Launching a Design Company
In January 2024, I launched a design company called To Be Designed (https://www.tobedesigned.co/).
Born from my firsthand experiences navigating the challenges of a fintech startup. Witnessing the struggles of marketing teams grappling with design inconsistencies that in turn impacted the growth of the company, I knew there had to be a better way.
It was this realization that fueled the creation of To Be Designed — a subscription-based design service poised to revolutionize the way founders bring their visions to life.
With To Be Designed, Founders can hire a team of expert designers for the price of one and work with them as their very own team by subscribing to a monthly package. Hire without actually hiring! 👀
With unlimited design requests and quality of design, founders can build faster and launch faster while building a brand that helps them stand out.
As our first clients, we had an ecommerce retailer wanting to launch a luxury leather jackets brand. We started from only a name ‘Black Jack’ and an idea to build into a luxury brand.
From curating their Brand Identity to helping them launch their Shopify store to their email marketing campaign, we have been their visual partners through it all. For us, design is creating an experience for the users of our clients and that’s what we aimed at doing with Black Jack.
Checkout how we designed the brand:
https://medium.com/@sumaljamil/launching-a-design-company-87927493c366
By the way, nice brand, I like the way you work with color
Thank you so much!
It ia a business that I have been seeing a lot of lately. It certainly has its advantages, but there are already big fish, like Desingjoy to give an example. What are the characteristics that differentiate you from others and why should a business choose you over others?
Absolutely, there are. I'm targeting more of the businesses in my own country (Pakistan) where this business model doesn't exist and targeting retail brands instead of tech companies. That is how I differentiate myself, by being design partners to retail brands instead of tech startups & companies.
Every market has its differences and needs, if you are able to identify them and bring them in the right way, it can definitely be a detail that allows you to be competitive even with such big fish in the market.
May I ask what was the deciding factor for you to go subscription based? I've noticed this as a rising trend within our industry and I'm curious as to what are the pros and cons about it before making a change in my business. Thanks!
Well, for me it was
a. this business model doesn't exist where I live (Pakistan)
b. with this business model, I'm solving exactly what I struggled with at my previous job i.e. struggled to hire a designer in-house. So, with a subscription model, companies can hire without actually having to hire, so saving on benefits and so much more. They won't even have to struggle with retaining designers.
That is helpful, thank you. I've noticed a trend in my particular industry (gaming) where there are less overall hires and more contract opportunities increasing. A subscription model might work best for me. What would you suggest?
I believe that subscription model is very useful for both the parties. I think you could start by making subscriptions as an added offering and see how it works for you.
If you'd like, I can help you setup the model and figure out the strategy for it.
I'm always open to receiving help!
Thank you for sharing your experience! happy for you friend
Thank you!
Great idea and conversation starter!
Your service returns the scripts with the purported design requests ?
For example, I want a simple contact form, a smooth about us section, and an enticing landing page for my travel recommendation platform.
You will return the HTML, CSS, and JS necessary to implement or just the Figma mockup?
I could get it built for you in webflow actually and deliver you the ready website. If you'd like that, let's get in touch and discuss in more detail - you can drop me an email at hello@tobedesigned.co