Your brand is your most visible competitive asset. But building a design team is expensive, hiring agencies is slow, and managing freelancers is a distraction. TDS gives you a full creative team with Creative Director leadership on a fixed monthly subscription — so your brand looks like a category leader from day one.
For founders, design is simultaneously critical and impossible to prioritise properly. The commercial stakes are high, the time available is low, and every approach to solving it comes with its own drawbacks.
You've built something genuinely valuable — but your brand makes it look smaller than it is. Inconsistent visuals, generic templates, and patchwork design across channels undermine the credibility you've worked hard to build with investors, clients, and talent.
A good senior designer costs $100,000+/year before super, equipment, and recruitment fees. A junior hire needs managing. The recruitment process takes 2–3 months. And once hired, you're carrying fixed headcount through quiet periods and growth cycles alike.
Traditional agencies have project cycles measured in weeks. By the time an agency delivers a campaign asset, the moment has often passed. Their billing model also means every brief is a negotiation — not what a founder with a full calendar needs.
When design isn't systematised, it becomes reactive. Website updates wait. Pitch decks get recycled. Social content is an afterthought. The result is a brand that falls behind competitors who are investing consistently in their visual presence.
TDS removes every friction point in the design relationship. One subscription. One Creative Director. Unlimited output.
TDS starts every engagement with a 5-day brand immersion — auditing your existing assets, clarifying your positioning, and producing a Brand Alignment Brief that governs all output. Your brand looks intentional and consistent from day one.
TDS gives you a Creative Director plus production designers for a fixed monthly cost that is 50–65% less than the equivalent in-house hire. No recruitment, no super, no equipment, no management overhead.
Submit briefs via Slack as they arise — pitch deck, investor update, campaign asset, website section. Standard turnaround is 48 business hours. There is no cap on brief volume. Design stays off your to-do list.
Your Creative Director is not just an executor — they challenge briefs, make strategic recommendations, and ensure every piece of creative serves your commercial objectives. You get a thinking partner, not just a production service.
Launching a new product? Raising a round? Entering a new market? Scale up your subscription scope to match the demand. In quiet periods, scale back or pause. No lock-in, no penalties, no renegotiation.
TDS operates month-to-month. If the engagement isn't delivering value, cancel with 30 days' notice. The subscription model is designed to earn renewal every month — your continued investment is always your choice.
For a founder, creative infrastructure is often the most underfunded and over-complicated line item. Here is a realistic comparison.
| Model | Annual Cost (AUD) | CD Included | Flexibility | Time to Productive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior Designer (in-house) | $110,000 – $150,000 | No | Fixed headcount | 3–4 months |
| Design agency retainer | $96,000 – $180,000 | Shared | Contract-bound | 4–8 weeks |
| Freelancer roster | $40,000 – $100,000 | No | Variable quality/availability | Ongoing briefing cost |
| TDS DaaS | $84,000 – $120,000 | Included | Month-to-month | 5 business days |
Book a 30-minute strategy call. We'll review your current brand, identify creative gaps, and show you exactly how TDS would operate in your business.