Updated October 2026
Ongoing Design Partnership
Some brands do not have a project, they have a pace. For those, MarkaWorks provides branding and design services month to month, and a partnership can be the first thing a brand does with us. It suits a company that keeps launching products, entering new markets or running campaigns through the year.
When a retainer is the right shape
Project work has a start and an end, and it is the right shape for a defined piece of work: an identity, a pack range, a site.
A retainer is the right shape when the work has no natural end. A brand adding two products a quarter, entering a market a year, and running campaigns on a calendar does not have a project. It has a rhythm, and the rhythm is what a retainer serves.
A brand that can name the deliverable usually fits a project; one that can only name the pace fits a partnership. If you are not sure which, a first call settles it.
The second case is more common than founders expect. A brand at two products looks like a project; the same brand at eight products, three markets and a seasonal calendar has been running a partnership without calling it one, usually across four suppliers.
What the arrangement includes
MarkaWorks plans a partnership month around design work drawn from the same brand system: packaging updates, new variants, campaign assets, product page work and the documents that keep appearing without warning.
The arrangement also covers the part nobody quotes for: keeping the system itself current. Systems drift in use, and the drift is invisible until somebody opens two assets side by side. Maintaining it is cheaper as a habit than as a rescue.
The asset library is part of the arrangement. Files live in one place, named by a convention the client’s own team can follow, so a request for last spring’s campaign artwork takes minutes.
What a month covers, by type
The arrangement is easier to judge as a list of work types than as a number of hours.
| Type | Typical request | Drawn from |
|---|---|---|
| Packaging | New variant, format change, market adaptation | Existing pack system and range rules |
| Digital | Product page, landing page, campaign page | Site design system and components |
| Campaign | Social set, sell sheet, trade document | Brand system and pack renders |
| System upkeep | Guideline updates, new component rules | The system itself |
A month usually mixes two or three of these. The mix is agreed before the month starts.
How the work is planned
Each month runs the same way.
- A short list agreed in advance.
- Mid-month requests queued against that list, not displacing it silently.
- The work delivered against the list.
Missing parts of the brand foundation are built in the first phase of the arrangement, so the months that follow work from a system instead of from single files. Each new launch then starts from what earlier months built, so the design time goes to the new product.
Scope, agreed month by month
We agree the scope with you each month and write it down, and both sides measure the month against that written list.
You keep the brand decisions; MarkaWorks designs and documents them. When the pace slows, the work can move back to project shape, and the asset library and the system documentation stay with you.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. You can start directly with a partnership. If parts of the brand foundation are missing, we build them in the first phase and carry them forward month by month.
Mid-month requests join the list agreed at the start of the month, and we decide any change to that list with you.
Yes. Product pages, landing pages and campaign work sit inside the same arrangement, and they draw on the same brand system the packaging uses.
The client. Working files and exports are handed over, and the asset library is organized so the brand's own team can use it without us.
Starting a partnership
Need design support from this month on? Start with a call or a written proposal, and we set the first month's list and the working model together.
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