Superside vs DarkRoast

Graphic Design Subscriptions make sense for a lot of marketing professionals and brands that care about good, quality design.

Graphic Design subscriptions allow brands to get the same amazing quality and experience as having their own in-house graphic designer without the cost, commitment or hassle of hiring someone full time.

Superside is a great option for larger brands that are looking to scale their graphic design needs but don’t want to hire someone themselves.

They give you access to senior-level designers with a dedicated project manager to assist your existing marketing teams on a set number of hours and/or projects per month.

They typically work with large brands like Amazon, Puma and Salesforce and have a tiered subscription pricing structure that ranges from $3,000 all the way up to $80,000 per month. All of their plans include a set number of hours you’re allowed per month and require a minimum 1 year commitment.

Although convenient, Superside’s higher prices mean that a lot of brands with smaller marketing teams are not able to afford or justify the costly expense that comes with hiring an industry-leading graphic design subscription service.

DarkRoast Design provides the same quality of design work without counting the hours or projects — all at a fraction of the cost of Superside.

DarkRoast gives brands all the tools they need to scale great design and creative work without the cost or commitment that’s typically required from a larger graphic design subscription company like Superside.

DarkRoast is the perfect solution for brands and marketers that value quality work and really care about how their brand is perceived across all of their marketing channels.

More on Superside

Superside positions themselves as the perfect solution to the problems that most marketers have when dealing with freelancers or bigger agencies for their design needs. They also provide a cost-saving alternative for brands looking to hire or add additional graphic designers to their team.

Often times large brands with existing marketing teams that already have in-house graphic designers will look to Superside to help scale their creative output. These design needs vary depending on the size of the team and their key marketing objectives.

That’s why Superside offers 3 different design plans that each include different tiers within them depending on the amount of work that’s required. All of their graphic design plans are billed annually and include a set number of hours you’re allowed each month, regardless of how busy – or slow – you are.

Because of these monthly time restrictions, brands working with Superside will need to be wary of the amount of time that’s spent on each project to ensure that priority projects are being completed on time and within the budgeted hours each month.

During the Superside onboarding process – which can take anywhere from 2 to 90 days, you are assigned a designer and project manager that will act as your main form of communication for projects. Having a project manager on your account may seem like an advantage, but it also limits your ability to communicate directly with the designer working on your projects. This agency model is great for brands that value brainstorming and creative thinking, but often limits the amount of work you’re able to get done consistently and could increase the amount of time needed to see projects through to completion.

Superside vs DarkRoast Design

Both DarkRoast and Superside offer senior-level graphic design for a flat monthly fee.

Whereas Superside counts the number of hours and projects you’re allowed each month, DarkRoast offers unlimited projects, designs, and revisions at half the price of Superside’s entry level plan.

We understand the value in unlimited. Most marketing teams don’t want to count the hours or projects they have on the go each month, and neither do we.

DarkRoast focuses on building relationships where your designer becomes a true part of your team that you can go for anything design-related. We also understand that certain creative projects take time, and will have to go through several time-consuming stages before having a finished project you’re happy with. Placing a timer on these creative processes limits your designers ability to fully exercise their creatives muscles and often ends up slowing productivity.

Each Superside plan requires a minimum 1 year contract.

At DarkRoast, we understand that an annual commitment to graphic design can be a tough decision to make, especially considering how the amount of design help you need on any given month fluctuates drastically throughout the year.

That’s why DarkRoast Design doesn’t have contracts. Our all-one-one solution can be started and stopped at any time. We even offer a 7 day free trial to test our our service before making any sort of commitment. No credit cards, no b.s.

You can book your free trial today here.

DarkRoast’s price stays the same no matter how busy or slow you are each month. Wether you have a huge Black Friday/Holiday campaign you want to roll out across multiple social media channels or just need to update your internal documents and sales presentations – DarkRoast’s price stays the same.

By having direct access to your designer whenever you need them, you’re able to really take advantage of down time and quickly get those smaller projects done that you’ve probably been putting off for months.

A Better Way with DarkRoast Design

DarkRoast is half the price of Superside but arguably provides the same quality of design work. With DarkRoast you get the same experience and quality as having your own in-house designer without having to deal with freelancers, agencies, or having to hire someone full time.

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. And unlike Superside, we don’t count the hours or projects — ever.

To get the amount of work completed across the variety of different project types that most marketers deal with on a daily basis, Superside would end up costing 10x as much compared to DarkRoast’s all-in-one plan.

Unlike Superside, 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 care about quality over quantity;
• You’re concerned about your brand’s image;
• 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;