Design, Brand & Advertising
Book a designer. Not a queue.
Makers & Mates gives you a named, vetted designer for a day at a time — someone who learns your brand, shows up on the day you booked, and hands you every file when they are done.
The industry sells you everything except a person.
An agency sells you a project, a proposal and three weeks before anyone draws anything.
A design subscription sells you “unlimited” — then quietly works on one thing at a time, somewhere you have never been, by someone you will never meet.
A freelancer sells you a person, which is the right answer, until they are booked, ill or gone — and then you have nothing.
Every one of them asks you to choose between knowing who does the work and being able to rely on getting it.
Named. Booked. Covered.
What we make
Everything a business needs to look like itself.
Brand & identity Logo, identity, guidelines — the mark and the rules around it
Logo and wordmark, visual identity, colour, typography, iconography and the guidelines that keep it consistent after we leave. Built so the next person can follow it without calling us.
Print & POS Packaging, displays, signage, brochures, stands
Point of sale, packaging, displays, signage, brochures, catalogues and exhibition graphics — delivered as print-ready artwork the printer accepts the first time, not the third.
Digital design Websites, landing pages, interfaces, email
Websites, landing pages, webshops, interfaces, newsletters and banner sets. Designed in Figma, handed over in Figma — so whoever builds it next can actually work from it.
Campaign Concept, ad sets, social, motion
Campaign concepts, ad sets across every format your channels demand, social content, simple motion and video cutdowns. One idea, adapted properly, instead of one file stretched to fit.
Web build From the design to a site that is actually live
The step most design work stops one metre short of: getting it built, fast, accessible and live — and handed over so you can change the text yourself without raising a ticket.
Artwork & production The unglamorous work that eats your week
Adaptations, resizes, language versions, print files, format hell. It is nobody’s favourite work and it is most of the work. It is also the first thing an in-house designer drowns in.
The difference
A subscription sells you a queue.
We sell you a person.
You pick a Maker by name. You book a day in the calendar. That day is yours — not a position in a pipeline that moves when someone else shouts louder.
You know who is doing the work.
You know when it is being done.
You get the same person next time.
And if they cannot make it, we cover it.
We make your mark.
Two words, for a reason.
Makers
The craft
Designers who draw, build and finish. Vetted, trained, rated.
Mates
The network
A name you know, a day you booked, and cover when life happens.
How it works
Pick. Book. Keep.
Pick your Maker
You see the name, the work, the skills and the rating before you decide. Not a team. Not a pool. A person you choose.
Book the day
A date in the calendar, not a place in a queue. You can plan a launch around it, because it is a commitment and not a best effort.
Work together, that day
Direct contact with the person doing the work — no account manager relaying your feedback to someone you have never met.
What are we making? For what? By when? Good enough to ship?
Keep everything
Source files, working files, the lot — yours from day one, not on request. And the same Maker next time, so nobody starts over.
The Makers
A name, not a seat.
Every Maker is vetted before they take a booking and rated after every single day. Not once at onboarding — every day, by the person who booked them. It is the same standard the rest of our network runs on.
We have seen the work
Portfolio reviewed, references taken, a paid trial day before anyone is booked by a client. Nobody gets in on a CV alone.
Every day is scored
The rating follows the Maker, and you see it before you book. It is uncomfortable, and that is exactly why it works.
Illness is our problem
If your Maker cannot make the day, another rated Maker steps in with the same brief and the same files. A freelancer cannot promise you that.
The same one, next time
Your Maker stays yours by default. They learn the brand, the tone and the printer — and stop asking you the same questions.
Ways to book
One Maker. Different ways in.
A day
One booked day for the thing that has been sitting on your desk for a month.
A standing day
Every Tuesday, same Maker. A design department that costs nothing on the other four days.
A sprint
Several days in a row when a launch, a rebrand or a campaign needs a run at it.
A project
A defined piece of work with a named Maker who owns it from first sketch to print-ready file.
Cover
Your own designer is on leave, off sick or simply buried. We take the overflow without you hiring anyone.
Why the booking holds
A date you can plan around.
Most design cannot promise you a date. A freelancer cannot cover their own sickness. An agency will not tell you who is doing the work, so there is nobody to hold to a day.
We can promise it, because there is a bench behind every Maker — vetted the same way, rated the same way, working to the same standard. If yours cannot make the day, another one picks it up with the same brief and the same files.
That is the whole difference between a booking and a hope.
A quick reframe
You probably don’t need more designers.
You need the same one, more often.
Fewer briefings from scratch. Fewer files you cannot open. Fewer people who have to be told again what your brand is.
And someone whose name you know, in your calendar, on a day you picked.
Let’s talk
What needs making?
Tell us what you need and roughly when. We read every message ourselves and reply personally.
Are you a designer? We are always looking for Makers. Say so in the form — same address, same people reading.