, the turnaround time will depend on the outcome we’re delivering.

Some examples:

• Tweaks to an existing social media image - as soon as possible (within an hour or two - during business hours)

• Prepare a social media image - a few hours (ie we aim for same day response if requested in the morning)

• Preparing a slide deck - usually take a few days

• Preparing an ebook - usually takes days to weeks (depending on length and complexity)

• Preparing assets for a conference - this can take a few weeks for all the assets to be prepared (brochures, booth decoration, etc)

Please see our outcomes page for full details of our capability.

However, as a quick summary, here’s what we can manage for you:

• Graphic Design

• HubSpot items (website, landing pages, emails, social posts)

• Video Editing & 2D Animation

• Digital Design

So far our clients have wanted a mix of graphic design and only one or two videos each month.

However, we've noticed an increasing interest in building out video assets (including a mix of formats from short LinkedIn videos, through to full YouTube episode videos).

If you're interested in just a video focussed subscription, we're open to it. Please contact us and let's chat through further - perhaps we can make it work for both of us.

Short answer: it depends... on what you mean by 'brand strategy'...

For mid-large companies, brand strategy involves research into how you will position your brand in the market, including product-market fit, competitive analysis, and how your current visual elements (logo, colours, collateral, site, emails) all communicate this vision.

We don't do this.

Instead we recommend a company such as Brand Chemistry to develop this with you (we know their founder and highly recommend them).

However, for smaller businesses, you may just need help developing a logo, brand colours, fonts and imagery guidelines (often referred to as a style guide).

We can definitely help you with this.

For example, take this site you are viewing now - we (of course) designed our own logo, colours, fonts, styles, brand imagery etc.

As a general rule: No.

Everything we create uses original images created either by us or AI tools (eg such as Midjourney). The rights to these images are transferred to you as part of our engagement.

The only time we’ll use stock images is if specifically requested by you (eg you have existing images you’d like us to continue to use in designs).