Design Service Reviews
My Honest Review of Superside [Updated for 2024]
Table of Contents
See why we recommend Flocksy over Superside
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Superside Overview
Think about your business. What is your business good at? If you’re a PR company, you’re likely skilled at PR. If you’re a food blog, you’re likely skilled in reviewing dishes. What you likely aren’t skilled in though is design – and that’s okay!
There are companies out there, like Superside, that specialize in designing whatever the creative need of your business is. What that means for you, is that you can stop worrying about how to hire an in-house creative team, or how to create your logos when you aren’t a skilled designer yourself. Superside will handle all of this for you and will deliver results faster than any in-house team would.
But is spending the money on a service like this worth it? Keep reading below to learn more about Superside so you can determine if it makes sense for you to take the plunge and sign up with them.
What is Superside?
Simply put, Superside is a creative service platform. Appealing to companies that are looking for a hassle-free marketing and creative solution, Superside works with brands to deliver a good design on a larger scale. Superside has worked with over 450 businesses, and they have over 600 creatives that work across 57 countries and 19 time zones.
With a wide array of service offerings, Superside allows for these companies to house all their design projects on one platform. It truly is a one-stop-shop for high-quality design. You’ll pay for this service monthly, but how much you pay is dependent on how many hours your company requires.
How Does Superside Work?
How it works
Superside’s process is like other platforms I have tried out before. The only difference is that Superside seems to have a stronger emphasis on connecting with the Project Manager back and forth throughout the process. No matter what plan you are on, you’ll want to follow these steps to get started:
- Choose what plan best aligns with your company and sign up. Once you do that, you can either participate in a live demo or get started on submitting your first project brief right away.
- Once you submit your project brief, your Creative Project Manager will reach out to discuss the details of your project and provide a quote. The project will not be officially started until you have this conversation.
- Now that you chatted with your Creative Project Manager, they will push the project out to your team members (if you haven’t added anyone to your team yet, they will find a team member that best aligns with your brand based on their knowledge of their creatives and your conversation).
- Your Creative Project Manager will send you updates on the status of your project along the way.
- As soon as your project is completed, your Creative Project Manager will send this over to you. Based on your quote, you’ll have a designated number of revisions you can request.
- Once you finalize the project, you’ll receive all the working files of the final approved design. You can also access any of your previous project files right on your Superside dashboard.
Superside Designs
Superside’s portfolio of clients is impressive. They’ve delivered projects to brands like Shopify, Cisco, Salesforce, and Puma, so I knew going into my first project that I would receive high-quality work.
Unlike other platforms, you are required to talk to your Creative Project Manager before your project is worked on. This step is likely what makes a difference in their quality of work. Sure, some companies just want to push out as many projects as possible, but this personalized touch made it feel like I could articulate exactly what I was looking for, that maybe wasn’t captured in my brief. Since they don’t allow unlimited revisions, this also helps cut back on the back and forth that some other platforms have.
The designs I received back were excellent, but I also never doubted that I would be blown away by the quality, or time, that was put into my designs. The thing was though, the more I worked with Superside, the more I felt like it was catered to larger corporations with larger budgets. I didn’t necessarily need all the back and forth with my Creative Project Manager, and I would probably have liked a simpler, faster design, just as much. My projects don’t necessarily require a substantial number of hours, so for me, it comes down to if it’s worth it based on their pricing structure for the quality, and quantity, of projects I get back.
- Logo
- Infographics
- Websites
- Landing Pages
- Apps
- Print Materials
- TShirts
- Social Media
- Illustrations
It is for All
How Much Is Superside?
Unlike other unlimited creative design platforms, Superside is priced by the number of hours you can have projects worked on per month. For instance, the cheapest plan for full stack design is their Level 1 plan. This includes 65 hours of work and is billed annually at a rate of $5,500 per month. With this plan, you’ll have access to a full range of services including presentation design, print design, email design, illustration design, motion design, social media creation, eBook design, and more. Their plans increase up to the Level 4 plan which includes 470 hours of work that is billed annually at a rate of $40,000 per month. While Superside has different price points based on whether you are looking for a Communications, Full Stack Design, Digital Advertising, or End-to-End Creative plan, all follow this model of having four levels of four different price points based on the number of hours available.
All four of their plans allow up to a certain percentage of the total hours to be fast turnarounds and all include a dedicated team, access to Superside’s Design Ops platform, complete-time zone coverage, free onboarding, and the support of multiple brands. If you ever want to add on branding or video and sound production, the option is there for you as an additional cost.
Superside is certainly more expensive than competing companies and is designed more for brands that require a substantial amount of time on a few projects. The other downside with their pricing is that you can’t mix and match creative needs within one plan. For instance, if you want design projects and a digital advertising project completed, that would be two separate plans, or an additional add-on cost.
How Long Does Superside Take?
Superside prides itself on delivering projects 20x faster than someone in-house would. What I found as I worked with Superside is that they have two types of project delivery, that influence how quickly you receive a completed project.
- Their standard delivery returns projects in 48+ hours.
- Their fast turnaround delivery returns projects in 12-24 hours.
Just like with most creative service platforms, these are strictly estimates and the actual turnaround time is dependent on how complex each project is. It’s important to note that many of their plans only allow for a certain percentage of the monthly hours to be devoted to fast turnaround delivery, so while it would be nice to have every project received back this quickly, that won’t be the case based on their pricing structure.
Tips for starting a project with Superside successfully
What separates a good design from a bad design on Superside is how good of a communicator you are. Having a personal Creative Project Manager is a benefit you should utilize. Before a project is started, you’ll need to work with your Creative Project Manager to fully articulate your project, so be clear in what it is you are looking for. If you neglect to do this, you may be disappointed in your final result and you may run out of revisions before you get to a result that you approve of.
As you are connecting with your designated Creative Project Manager, be sure to articulate answers to these questions:
- What message do you want your project to convey?
- What is the call to action for this project?
- What would be appealing to your target audience?
From there, consider sharing past examples of projects that have worked well for your brand, especially if this is your first project on Superside. The more you can share with your Creative Project Manager, the happier you’ll be with the results you receive.
Superside Review
My “Expert” Opinion
When it comes to design service platforms, while Superside’s quality is the best I’ve seen, I would probably stick with another company. Superside’s high quality comes at a high cost where it almost equates to having someone on staff, rather than a freelancer. Other competing companies also offer you the ability to have a dialogue between you and the creative, as well as unlimited projects and revisions, which Superside lacks. Superside is catered to larger scale, established companies, rather than start-ups or smaller-to-mid size companies that are looking to outsource their creative needs to cut costs.
Pros: Here’s what I like about Superside
• Your hours can rollover. If you don’t have enough volume to cover your available hours for one month, you’ll be able to roll over hours to the following month(s) for future projects. These hours will stay in your account for up to 90 days for you to use.
• Their approach is personalized. Superside focuses on relationship building and their emphasis on this directly correlates with the quality of work and limited revisions that are needed.
• They recruit the creatives. Based on your in-depth conversation with your Creative Project Manager, they will take care of finding the most qualified professional to execute your project. As you complete more projects, you can build out a team and never have to worry about interviewing a creative professional again.
• You can start unlimited projects (within your hour limits). Since Superside’s model is based on hours, not the number of projects, you can start as many projects as you want in a month. If your quota of hours is reached, you can either pay extra to have your projects continue to be worked on, or they can resume during the next month.
Cons: Here are the only things I don’t like about Superside
• You can’t request unlimited revisions. You get the number of revisions provided in your first quote and there are no revisions allowed on 12- or 24-hour deadline projects. Typically, a quote will allow for 2 revisions.
• You can’t see any designer portfolios ahead of time. Since Superside recruits from top global agencies and requires a rigorous 6-week training, they are confident in their talent and do not feel like they need to share their designers’ portfolios in advance of them working on your project.
• You can’t talk directly to any creatives. The Creative Project Manager is your middleman and will facilitate any back-and-forth conversation. While a designer may participate in calls or workshops, you won’t be able to have a dialogue with them about the designs they are creating for you.
Alternatives to Superside
- Kimp: The biggest draw of Kimp is that you are guaranteed 2-3 tasks to be completed per day, which is double the amount competitors typically offer. Their output with video and graphic design is comparable with other companies and they don’t have any hidden contracts so you can cancel anytime.
- ManyPixels: Like Superside, ManyPixel’s approach is personalized, focusing on matching you to a designer that is best suited for your specific line of work. By having this dedicated team member, they take the time to review your brand and your inspiration, and they take an interest in you and your company. If you are ever not satisfied with your designer, you can get your money back with their 14-day money-back guarantee. For an added cost, you can also snag a second designer for double the output!
- Flocksy: What sets Flocksy apart from other companies, is that they offer the greatest number of services (beyond graphic design). Flocksy’s services include design, copywriting, web design and development, video editing, voice-over work, and SEO. You can create an unlimited number of projects and ask for an unlimited number of revisions all for a flat, monthly rate! When of their best features though is that you can mix and match the project scope without having to sign up for two separate plans – that means if you want a copywriting project and a design project completed, you can do that in the same plan.
Fequently Asked Questions
Is Superside legit?
Superside is legit and comes highly recommended by brands you likely know and love. Their pricing is transparent, and their dashboard allows you to easily see how many hours you have left for creatives to work on your projects each month. If you go over those hours, it’ll be an additional cost, but it’s easy to see if you are getting close to that and they are clear about the additional cost!
What is a design service platform?
Just like any other service industry, design platforms like Superside offer a design service. These platforms offer a flat, monthly, or annual rate, which allows you to gain access to unlimited concepts with quick turnaround times, all while having a dedicated, and experienced, designer work on your projects. The more projects your designated designers work on, the more familiar they become with your brand. Essentially, design service platforms allow you to outsource your creative needs to a freelancer that learns your brand quickly.
Is Superside worth it?
If you want to outsource your creative needs at a price point that equates to an entry-level creative professional (but delivers veteran creative work), then Superside would be a good fit for you. They are built for larger scale companies so if you are an entrepreneur, you may prefer to work with a boutique, or other, design service platform that is more affordable and offers unlimited projects, with unlimited revisions.
See why we recommend Flocksy over Superside
Flocksy includes design, video, copy, Virtual Assistants and more..
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