Hiring a senior designer takes months, and one hire still covers one skill set. A design partnership gives you a senior team across brand, web, product and motion, working inside your priorities every month.
02In short
A design partnership gives a funded startup a senior design team across brand, web, product and motion every month, working inside your priorities instead of a ticket queue, without a hiring round. You keep the same people month to month, and scale up or down as priorities change. Design Partnership, monthly. Priced after a short call.
How a project runs · Studio facts · A one-page brief for your team
If one of these sounds like your team, read on.
We've been trying to hire a senior designer for four months.
Marketing is waiting on design for everything.
We're juggling three freelancers and none of it matches.
We don't need a full-time hire, but we need more than a freelancer.
Every agency wants a six-month project scope upfront.
Our brand slips a little more every time someone ships a deck.
A full-time hire is slow to find and covers one discipline. A bench of freelancers means you become the project manager, and every one of them learns your brand from scratch. A traditional agency wants a fixed scope before it understands your business.
Senior designers who already know your brand, plans with you each month, and moves between web, product, decks and launches as your priorities change.
Unlimited requests, worked one at a time, with a new round for every fix.
Projects run to a written scope and a date. A partnership works through monthly priorities you set with us.
A different designer picks up each request and learns your brand from scratch.
The same named people stay on your account: Koen on brand, Adrian on web and UI, Ramy and Samuel on motion.
Annual client
“Everreach is on Alterra Studio's annual membership, we get immense value from Ryan and his team and we couldn't be happier.”
Ethan Chief Operating Officer, Everreach LabsAt many agencies a senior person pitches and a junior designer delivers. Here the people on your first call do the work. Ryan leads the call, and the people below are named in your written scope and stay on it to handover.
Leads your first call, strategy and client relationships.
Koen leads our brand identity work: positioning, logo, type and color systems, and the guidelines teams use afterwards.
@koendesigns on X, 16.5K followersRamy animates our launch films and product motion, from style frames to the final cut.
Max runs project schedules, so milestones, feedback and handover land on the dates we agreed.
Samuel designs and animates motion for launch films, product UI and social cutdowns.
Adrian designs product interfaces and websites, from wireframes to the final UI.
You see the work at every stage, and you sign off the direction before production starts.
We learn your brand, roadmap and team, set up the shared board and agree the first month's priorities.
We work through priorities in order, share progress in your channels and run a weekly check-in.
We review what shipped, what moved and what's next, then adjust capacity for the month ahead.
Steady senior design support for marketing and brand.
A cross-discipline pod working inside your roadmap.
The same people work on your brand every month, so each request starts from what we already know.
Brand, web, product, motion and development, all available inside one partnership.
Monthly priorities, weekly check-ins and a shared board, so you always know what's shipping.
Scale capacity up for launches and down between them. No hiring, onboarding or notice periods.
Design Partnership, monthly. Priced after a short call, then a fixed price in a written scope. How we price
Not sure what you need yet? The Brand & Website Diagnostic, a ranked plan in 5 working days.
What founders ask before hiring us for design partnership.
You get a senior team across several disciplines in weeks instead of one hire in months, without recruiting, onboarding or long-term commitments. You also keep the context of a team that already knows your brand.
Through a shared board and your Slack. We agree priorities each month and work through them in order, with weekly check-ins so nothing gets lost.
Yes. Capacity can grow for a launch or fundraise and drop back afterwards. We plan the change with you a month ahead where possible.
Senior designers, with specialist developers when the build needs them, coordinated by one lead who owns your account. No juniors learning on your project and no layers between you and the people doing the work.
Yes. We work in your Slack, Figma and Linear alongside a shared board, so requests, reviews and files stay where your team already works.
You do. Once paid, the final deliverables made for you are yours, with organized source files and documentation your team can keep building on. Fonts, stock and other third-party assets stay under their own licenses.
Practical guides on brand, websites, product and launches, written by the team that does the work.
All insightsWhat is a design partner? How an ongoing senior design team differs from a project agency, a design subscription or a hire, and when a startup needs one.
Design agency vs freelancer vs in-house designer for a funded startup: costs, speed, hidden coordination costs and a decision guide by stage.
When an unlimited design subscription is worth it, when an agency or design partner fits better, and what each costs per month, with sources.
Project studio, Webflow studio, product designer or design subscription? The four kinds of design studio funded startups hire, compared by price, speed, scope and fit.
Pick a time on the calendar. Under a minute, start to finish.
Prefer email? hello@alterra.studio
Ryan HofmannFounder, leads every first call30 minutes, free, with the people who'd do the work. You leave with a recommended scope and price range, even if we're not the fit.
Book a call, get a price range
