It depends on scope, and you see the quote before we start. Pay as you go is hourly with no minimum, so a logo refresh or a landing page costs only the hours it takes, not a six-week agency project. Startups shipping design every week move to the dedicated monthly plan. Every founder starts with 4 hours of free work.
A senior design team for founders who need to look funded before they are. Brand identity, websites, pitch decks, product UI, ads and social, on demand, without hiring a designer or signing a retainer.
For startups and brands
Startup design and branding, on demand.
No card · No contract · Reply within one working day
Who it's for
You're building the product, raising the round and answering support tickets, and the brand is still a placeholder logo on a template site. Investors, early customers and your first hires judge the company in seconds. A startup that looks unfinished gets treated like one.
Most founders face the same choice: hire a full-time designer before there's a full-time job, juggle freelancers who each need briefing from scratch, or pay a branding agency for a six-week project you can't change after launch. Kernly Design is the fourth option: a senior startup design team on demand. Start with one task, pay for the hours used, and scale up for a launch or a fundraise.
What you can hand over
Everything a startup needs designed, from first logo to Series A.
- 01
Startup branding
Logo, type, colour and a brand guide your team can use without us. See brand identity design.
- 02
Websites and landing pages
Launch sites, waitlists and product pages that explain what you do in five seconds. Built in Shopify, WordPress or code. See website design and development.
- 03
Pitch deck design
Investor decks that make the story obvious and the numbers easy to read. Ready for Thursday's meeting.
- 04
Product and app UI/UX
MVP flows, onboarding, dashboards and design systems, prototyped before your developers build them. See UI/UX design.
- 05
Ads and social content
Paid social creative, launch announcements, carousels and templates, in every size the campaign needs.
- 06
Packaging and AI product imagery
Packaging, labels and on-model product photography without a shoot, for DTC brands that launch every month.
Recent startup and brand work
All projectsHow it works
Brief us today. Show investors tomorrow.
One senior lead, one shared channel, no onboarding project. You talk to the people doing the work.
01
Send one real task
A logo, a landing page, a deck. We confirm scope and timing within one working day. The first 4 hours are free.
02
We design it, AI-first and senior-led
AI explores more directions in less time. A senior designer picks, refines and owns every decision.
03
You launch it
Source files, handover notes and full ownership once it's paid for. Then the next task, or pause until the next round.
Why founders choose Kernly
Agency-level design, startup-level spend.
- 01
No hire, no retainer
Pay as you go with no minimum. Skip the recruiting, the salary and the equity until design is a full-time job.
- 02
Senior from day one
Every task is led by a designer who has launched brands and products before. Nobody learns on your company.
- 03
Faster with AI
AI handles the exploration and the variants, so more of your budget goes on decisions and finish.
- 04
Design and build, one team
The site gets built, not just designed. No gap between the designer's file and the live page.
- 05
Scale with the roadmap
Go big for a launch or a fundraise, go quiet between them. No notice period, no awkward conversation.
- 06
You own everything
Files, source and rights are yours once paid. Brand-tuned AI models stay with your brand and never train on your work.
Pricing for startups
Pay for the work, not a design hire.
4 hours free to start
Pay as you go
For launches, fundraises and one-off projects. Hourly, quoted on scope before we start, with a weekly report of hours spent.
- 4 hours of free work on your first brief
- Senior designer on every task
- No minimum, no equity
- Pause between rounds
Monthly partner
Dedicated plan
For startups and brands shipping design every week. A senior designer and build team that knows your brand by week two, for one flat monthly fee. See how the design subscription works.
- Unlimited requests, one at a time
- Dedicated senior designer
- Development and AI content included
- 48-hour average turnaround
FAQ.
What founders and brand owners ask before sending their first brief.
Hire when there's a full-time job: usually after product-market fit, when design work fills every week and needs someone in the room. Until then, an on-demand design team gives you senior design without a salary or equity. More in when a startup should make its first design hire.
Yes. Send the current deck and the date of the meeting. We tighten the story, design the slides in your brand and hand over an editable file in Google Slides, Keynote or PowerPoint.
You do. Files, source and full rights transfer to you once the work is paid for, and you can present it as your own.
Send one real task. We confirm scope within one working day and deliver the first four hours free. No card, no contract. If the work is right, keep going on pay as you go or move to the monthly plan.
Who else we work with
Design subscription
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