# Design agency workflow: running many client brands in one place

[Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/agency-client-branding)

Most agency mistakes are not design mistakes. They are the wrong logo on the right post, feedback lost in an email thread, a file nobody can find. A good workflow makes those hard to do.

## The short version

- A design agency workflow scales when every client has a separate home for its brand kit, its look and its designs, so nothing from one client can leak into another.
- A brand kit per client holds logos for dark and light backgrounds, colour palettes, a heading font, a body font and notes on voice and audience.
- Feedback is easiest to act on when it is pinned to the design itself rather than scattered across email and chat.
- Saving a named version before each review round lets you show a client exactly what changed and return to an earlier direction.
- Roles matter: give makers edit access, give stakeholders view access, and keep brand kit changes with a small number of admins.

A **design agency workflow** that holds up across many clients rests on four habits: every client gets its own home with its own brand kit, every job starts from that kit rather than from memory, feedback lives on the design instead of in email, and handover is planned from the first day. Get those right and adding a tenth client feels like adding a second. Get them wrong and the agency spends its afternoons hunting for the latest logo and redoing work a client already approved.

## One home per client: workspace or brand

The first decision is structural. Some clients should be fully separate, with their own people and their own access. Others are small enough to sit side by side in the agency's own space. In Gradiently those are two different things: a **workspace** is a shared home with its own team and roles, and a **brand** is one look and voice inside a workspace, with its own Marks, brand kit and designs. One account can run several brands, as [running several brands](https://gradiently.design/guide/brands-in-gradiently) explains.

| Situation | Give the client | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Retainer client with their own marketing team | Its own workspace | Their people join with their own roles and never see other clients |
| Small client the agency runs end to end | A brand in the agency workspace | Your team switches clients from the brand switcher, with no extra invitations |
| Client with sub brands or product lines | One workspace, a brand for each line | Each line keeps its own look while sharing the same team |
| A one off campaign for an existing client | A palette in the existing brand kit | A campaign is not a new brand, and splitting it scatters the files |

A simple rule: separate people means a separate workspace; separate looks mean separate brands.

## Build a brand kit for every client before the first job

Agencies drift off brand when designers rebuild a client's look from an old PDF and a hunch. Set the kit up once, at onboarding, and every design after that starts in the right place. Ask for these on the kickoff call, and fill the gaps yourself rather than waiting.

- **Logos** for dark and for light backgrounds, as separate files.
- **Brand colours**: a hero, one or two supporting colours and the darkest and lightest neutrals.
- **Campaign palettes** kept apart from the main one, so seasonal colours never creep into everyday posts.
- **A heading font and a body font**, with the licensed files uploaded so nobody substitutes a lookalike.
- **Voice and audience** in a sentence each, specific enough that two writers would produce similar copy.
- **What the brand does**, in a sentence, so every writer and the Designer start from the same facts.

Gradiently's brand kit can read a client's website to fill in its name, description, colour and icon, which gives you a head start on the kickoff call. The Designer then writes in each kit's own voice, so a law firm's posts don't come out sounding like a bakery's. [Setting up a brand kit](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-kit-setup) covers each field, and [brand guidelines templates](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-guidelines-template) help when the client has nothing written down.

## Give each client a look that is clearly theirs

The quiet risk of running many clients from one studio is that they start to look like the studio. The same favourite fonts, the same gradient, the same layouts. A good test: put two clients' posts side by side with the logos removed. You should still be able to tell which is which.

A portrait post for a bakery announcing it is open late on Fridays, in warm colours and friendly type

A neighbourhood bakery: warm ground, friendly type, short sentences.

A portrait post for a law firm titled What the new tenancy rules mean for you, in a dark editorial style

A law firm on the same template family: deep ground, editorial serif, a calmer voice.

This is where an owned look earns its place. Every Gradiently Mark is checked against every other and anything too close is refused, so two clients on two Marks cannot end up looking alike. Claim the Mark for the client's brand, design the onboarding set on it, and the look is distinct before you write a line. Claiming is a one-time payment that includes the first year of keeping; after that keeping is free with Pro or a yearly fee per Mark, so agree in the proposal who pays. [How to claim a Mark](https://gradiently.design/guide/how-to-claim-a-mark) covers the steps. [Brand consistency](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-consistency) covers how to keep it that way across a year of posts.

## Who does what: roles for an agency team

Workspaces on Pro have four roles. Map them to real people rather than handing everyone full access because it is quicker on day one.

| Role | Give it to | What they can do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Owner | The agency principal | Everything, including billing and deleting the workspace |
| Admin | Account leads | Manage people, brands, Marks and keys |
| Editor | Designers and writers | Make and edit designs, upload images |
| Viewer | Client stakeholders who only need to see work | See everything, change nothing |

Keep brand kit changes with admins. When anyone can tweak the kit, the kit stops being the source of truth.

[Workspace roles](https://gradiently.design/guide/teams-and-workspaces) covers invitations and changing roles later.

## A review and approval process that doesn't lose feedback

Client feedback causes most of an agency's rework, and not because clients are difficult. It arrives in three places, refers to "the blue one", and contradicts the round before. Put structure around it. Comments and version history are part of Pro.

1. **Save a named version before each round** Call it "Round 1 sent". Version history keeps every save, so you can show what changed and go back if the client prefers the first direction after all.
2. **Pin every note to the design** Comments sit on the exact spot they are about. "Make this bigger" next to the headline is clear; the same words in an email are not.
3. **Answer every note** Work through each comment in order and reply to it on the design, so the next round starts from a known list.
4. **Limit rounds in writing** Agree two rounds in the brief. A third round becomes a change of scope, which is a conversation, not a surprise.
5. **Approve the master, then make sizes** Get sign off on one format before producing the rest, so feedback lands once instead of on twelve files.

Once the master is approved, Pro resizes it to every platform size in one step, and you check each one rather than rebuilding it. For clients with many locations or products, bulk create, also on Pro, takes one page and a spreadsheet and makes a version per row. [Batch creating content](https://gradiently.design/guide/batch-create-social-media-content) shows how to plan a month that way.

## Where agency workflows leak

### Leaks

- Logos and fonts living in a shared drive folder called "FINAL v3"
- Feedback split across email, chat and calls
- One designer who knows how a client's look works
- Every size cropped from a square
- Client brands that gradually converge on the studio's taste

### Holds

- A brand kit per client that every design starts from
- Comments on the design, a version per round
- A kit and a look that anyone on the team can pick up
- Each size laid out again from the approved master
- A distinct, owned look per client, checked side by side

## Handing over at the end of an engagement

Plan the exit on day one. Exported designs stay yours to hand over, so deliver final files in the formats the client will actually use, all available on Pro: PNG and JPG for social, transparent PNG and SVG for logos and overlays, print PDF with bleed for anything going to a printer. If you claimed a Mark for the client, you can give it to their own Gradiently account for free. They receive an email code to confirm, accept within a few days, and the certificate of authenticity moves into their name. The look leaves with the client, which is exactly what they paid for.

> **Write the handover into the proposal** List the files, formats and the Mark transfer in the scope. Clients value a clean handover, and it stops ownership questions arising a year later.

## FAQ

### How should a design agency organise many client brands?

Give each client its own home with its own brand kit and designs. Clients with their own team get a separate workspace; smaller clients can be separate brands inside the agency's workspace.

### What should a client brand kit include?

Logos for dark and light backgrounds, brand colours and campaign palettes, a heading and a body font, and short notes on voice, audience and what the brand does.

### How do I stop client feedback getting lost?

Keep comments pinned to the design itself, save a named version before each round, and agree the number of rounds in the brief.

### Can an agency transfer a Gradiently Mark to a client?

Yes. The owner can give a Mark to anyone on Gradiently for free; the client confirms with an emailed code and the certificate moves into their name.

### Should clients have edit access?

Usually not. Give stakeholders who only need to see work the viewer role and keep brand kit changes with the agency's admins.