Design Pickle Review: Check Out the Key Features

What is the first thing you do before buying any product or service? Let us guess: ask for reviews and recommendations. Whatever you need: a pair of sneakers, or a designer for your business, a couple of reviews is what helps you to choose without wasting your time and resources.

Do you feel it describes you best? For people like you, we are starting a series of design platform reviews. This one is about a popular design subscription platform named Design Pickle.

At Awesomic, we love exploring different features of our colleagues-slash-competitors. It helps us not only to provide you with the meticulous analysis of their platforms, but also to perfect our own app.

Now, let’s give a careful examination of Design Pickle. We’ll explore some of its key features and do our best to give a comprehensive review of the main tool.

What is Design Pickle?

Design Pickle is a flat-rate design subscription platform that was launched in 2015. It’s main principle is straightforward: you pay a fixed fee per month and, as the website claims, request an unlimited amount of designs. Besides, you don’t need to sign any contracts and still get full ownership of the work.

What type of content does the platform offer?

Graphic design: social media arts, landing pages, packaging, mailers & postcards, book covers, flyers

Custom illustration: manuals, logos, cards, portraits, comics, blueprints, scenes, storybooks, icons

Presentation design: building templates, improving your presentation or creating a new one from scratch

Motion graphics + graphic design: animated logos, typography, ads, graphic loops, product and UI/UX animations.

What are the stages of the platform’s development?

Design Pickle was founded by entrepreneur Russ Perry who got his first taste of working in technology as an Apple campus marketing rep. Subsequently, he worked with brands like Morgan Stanley, Pebble Tec, and LG.

Since its launch in January 2015, Design Pickle has grown from 2 to over 700 team members. In 2021, the platform reached 1 million creative requests. Among its clients are banks, marketing agencies, and startups.

How does Design Pickle work?

The Design Pickle platform has an intuitive interface that navigates you throughout it. The whole process from registering to starting to use it doesn’t take much time. In fact, the journey of a Design Pickle user can be broken down to 4 major steps:

1. Choose a subscription plan

The first step of using the platform is to select a subscription plan: Scale or Pro. They differ not only in price but also in services included in the tier. If you choose the Pro plan, you’ll have benefits of faster turnaround time and communication with designers via suited platforms. However, presentation design and motion graphics are available in only Pro plans.

2. Start requesting designs

After you’ve selected a subscription plan, you’ll get access to the Design Pickle platform. There, you can request the desired designs with the help of intuitive and AI powered request form. In this form, you need to give instructions and design descriptions including pictures for reference.

3. Give feedback

After your assigned designer completes the request, the next step is to revise it. Give feedback and correction if needed. And the same process can be repeated multiple times until you get the design you wanted.

4. Receive the final result

When you accept the final design it becomes your 100% ownership. Moreover, you’ll receive the design file in JPG, PNG, and PDF formats. After this, the designers of Design Pickle start working on your next request.

Do you still want to know more about processes involved in using Design Pickle? For this the platform offers demo videos. However, to get the access, be ready to fill in the watching request form.

How much is Design Pickle?

As mentioned above, depending on your needs, Design Pickle offers two types of a flat-rate subscription: Scale and Pro. However, the price of each plan isn’t the same for every type of design. For graphic design and custom illustration services, the price remains the same and increases for presentation design and motion graphics.

However, if you want to see the prices for all services at once, you are in for a quest. When you go to the Plans section, you’ll see the prices for only Pro tiers. For some reason the creators of the website removed the prices of the Scale subscription plan from this page.

Those who are curious enough to browse the website for the Scale plan price, would go to the Solutions pages of each service. There, you’ll find out that graphic and custom illustration designs actually do offer the Scale plan.

However, on webpages of presentation and motion design you won’t even find the prices. Feels like the price information is playing hide and seek with the customers, doesn’t it?

Graphic design

For graphic design requests, the platform offers Scale and Pro plans with the rates of $499 and $995 per month, respectively. The Scale plan offers simple graphic design work such as logo, advertising, brochure, or clothing graphics.

With the Pro plan, users get an extended list of services that include:

‍

Landing Page Design
Brand Guides
GIFs
Infographics

‍

The Pro subscription plan also suggests that customers have the same-day turnaround, can communicate in Slack, and select time zones.

Custom Illustrations

When it comes to illustration design, the platform offers the same price tags as it does for the graphic design. In the same way, the Scale plan offers basic designs such as portraits, caricatures, illustrated manuals, or medical illustrations. And customers would need some to scale up to Pro for advanced services like:

Concept art
Game assets
Illustrated GIFs
Photorealistic illustrations.

‍

You might think, what is the difference between graphic and custom illustration design? They both basically create pictures and even cost the same. Why then are they considered different services?

Create 100% original assets from scratch

Request cartoon, semi-realistic, and realistic illustrations

Create vector and raster based mediums

With Graphic Design, You Can:

Adjust the existing assets and images

Use various design concepts and visual elements to create layout

Request images that are not drawn or illustrated

Presentation design

For presentation design, the platform offers only the Pro plan with a $1495 monthly fee. It includes all of the benefits of a Pro plan and offers you to:

Redesign or correct your current presentation by adding custom graphics and animations
Create a completely new presentation according to your needs
Build a presentation template for your later use

‍

Among details that add up to the convenience of this service, there is the choice of file. As the platform claims, your designer will send you the final presentation file in the format of Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides. Later, you can edit the file according to your needs.

Curious about Awesomic prices for presentation design?
Check them out here.

Motion Graphics

Those who would like to use motion graphics on Design Pickle, the platform charges $1695 per month. Besides that, this package includes a Pro plan of graphic design subscription. The idea behind this combination is to allow the customers to get both static and animated designs under one subscription type.

On the one hand, this offer is heaven-sent for those who are planning to subscribe for both services. On the other hand, what if you only need the motion graphics? Looks a lot like you’d have to overpay.

Besides services that are included in the graphic design Pro plan, motion graphics can offer you to:

Transform your static images into animation
Add animated text to the video content provided by the you
Integrate animation into your presentation slides
Create animated explainers of products

Does Design Pickle have a trial period?

If you’d like to check out the platform and all of its features with the help of a short trial period, Design Pickle doesn’t offer such an opportunity. It charges the full price before work on the client tasks starts. The only safety net you have is a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

The way it works at Awesomic

At Awesomic, we believe that you have to feel absolutely safe before subscribing to our services. That’s why we provide you with a 1-week trial period for only $7. Discover how to easily use the platform right now.

Try 1 Week For $7

Book a Demo

Is Design Pickle unlimited?

The homepage of the Design Pickle mentions the “unlimited” option multiple times. In particular, there are such phrases as “unlimited requests” or “unlimited revisions”. But what exactly does this mean? Can customers get any number of designs?

Yes, there are no limitations for the designs you can get in one months of subscription. However, there is one thing that needs explanation: it doesn't mean all of your requests will be ready at once.

In fact, they form a queue so that designers work on one at a time. And if you need several designs done at the same time? The solution would be to scale up with more subscriptions.

Design Pickle features

Is Design Pickle solely restricted to the “submit request / get design” process? According to the platform’s ultimate guide, it has more features to offer to its users. So let’s see what they suggest to us.

Stock image library

What is special about it? With the Design Pickle subscription you get access to stock photos from Pexels, Unsplash, and FreshStock. Using this feature is beneficial in a way that you don’t need to have a special photoshoot to get the image you need. This feature is already included in the price of a monthly subscription.

Premium stock photo library

Unlike a previous feature, you can get this option with the additional payment of $25 per month. The library includes pictures from Adobe Stock and JummStory. The images provided by premium stock are available for other paid users that can use it in their designs. To avoid having identical results, you can ask your designer to modify the image according to your brand identity.

Slack

Another useful feature of Design Pickle is the use of the Slack messaging app. It should be noted, though, that this feature is available to only Pro users. Using Slack comes in handy for communication with a designer.

You can add comments, attach files, and even integrate Slack with apps like Asana, Google Drive, or Trello. For Scale subscription the communication happens via email or other methods chosen by the user and designer.

Multiple users

Those businesses that manage several brands would find this option useful. At Design Pickle, you can add up to 10 users for the same subscription. Each of the users have their own login credentials but can access all of the features on the account. The users can also be divided on such types:

Admins. These users have the most rights. They can manage the payment information, modify users of any role, or create and edit requests.
Organizers. This role allows the users to create and change requests. Moreover, they can add or remove Organizers or Members.
Members. These users can only manage requests.

Who is the Design Pickle model good for?

The Design Pickle website claims that this service can deliver content to any business. The Awesomic’s research of the platform has found that there are particular types of business that can make a full use of the platform.

Firstly, it’s small- and middle-sized companies that have a big demand in illustrations for marketing campaigns on social media platforms. They can choose between such platforms as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.

Bloggers might also benefit from this platform's service. The content creators are in constant need for visual elements for their platforms. They can use this service to create illustrations that carry only aesthetic purpose. Or they can transform their own content into custom images.

The platform claims to have not only such types of business, but also agencies and entrepreneurs among their clients. Their projects range from, but are not limited to, flyers, mailers, postcards, online ads, packaging, book covers, infographics, and more. In case you are interested, here’s the official scope of their design services.

Despite providing such a vast scope of designs, Design Pickle isn’t a magic wand. For instance, the platform doesn’t offer 3D design or mobile app design. Moreover, the platform doesn’t specialize in digital paintings, game assets, or complex animation.

How to get the most out of a platform like Design Pickle?

Now that we clarified who and how can use this platform, let’s see what wasn’t mentioned. Are there any tips on getting the most of Design Pickle? Yes, Awesomic won’t leave you empty-handed. Here they are:

Be clear. Make a clear brief of what you need. The clearer you get with your request, the more likely you get the desired result and the fewer iterations you need.

Don’t meddle. Keep in mind that time is money. In the case of Design Pickle, the more you wait to give the feedback, the longer and more expensive your designs become. ‍
Communicate. Give your detailed feedback to the designer and add files or other sources that would help in creation of the design. For this, Design Pickle customers use Slack. However, bear in mind that this option is available only in the Pro subscription plan.

What do Design Pickle reviews say about it?

The customer reviews of companies sometimes have western movie vibes. They can be described in three words ― the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. On the serious note though, Awesomic has conducted research on Design Pickle reviews. Some of them are complementary, some not. Let’s get a closer look.

On G2 business review platform Design Pickle is rated 4.7/5 based on 81 reviews. Understandably, the majority of customers are satisfied with the service. The noted advantages allow you to:

intuitively navigate through the interface;
create several brand profiles and save the information about them;
receive the designs quickly;
use Slack to communicate with the designer;
work with the same designer on various projects.

On the other hand, even those customers that assessed the service with 5 stars mentioned negative moments. Some even went further and assessed the service with zero stars. Here’s what they disliked in using Design Pickle:

you can get only 2 designs per day;
it can be difficult to communicate with the designer because of different time zones;
you get stock photos that are similar to those of free websites;
the designers might be unqualified and have “communication skills of a 10-year-old”;
you have to pay a monthly fee when you want to suspend your account.

Another review platform the Awesomic research is based on is Trustpilot. There, Design Pickle is rated 4.2 out of 5 based on 191 reviews. In the same way, we’ll see what the customers liked and disliked.

‍

As it was mentioned above, the users of this platform value its quick turnaround time, quality, and the designer communication possibilities. Some go even further to praise their designers personally, referring to their friendliness, professionalism, and speed.

However, there are negative reviews mentioning points that weren’t in those on G2. One of such is that Design Pickle underpays its workers while charging reasonable prices for using the platform.

Others are not satisfied with the quality or delivery time. Moreover, some users say the price of this service is overrated as they can find better quality designs on other platforms.

Wrapping up

Design PIckle is a popular design platform operating since 2015. As of November 2021, it provides graphic design, custom illustration, presentation design services, and motion graphics. Design Pickle is known for its option of unlimited requests that, as it turns out, do have a limit.

Like all the platforms, this one has its pros and cons. Most of the Design Pickle reviews on the web are positive. Complains, however, are also present concerning the turnaround time in cheaper plans and miscommunication with designers.

We know how important it is for you to weigh the pros and cons. Besides discovering all the details of Design Pickle, it’s always useful to have some alternatives. To be sure about choice, take your time and have a look at Awesomic.

This is a platform with top-notch designers, where you can expect 1 business day turnaround no matter the plan you choose. Besides, you’ll also get the source files to your tasks, customer success manager, and unlimited users with each subscription.

FAQ

What is Design Pickle?

Design Pickle is a popular graphic design service. They offer graphic design, custom illustration, and presentation design at a flat rate.

What does Design Pickle do?

As a flat-rate design subscription platform, Design Pickle offers its customers 4 basic services:

• graphic design
• custom illustration
• presentation design
• motion graphics

How much is Design Pickle?

The platform offers two types of a flat-rate subscription: Scale and Pro, but not for every plan. Besides, the price of each plan isn’t the same for every type of design.
‍
• Graphic Design: Scale — $499,
• Pro — $995 Custom
• Illustration: Scale — $499,
• Pro — $995
• Presentation Design: $1,495
• Motion Graphics: $1,695